29-year-old political newcomer Bo Hines is appointed executive director of Trump’s crypto council, as crypto companies privately compete for seats

Author: Weilin, PANews

On December 23, U.S. President-elect Trump announced that Bo Hines would serve as the executive director of the newly established President’s Digital Asset Advisory Committee (referred to as the “Encryption Committee”). Compared with other nominees, 29-year-old Bo Hines is a newcomer to politics and encryption and has not yet made his stance on cryptocurrency public. Before entering politics, he was a college football player and ran for a seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives twice in 2022 and 2024. Although he lost to the Democrats in 2022, he received Trump's "endorsement" in the election, or he may have developed a relationship with Trump because of this.

In addition, the specific structure and candidates of the Encryption Committee are still being planned. According to Bloomberg, various decisions on the structure of the Encryption Committee will be made in the next few weeks. There are currently two options, large and small, and the final list of members It is expected to be announced in January.

Once supported by Trump to run for state assembly, he is an amateur in

encryption and politics and has become the executive director of the CryptoCommittee.

Trump announced the appointment in a statement on Truth Social. “Bo Hines will serve as Executive Director of the President’s Digital Asset Advisory Council (‘Crypto Council’). The Council is a new advisory group of crypto industry luminaries, chaired by our ‘Crypto Czar’ David Sacks. Bo is a graduate Yale University and Wake Forest University School of Law,” he said.

In this role, Bo Hines will "work with David Sacks to drive innovation and growth in the digital asset space while ensuring industry leaders have the resources they need to succeed." Trump said, "Together they will create an environment where this An environment in which the industry thrives and continues to be the cornerstone of our country's technological progress.

PANews has previously written an article introducing the "crypto czar" David Sacks (Related reading: The diverse background of White House encryption director David Sacks: Silicon Valley investor, Musk close friend, Vance funder ), in contrast, 29-year-old Bo Hines is a An amateur with little political experience. Some analysts believe that Trump’s move may attract young crypto users.

Looking back on Bo Hines’ political experience, in January 2021, Bo Hines announced that he would run for the House of Representatives seat in North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District as a Republican candidate. In February 2022, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that North Carolina’s congressional district gerrymandering was unconstitutional. After North Carolina's district lines were overturned, Hines decided to switch to the newly drawn 13th Congressional District. However, it caused considerable controversy because his residence was not within the district. On March 14, 2022, he received the support of former President Trump, who called Hines a "fighter for conservative values."

On May 17, 2022, Bo Hines defeated seven opponents in the Republican primary, receiving 32% of the vote and defeating his closest opponent by nearly double digits. However, Hines narrowly lost the general election to Democratic state Sen. Wiley Nickel. With Nickel's victory in the 13th District and another Democratic victory in the new 14th District (created due to increased population), North Carolina Democrats flipped one seat and picked up another, making The state's representation in Congress reached a 7-7 tie. Still, Bo Hines may have bonded with Trump.

In May 2022, Business Insider reported that Bo Hines obtained campaign funds mainly through PAC. Campaign finance disclosures show that Hines raised only 28% of his campaign funds himself, with most of his campaign contributions coming from individual donors. According to reports, part of the funding came from FTX executive Ryan Salame. Ryan Salame is currently serving a seven-and-a-half-year sentence after pleading guilty to charges including conspiring to make illegal political donations.

In 2024, Bo Hines ran for Congress again, targeting North Carolina's 6th Congressional District, but he lost in the Republican primary. This time, he did not receive the support of Trump, who instead endorsed current Rep.-elect Addison McDowell. Now Trump has directly appointed him to provide him with a job in the White House, even though he has not made any public remarks about cryptocurrency before.

Before entering politics, Bo Hines played as a wide receiver on the college football team at North Carolina State University before transferring to Yale University and briefly continuing his football career.

After the appointment, in a related Working alongside the talented David Sacks ensures this industry thrives and continues to be a cornerstone of our country's technological advancement."

On December 23, Trump also announced a number of team members who will work with David Sacks, including Michael JK Kratsios as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Dr. Lynne Parker as Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and Sriram Krishnan as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The "Encryption Committee" is about to be established, and industry

insiders compete for influence

The incoming U.S. administration is weighing two distinct options to form an advisory board the crypto industry has long awaited, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Trump and his core team are considering forming a committee with a minimum of 10 members or a maximum of 100 members. The committee will report to David Sacks. Sacks, as Trump's first appointed head of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency affairs, will manage two separate committees, corresponding to the two areas he is responsible for.

A small crypto committee composed of senior industry executives such as CEOs would have greater influence on policy; a larger committee would be more of a ceremonial information-gathering body with members from a wider range of fields.

Even before the election, executives from digital asset exchanges and bitcoin mining companies began visiting Mar-a-Lago and donating large sums of money to Trump's campaign.

Recently, leading companies in the encryption industry have been visiting Trump intensively, trying to influence his personnel appointments and policies in the encryption field. On November 22, Reuters reported that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently met with Trump, and Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire also publicly expressed his willingness to join the committee. Meanwhile, Paradigm and the crypto arm of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) are also expected to take seats on the committee. In addition, multiple encryption companies, including Ripple and Kraken, are vying for a seat on President-elect Trump’s encryption advisory board. This organized contact continues, and in November, Justin Sun also said that he invested $30 million in World Liberty Financial. Earlier in December, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida to discuss personnel appointments and regulatory issues in the crypto industry.

It is reported that the Crypto Advisory Committee may be affiliated with the White House National Economic Council or an independent White House department. Its main responsibilities include coordinating digital asset policies, working with Congress to formulate encryption legislation, establishing Bitcoin reserves, and working with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), commodity futures In collaboration with agencies such as the Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation (CFTC) and the Treasury Department.

Bloomberg reports that any decision on the committee's structure will be made in the coming weeks, with the final composition and membership expected to be announced in January. Trump is expected to sign an executive order formally establishing the commission shortly after taking office. Despite intense lobbying from various industry figures, there is currently no formal nomination process.