INTERVIEW: Bo Hines is working to enact President Trump's plan to make America the "Crypto Capital of the World"
THE LOWDOWN:
Bo Hines, the Executive Director of the President's Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, is working to enact President Trump’s plan to make America the “Crypto Capital of the World.”
The crypto sage said he thinks the burgeoning fintech industry missed that integration “for quite some time, especially in this process as they’ve matured and established themselves as legitimate players.”
Hines’ ascension to the Trump administration comes not a moment too soon — congressional Republicans are moving to ensure the U.S. has a robust strategic Bitcoin reserve enshrined in law.
“We're well on our way to making the United States the Crypto Capital of the World, and moreover, the Bitcoin superpower of the world, as the president likes to say,” Hines said.
Bo Hines’s journey to serving as the Executive Director of the President's Council of Advisers on Digital Assets started on the college football field.
“When I was a college football player at North Carolina State, I played in the Bitcoin Bowl my freshman year, which was in St. Petersburg, which we won, and that actually sparked my interest in cryptocurrency more generally, and with Bitcoin specifically, and then I became an avid trader,” Hines told the Washington Reporter in an interview.
Since then, he’s taken the lead on enacting President Donald Trump’s agenda to make America the “Crypto Capital of the World.” Hines said he looks at his “office as being the administrator between White House policy, industry, interagency activity, and what's happening on Capitol Hill.”
The crypto sage said he thinks the burgeoning fintech industry missed that integration “for quite some time, especially in this process as they’ve matured and established themselves as legitimate players.” Hines said his office is feeling great on delivering on President Donald Trump’s America First agenda.
“For us, we feel like we're in a fantastic position to deliver on the president's wishes to get stables and market structure legislation on his desk before August recess, but then, moreover, he said publicly at the White House Crypto Summit that he would like to eradicate anything that undergirded Operation Choke Point 2.0,” Hines said.
“And we feel like we're well on our way to accomplishing that with the interagency working group that was set up in the first digital assets executive order,” he continued. “So we feel great about where we are.”
“We're well on our way to making the United States the Crypto Capital of the World, and moreover, the Bitcoin superpower of the world, as the president likes to say,” he added.
Hines’s ascension to the Trump administration comes not a moment too soon — congressional Republicans are moving to ensure the U.S. has a robust strategic Bitcoin reserve enshrined in law. Hines praised the lawmakers for their efforts to effectively position the U.S. in the global crypto markets.
“Senator Cynthia Lummis, Senator Bill Haggerty, obviously, Chairman Tim Scott have been phenomenal on the Senate side,” Hines said. “On the House side, we have, obviously, Chairman French Hill on House Financial Services, and we have subcommittee chair Bryan Steil who has been phenomenal. And then there's other folks, I’d be remiss if I did not mention [Rep.] Dusty Johnson.”
“There are folks there who are certainly factoring into driving this innovation forward,” he continued. “But these folks have been in it, and honestly, I think it's worth mentioning Congressman Patrick McHenry from the last Congress, who was a great friend of the digital assets community.”
Hines said McHenry, who briefly served as House Speaker pro-tempore in 2023 before retiring from Congress, “understood what the technology could be used for and how it would really revolutionize the way in which we move money.”
“And he's obviously no longer in Congress, but his leadership was phenomenal,” Hines added.
Last month, Lummis spoke with the Washington Reporter to discuss her BITCOIN Act, which would establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve in America.
Lummis said her recently reintroduced bill will build on President Trump’s executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, saying her bill is “consistent” with the president’s order.
“The very first 200,000 Bitcoin, which would form the initial corpus of a strategic Bitcoin reserve, would come from the asset forfeiture funds that are held by the U.S. Marshals Service, because we had Bitcoin forfeiture pursuant to asset forfeitures engaged in criminal activity,” Lummis said. “So we can start there.”
Below is a transcript of our interview with Bo Hines the Executive Director of the President's Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, lightly edited for clarity.
Washington Reporter:
Bo, thanks so much for chatting today — let’s start with the obvious: how did you get into crypto yourself?
Bo Hines:
It’s a pretty interesting story. When I was a college football player at North Carolina State, I played in the Bitcoin Bowl my freshman year, which was in St. Petersburg, which we won, and that actually sparked my interest in cryptocurrency more generally, and with Bitcoin specifically, and then I became an avid trader. I had a bunch of friends I used to trade with. And this is back when it was more uncouth in the Wild West years of crypto, from around 2014 to around 2018, but obviously, the industry has been able to grow up in the midst of tremendous headwinds, and now that we have tailwinds, I think that the sky's the limit to where we can go.
Washington Reporter:
We're sitting in your office right now. You're the executive director of President Trump's crypto office. What does that mean? You're already coming from meetings this morning. What is this job? How have you built this into your own thing?
Bo Hines:
I look at my office as being the administrator between White House policy, industry, interagency activity, and what's happening on Capitol Hill, because I think that one thing that the industry missed for quite some time, especially in this process as they've matured and established themselves as legitimate players, is someone that can help everyone sing from the same sheet of music in order to translate what's really complicated — digital asset financial technology — into something that's more palatable and understandable for folks inside of government and on Capitol Hill. For us, we feel like we're in a fantastic position to deliver on the president's wishes to get stables and market structure legislation on his desk before August recess, but then, moreover, he said publicly at the White House Crypto Summit that he would like to eradicate anything that undergirded Operation Choke Point 2.0, and we feel like we're well on our way to accomplishing that with the interagency working group that was set up in the first digital assets executive order. So we feel great about where we are. We're well on our way to making that the United States the crypto capital of the world, and moreover, the Bitcoin superpower of the world, as the president likes to say.
Washington Reporter:
You don't yet have any gray hair, and yet you talk about this complicated issue with people in government who are twice your age, three times your age, even maybe four times your age. How do you explain this to people in a way that they can, in elected office, then enact the president's legislative agenda on this issue?
Bo Hines:
I think you can speak about it in pretty general terms. Almost every other facet of life has advanced technologically. In terms of how we communicate, look at the Internet, you're probably old enough to remember, a little bit of dial up as a kid. Think about how much those things have evolved over the course of the last few decades. But then you look at our financial system, and you look at the way that we move money, it's still generally archaic. It takes a long time for transactions to occur. There's a lack of transparency, banks are holding on to funds. You hope that arrives in the right place. With Blockchain technology and those integrations and what's happening with digital asset space, we can completely revolutionize the way that everyday folks interact with your finances on their day to day lives. And I think that's something that we're super keen on doing, whether it be creating more transparency, creating more efficiency, getting down the cost in terms of moving money, all of these things factor into what we're building here in the digital asset space. At the end of the day, the people who benefit from it most are the American people, and more generally, people around the globe.
Washington Reporter:
As you're talking with people in the industry and on the Hill, what do you get the sense of how the previous administration interacted with these people was?
Bo Hines:
This industry has been a victim of lawfare, and they've been a victim of scrutiny and really unfair regulatory practices like no other industry has before in the history of time. Part of that is just due to the nature of the lack of understanding that existed inside of government, which you touched on briefly. People were scared of the technology. They didn't understand what it was or what it did, or what it was used for, and so I think that created a lot of misinformation on Capitol Hill and more generally, throughout the former administration. But the former administration was ferocious towards digital asset firms. You saw this with the regulatory practices, and we watched Gary Gensler at the SEC where you'd be coming in to pitch them a new idea, and they'd be writing your Wells notice before you were able to leave the building. This is a complete sea change in terms of administrative perspective. We want to be the crypto capital of the planet. We want to welcome innovation here in United States. We want to create the cleanest and most clear regulatory environment that could possibly exist so people know what the rules are, and that's kind of the misconception as well. People view the industry as being part of this Wild West system. In reality, that's not true. They want rules. They want to know what the regulatory standards are, and they want to be able to abide by them, but they've never been given those over the course the last decade. So we're working on establishing that regulatory framework, and we're really pleased with the progress that we're making on Capitol Hill with our leadership up there in their efforts to codify this stuff into law.
Washington Reporter:
As I think about people in the government who we've interviewed in this space, Tom Emmer and Cynthia Lummis come to mind. Who do you feel like are some of the people driving that partnership with you on a legislative standpoint?
Bo Hines:
Senator Cynthia Lummis, Senator Bill Haggerty, obviously, Chairman Tim Scott have been phenomenal on the Senate side; on the House side, we have, obviously, Chairman French Hill on House Financial Services, and we have subcommittee chair Bryan Steil who has been phenomenal. And then there's other folks, I’d be remiss if I did not mention Dusty Johnson. There are folks there who are certainly factoring into driving this innovation forward. But these folks have been in it, and honestly, I think it's worth mentioning Congressman Patrick McHenry from the last Congress, who was a great friend of the digital assets community; he understood what the technology could be used for, and how it would really revolutionize the way in which we move money. And he's obviously no longer in Congress, but his leadership was phenomenal.
Washington Reporter:
Is this something that you feel like Democrats are interested in working with the Trump administration on, or are you encountering the same resistance here that you are with a lot of other administration priorities?
Bo Hines:
I’m actually pleased with how bipartisan this effort has been on Capitol Hill thus far. We had an 18-6 bipartisan vote out of Senate Banking on the GENIUS Act. We had a very strong bipartisan vote out of House Financial Services on the STABLE Act. Obviously, this is just one portion of the president's legislative agenda, as we get past stables, and move on to market structure, but it shows that the tide is turning, and the Democrats are certainly starting to recognize how important it is for the United States to lead the globe in terms of technological innovation as it relates to the financial space. I think this is one issue in particular in which we should have bipartisan support. There's nothing partisan about this. It's more or less do we want to be in a leadership position compared to the rest of our adversaries as it relates to digital assets and financial technologies? Or do we not? I think everyone would say that we'd like to be the leader in that space.
Washington Reporter:
During the presidential campaign, we saw the Democrats launch Crypto for Kamala or something like that. Rep. Wiley Nickel, who you ran against in the past, was pushing this crypto reset. Do you think that that is or was sincere at the time? Do you think that reset is part of the reason you're seeing some of the bipartisanship on this issue?
Bo Hines:
I can't speak as to whether that was the foundation that's spurred bipartisan interest on these topics. But what I can say is, I believe in my conversations with others and just understanding what Wiley has done, is he’s actually pretty good around these issues, I should say, when he was in Congress, and that's great to see. We welcome that. We want as much Democratic support as we can possibly get as it pertains to the president's agenda here, because we need it. And ultimately, I think if we end up getting stables through, market structure through, those will end up being two of the biggest wins of the first year the president's second term, and we could completely alter the course of history as it relates to financial technologies more generally, in the global marketplace.
Washington Reporter:
What are you yourself already most excited about having accomplished in this role that, correct me, if I'm wrong, has never existed before?
Bo Hines:
It's been a blast. Getting to work with David Sacks, who's a tremendously brilliant person, is great. His reputation speaks for itself with his success in the VC space, and he's able to apply that knowledge to both AI and to crypto, as being the AI and crypto czar in the administration. Getting to work hand in glove with him on all these issues as we attempt to flesh out the best way to deliver on the president's wishes is great. At the end of the day, I think we've had tremendous success in moving quickly. As David likes to say, we're moving at tech speed on crypto. We had the first digital assets executive order, which established the interagency working group. It comprised the pertinent actors and allowed us to actually work with these agencies, clearing the deck and a lot of the Operation Choke Point 2.0 rules and regulations. We established the strategic Bitcoin reserve, delivered on the president's promise he made in Nashville on the campaign trail. We established a digital assets national stockpile, giving credence to the other ecosystems that we’re developing and building in this space. But we wanted to recognize Bitcoin as being unique, and I think we did that successfully. It's a commodity and not a security, and that's the Immaculate Conception. There's a finite amount of it, and that’s part of its intrinsic stored value. So these are all important things that we wanted to recognize. The decentralization aspect of it is different than any other token that exists, and that's something that should be respected. I think that at the end of the day, we have clear objectives in what we want to accomplish, and the president's laid those out pretty articulately. And so for us, it makes it a lot easier to move and to operate. We’re a streamlined system here, and we've built a fantastic operation as it pertains to actually achieving things and getting things done. But there's still a lot of work to do and we forward to continuing that work over the course of the next few months.
Washington Reporter:
You're here for the long haul. David Sacks has the special government employee status, so he's not necessarily here for the entire Trump administration. David is the AI and crypto czar. How do you work with the AI side of his portfolio, if you do at all?
Bo Hines:
There are a few more folks on the AI side who are all participating in policy making there. I think part of it too is that with AI, I view AI as more being like a space race. There's a lot happening there, and they need a lot of hands on deck in terms of addressing all the needs that exist. In crypto, we have a very clear set of objectives of what we want to accomplish, and that's creating the most friendly regulatory environment that exists in the globe, so that we can welcome and repatriate a lot of folks have gone offshore, and make sure that we're continuing to innovate and build right here at home in the United States. I don't want to speak to speak to the scope of what they're dealing with, because I'm not involved in AI, but I imagine there's a little bit more broader implications of what they're discussing and attempting to to move on. Sriram Krishnan is the AI senior advisor, and he works closely with David, along with Michael Kratsios and Lynne Parker and everyone else inside of OSTP. For the crypto side of things, we have a little bit more of a streamlined process.
Washington Reporter:
You had mentioned the strategic U.S. Bitcoin reserve that President Trump talked about a lot. Can you explain what the significance of that is to someone who doesn't even have Bitcoin? Why is this an important thing for America to be leading on? Trump signed the executive order to make America the crypto capital of the world. Why does this matter if you are someone who, regardless of your age, does not have crypto?
Bo Hines:
It’s all the reasons I described. We have to recognize this asset as being unique and having an intrinsic stored value that we want to harness for the American people. So I get asked all the time by journalists, how much do you want? That's kind of a silly question, because it's like asking a country how much gold do they want. They want as much as they can possibly accumulate. And we want to do that, so long as it's done in budget neutral ways and does not cost the taxpayers a dime. With our friends at Commerce, our friends at Treasury, who are tasked with spearheading the efforts to build this thing, I'm sure we'll have many creative ways from, as the President likes to say, the high IQ people in the administration on how we can accumulate as much Bitcoin as we can possibly get in those budget neutral ways that don't cost the taxpayer anything. And we're working through that with the interagency working group now, but it's extremely important, because we'll have countries across the world that are also competing to garner as much as they can possibly get, and I think that we want to be the leader there.
Washington Reporter:
Stablecoin legislation is a huge priority of this administration, but are there other things that you want to be getting more quickly on this?
Bo Hines:
At the end of the day, we want to see stablecoin legislation passed, when to see market structure legislation passed, and we want to see the deck completely cleared on Operation Choke Point 2.0. I think if we do that, we've accomplished 95 percent of what needs to be accomplished in order to create the most pro-crypto friendly environment that could possibly exist. The legislative process is moving very quickly, and we're going to continue to offer support there and continue to help usher that along, but we feel very confident where we are in terms of being able to deliver on the president's wishes and get most of these things achieved before August.
Washington Reporter:
What is the importance of stablecoin legislation, and how does that factor in to the competition with China?
Bo Hines:
Well, stablecoins will help us ensure U.S. dollar global dominance for a multitude of reasons, but as you're altering these payment rails and making things quicker, more efficient, more cost-effective, it's going to naturally increase the amount of users. It's going to naturally force other global economies and the participants in those economies onto U.S. dollar-backed stables, because they want to be able to move their money at the same pace as anybody else doing business can. I think it's a phenomenal opportunity to establish the dollar dominance presence across the globe. And at the end of the day, I think it can lead to a lot of other fascinating things that you can see happen, whether it be intertwining this with the tokenization of public securities, being able to create 24/7 markets that exist for people to go in and out of asset classes at will, and really at lightning speed, it would be a tremendous change from how we currently move money and how we currently pull in and out of asset classes now.
Washington Reporter:
I think everyone has a vague sense that China is trying to move in crypto, but what are you seeing them doing here that proverbially keeps you up at night?
Bo Hines:
Honestly, not much. We recognize that China certainly is a participant in the space in some capacity, but we really have our blinders on right now in the sense that we feel like if we unleash American innovation, create the most competitive marketplace in the world like we've done with basically everything else over the course of the last few decades, whether it be with the internet and beyond, then we'll out-compete our adversaries, regardless of who they are, across the globe. We recognize that we have a unique opportunity here to make monumental changes as it relates to the space, and we're going to take advantage of that and make sure that we're delivering on the president's promises.
Washington Reporter:
You were a college football wide receiver, and the NFL draft kicks off this week. Any thoughts?
Bo Hines:
Oh, man, I'm not sure. I actually think it's gonna be a good draft class for quarterbacks. There's a lot of talent there, but I'm a Lions fan, so we have a pretty good star player in the backfield with Jared Goff right now. Unfortunately, we had a terrible ending of our season. We lost to the Washington Redskins in the playoffs, but hopefully we'll be back, and I'm excited about where the Lions are. Just growing up, it was very, very hard fan fandom. I remember the 0-16 years and I never put a bag in my head, but I certainly had a lot of tears on Sundays.
Washington Reporter:
A Lions fan from North Carolina?
Bo Hines:
My dad played for the Lions, they were the first team that I knew.
Washington Reporter:
We’ll end with this: who should the Lions draft in the first round?
Bo Hines:
Kenneth Grant, defensive tackle from Michigan.
Washington Reporter:
Awesome, thanks so much for chatting.
