A newly formed political action committee, The Fellowship PAC, has disclosed its first expenditure, spending $300,000 on advertising for a Republican candidate, Clay Fuller, through Nxum Group, a firm co-founded by Bo Hines, the chief executive of Tether's US arm and a former adviser to President Donald Trump. The PAC, which claims to be rooted in transparency, has not responded to questions about its formation and funding. The expenditure was made despite the PAC's current accounts showing no balance, despite an announcement last year that it would be established with pledges of $100 million. The PAC's first recipient of financial support, Fuller, is an incoming Republican member of the House of Representatives, and the money spent by the Fellowship super PAC was an independent expenditure, meaning it had to be handled without strategizing with Fuller's campaign.
The firm paid by Fellowship PAC, Nxum, included Bo Hines among its owners when he filed ethics disclosures last year as a White House official. It is unclear whether financial ties remain between Hines and Nxum. The PAC's treasurer, Mitchell Nobel, is an executive at Cantor Fitzgerald, a firm that manages assets for Tether's global operation. When Fellowship was announced as a new PAC last year, it was presented as a contrast from previous political engagement, aimed to help the broader crypto ecosystem and not narrow or individual interests.
The relatively young Tether US's stablecoin, USAT, has a market cap of about $37 million, suggesting the firm may not have the independent resources yet to fund a major PAC.