Giant Crypto Super PAC Funnels Big Money to Former Trump Official’s Firm to Support… Democrats?
The Fellowship PAC, a super PAC fueled by crypto industry cash that once lavished praise on Donald Trump, is making a surprising pivot.
When it was founded a year ago, news reports suggested that Fellowship PAC would concentrate on supporting Republicans.
Since June, however, the only candidates Fellowship PAC has spent on have been Democrats, including those who have criticized the president's meme coin, and it is getting help from a former Trump administration official's company.
Since June, the only candidates Fellowship PAC has spent on have been Democrats.
Fellowship PAC funneled $600,000 since this summer through a firm co-founded by former Trump crypto adviser Bo Hines to help reelect Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York; Rep. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire; and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia. The Democrats are considered crypto allies, and none of them are facing competitive elections this fall.
All those advertising dollars have been spent through a vendor called Nxum Group, which was co-founded by Hines, a former Republican congressional candidate and Trump administration official.
Hines did not return a request for comment, and it is not known whether he has personally been involved in the Nxum Group's work on behalf of Fellowship PAC. In congressional races in 2022 and 2024, he presented himself as a Trump-loving MAGA acolyte.
There is a thick web of ties between Hines, Fellowship PAC, and one of the biggest players in the crypto industry, a stablecoin company called Tether.
Before Trump's election, Hines was involved in promoting a Trump-themed meme coin that made a handful of investors millions before plummeting in value. After Trump's election, the president tapped Hines to serve as the head of the White House Council of Advisers on Digital Assets. In that role, Hines helped pass a law that created stablecoin regulations that benefited Tether.
As Hines served in the Trump administration, Tether was paying money to the firm that Hines co-owned, Nxum Group, according to a report last week in the Wall Street Journal. Nxum Group told the news outlet that Hines had no involvement in the company's business dealings with Tether during that time. Hines said in a June 2025 ethics disclosure that he had only a passive investment interest" in the company.
Hines left the Trump administration in August 2025 and, a month later, Tether announced that he would serve as the CEO of its U.S. branch.
Related Who's Spending in Your Congressional Election? We Tracked the Front Groups Fueling the 2026 Midterms. Tether also has ties to Fellowship PAC. The newly created Fellowship PAC received a $10 million donation in January from Tether's U.S. banking firm, Cantor Fitzgerald. In April, Fellowship PAC announced that Tether's vice president of regulatory affairs would serve as its chair.
Although it launched with a splash last year by claiming that it had a $100 million war chest, the PAC has never reported as much as that in official campaign finance disclosures. The PAC's last receipt was in January, and its cash on hand dwindled to $250,000 as of October 14.
Throughout the midterm elections, Fellowship PAC has leaned heavily on Nxum Group to spend advertising dollars on various congressional races.
Fellowship PAC spent exclusively on Republicans until its first expenditure on behalf of a Democrat, Torres, in June. That spending coincided with public polls showing increasingly dismal fortunes for Republicans in the midterm elections. Since then, the PAC has spent exclusively on Democratic candidates.
Torres's and Warner's campaigns did not respond to requests for comment. Goodlander's campaign said she had nothing to do with the $150,000 that Fellowship PAC spent on digital advertising in her race. The money, the PAC disclosed in filings, had been routed through Nxum Group on August 31.
Congresswoman Goodlander has been one of the strongest advocates in Congress for cracking down on Big Tech and crypto profiteering and getting dark money out of politics," her campaign said in a statement. Like all campaigns, we're legally barred from coordinating with outside groups like these, so you'd need to ask them why they're spending in this race."
The PAC did not return a request for comment.
Related Crypto Darling Gillibrand's 11th-Hour Flip-Flop Helps Block Trump Crypto Bill Goodlander, Torres, and Warner are all rated as strong supporters of the crypto industry on an industry scorecard. Still, all three have been critical of Trump's personal dealings in the industry though his $TRUMP meme coin, which has helped make him $1.4 billion from crypto ventures.
Warner recently ran an ad of his own attacking Trump over the meme coin.
That's not governing. It's grifting," the Democratic senator said. The corruption needs to stop."
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