A newly established crypto-focused super PAC, The Fellowship PAC, has made its first major expenditure, spending $300,000 on advertising for a Republican candidate through a firm co-founded by Tether's US CEO, Bo Hines. This development marks the PAC's entry into the US midterm elections, with the funds being used to support Georgia Republican Clay Fuller.
The Fellowship PAC has ties to Tether, although the company has declined to confirm the connection. The PAC's first expense filing to the Federal Election Commission indicates that the advertising expenditure was made through Nxum Group, a company co-founded by Hines and his father, Todd Hines.
The PAC's chairman, Jesse Spiro, is a Tether US executive, and the treasurer, Mitchell Nobel, is an executive at Cantor Fitzgerald, which manages assets for Tether's global operation. The Fellowship PAC's advertising effort on behalf of Fuller is its first major move in the US midterm elections, and it has not yet demonstrated a significant stockpile of contributions to back other candidates. The PAC's disclosures do not show any contributions, despite an announcement last year that it would be established with pledges of $100 million. An outside spokesperson for Tether stated that Tether International has no affiliation or oversight over the Fellowship PAC.
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. As a candidate, Fuller has not broadcast a position on crypto, but he has the backing of President Trump.
The firm paid by the Fellowship PAC, Nxum, included Bo Hines among its owners when he filed ethics disclosures last year as a White House official. There is no federal record for Nxum as a regular service provider for additional political efforts, but the company did contribute billboard advertising valued at $1 million for MAGA Inc. in support of Trump in 2024. The PAC's treasurer, Mitchell Nobel, is an executive at Cantor Fitzgerald, which was run by Trump's secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick, before he joined the administration.
When the Fellowship PAC was announced last year, it was presented as a contrast from previous political engagement, with a focus on transparency and trust. The PAC's relatively small expenditure so far is still a drop in the bucket compared to the receipts of the leading crypto super PAC, Fairshake, which has expended millions in the early contests. The US midterm elections are already underway, with many of the hotly contested primaries already past or about to happen. If the US House is taken over by a Democratic majority, the committees there will likely shift their agenda to challenge Trump's legislative efforts and investigate the administration's actions.