Author: Amrith Ramkumar, Wall Street Journal reporter

Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News

When Donald Trump selected Bo Hines for a senior position in his administration's cryptocurrency department, crypto industry executives were taken aback.

After the appointment was announced in December last year, several executives recalled investigating Hines and finding that he was a former college football player who had lost a congressional race in North Carolina, with little apparent background in Bit.

Now, Hines, Trump's presidential digital assets advisor, has become the liaison between the government, industry, and Capitol Hill. The 29-year-old is effectively the day-to-day executor of the government's crypto industry development plans, working alongside prominent venture capitalist and AI and crypto executive David Sacks.

Crypto industry executives say Sacks has taken more of a role in setting the high-level agenda. They also said Hines has so far impressed them with his grasp of major policy issues facing the industry. On Friday, Hines and the White House will host a crypto summit, inviting crypto companies to attend.

"I'm like a quarterback, making sure everyone's on the right route," Hines said in an interview.

Hines is helping the White House push for relevant legislation to be passed by Congress in the next five months, outlining how crypto will be regulated. He is assessing the feasibility of establishing a national crypto reserve, while also playing a role in reversing Biden administration regulatory actions against leading crypto firms.

Coinbase's U.S. policy head Kara Calvert, who has met with Hines, described him as taking seriously the deadlines set out in Trump's crypto executive order signed in January. "It's a thorny issue that needs to be untangled, and he's doing a good job with it," she said. The SEC recently rejected a lawsuit against Coinbase.

After pouring significant funds into Trump's presidential campaign and inauguration, and donating around $170 million last year to elect friendly lawmakers, the crypto industry has become a major player in Washington. Trump has expressed support for the industry, even launching his own Memecoin.

Hines, who had Trump's backing, ran for a vacant House seat in his home state of North Carolina in 2022

Before joining the government, Hines led a "anti-woke" media company that collaborated with a crypto project that issued a Trump-themed Memcoin, which saw wild price swings last year.

What many didn't know when he was appointed was that Hines first learned about the crypto industry while attending a Bowl game sponsored by a Bit company, and has been investing in crypto for nearly a decade. To avoid conflicts of interest in his government role, he sold his crypto holdings. He also studied crypto regulation in law school.

"He's one of the few who can straddle the crypto world and Trump's 'Make America Great Again' vision," said Dan Spuller, senior director of industry affairs at the Blockchain Association.

Critics say the desire to mainstream crypto may have downsides.

"If you start integrating crypto into the financial system, you have to be very sure you have the right safeguards in place to limit the potential for harm," said Democratic Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota, who has not yet met with Hines.

Hines will be at the center of debates over stablecoin regulation legislation, a widely used crypto tied to government-issued currencies like the dollar.

Bills that would clarify the SEC and CFTC's regulatory boundaries are expected to spark messy debates.

There are also divisions over a national digital asset reserve. If it leads to new government purchases, this is seen as a potential boon for the industry. Hines said the government first needs to take stock of the crypto assets it currently holds.

According to people familiar, Hines has recently considered replacing the President's Digital Assets Council, made up of industry executives, with a series of summits. Trump is expected to speak at the White House summit this Friday.

In 2014, Hines, wearing jersey #82, was a wide receiver for North Carolina State University

Before recently moving to Washington, Hines spent most of his life in North Carolina. Football was a family tradition - his father had a brief stint with the Detroit Lions.

In 2014, the young Hines was a standout wide receiver as a freshman at North Carolina State University, catching passes from future NFL quarterback Jacoby Brissett. He later transferred to Yale, where a shoulder injury ended his athletic career, before going to Wake Forest Law School, where he studied issues like how the CFTC regulates crypto.

According to Hines' former professor Raina Haque, Hines showed interest in the field but was not a crypto zealot. "He's not the kind of person who sees crypto as a panacea for all the world's problems," she said.

In 2022, Hines ran for a vacant House seat in his home state of North Carolina, echoing Trump's claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Trump endorsed Hines, but he lost a close race. His campaign funds came from a trust and a PAC founded by a former FTX executive.

Hines was criticized by Democrats for handing out China-made hats to voters while pushing an "America First" economic agenda.

Hines ran for the House again in 2023 but lost in the primary.

During his playing days, Hines participated in the 2014 Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl, sponsored by crypto payment processor BitPay. The game's logo featured an orange circle with a white "B", a symbol commonly used to represent crypto.

Shortly after that game, Hines made his first Bit purchase and began investing in other crypto assets. "Their marketing campaign worked on me," he said.