Trump Media says it's raising $2.5 billion to buy bitcoin
LAS VEGAS — Trump Media announced Tuesday a $2.5 billion raise from institutional investors to bankroll one of the largest bitcoin treasury allocations by a public company.
Shares of the company fell about 10% following the news.
It's the latest and most ambitious move in its evolution from a free-speech social platform to a financial services player.
The deal includes $1.5 billion in common stock and $1 billion in convertible notes, with proceeds earmarked for the purchase of bitcoin, which the company will now hold as a core treasury asset. the company said it has subscription agreements with about 50 institutional investors.
The company also confirmed the bitcoin will be held with Anchorage Digital and Crypto.com — the same platform that recently inked a deal to help Trump Media launch its first exchange-traded funds.
The announcement comes as bitcoin nears record highs and the year's biggest gathering of digital asset enthusiasts gets underway on the Las Vegas Strip: Bitcoin 2025. The conference helped solidify President Donald Trump 's image as the country's first ' crypto president.'
This year, it's a full-court press from the Trump White House at the conference, with Vice President JD Vance, Don and Eric Trump, crypto czar David Sacks, and other top officials all attending.
Trump Media's stock remains volatile, with shares down nearly 30% this year so far. The company has a market cap of about $5.3 billion, despite reporting just $3.6 million in revenue and a $400 million loss in 2024.
Trump indirectly owns more than 114 million shares of Trump Media through a revocable trust.
Devin Nunes, the company's CEO and a former California congressman, called bitcoin an 'apex instrument of financial freedom' and said this was just the first of many 'crown jewel' acquisitions the firm would pursue.
He framed the move as a defensive strategy, saying it would help protect the company from what he described as ongoing 'discrimination by financial institutions' against conservative businesses.
The firm has already inked a partnership with Crypto.com to bring a series of ETFs and digital asset products to market later this year, pending regulatory approval.
Those funds will include baskets of crypto like bitcoin and Crypto.com's native token, cronos, alongside traditional securities. They will be branded under Trump Media and offered to global investors across major brokerage platforms and on the Crypto.com app, which has more than 140 million users worldwide.
The move deepens Trump's crypto footprint: World Liberty Financial, another Trump-affiliated entity, has already amassed a significant crypto stockpile, and the president signed an executive order earlier this year designed to establish a bitcoin reserve and a separate crypto stockpile for the federal government.
The expansion into financial services builds on rising Republican anger over perceived banking discrimination against conservatives.
Crypto industry leaders have also been testifying on Capitol Hill about the industry's struggle with debanking during President Joe Biden' s administration.
Trump himself voiced frustration with Bank of America and JPMorgan executives during a recent appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, accusing them of 'locking out' conservative clients.
The launch of Truth.Fi, along with the growing popularity of Trump-linked cryptocurrencies, appears to be the private sector response.
The $2.5 billion bitcoin treasury move also follows a growing trend among politically-aligned businesses that are converting their corporate treasuries into bitcoin-heavy vehicles. It's a strategy popularized by Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy in 2020 — but now turbocharged by Trump's political movement and crypto allies.
Jack Mallers is looking to rival Strategy with a new bitcoin company backed by Tether and SoftBank, and David Bailey, the architect behind another Trump-linked bitcoin play — Nakamoto Holdings — recently led a $710 million merger with healthcare firm KindlyMD, which will pivot from holistic opioid recovery to a crypto-first strategy.
Bailey, a trusted crypto advisor to the Trump administration, described the play as: 'Strategy, squared.'
'Our total focus is on increasing the bitcoin per share,' Bailey previously told CNBC, outlining plans to acquire bitcoin-native companies across every major capital market.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Donald Trump names deep blue state that's ready to leave Dem 'horror show'
Donald Trump said Monday that New Jersey - a state home to what's known as his 'Summer White House ' in Bedminster - is ready to turn blue starting with this year's gubernatorial election. The president spent Monday night holding a tele-rally for Jack Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker who transformed from a critic to vocal backer of the president and considered the heavy favorite to win the GOP nomination in the June 10 primary. Ciattarelli, who came within three points of incumbent Democrat Phil Murphy in 2021, is now staking his claim to flip the state house red for the first time since Chris Christie won re-election in 2013. The momentum appeared to continue into 2024, with Trump losing to Kamala Harris in the state by just five points, a 10-point improvement on 2020 and the best Republican performance in New Jersey since 1992. The phone call with Trump lasted about 10 minutes, with the president saying that voters will decide whether New Jersey remains a 'high-tax, high-crime sanctuary state.' 'New Jersey is ready to pop out of that blue horror show and really get in there and vote for somebody that´s going to make things happen,' the president said. The president landed on a familiar refrain for his pitch to voters in the Garden State. 'It's like 'Make America Great Again.' It's 'Make New Jersey Great Again,' Trump said, adding that if Democrats retain power in Trenton, the state 'economy will wither and die and you'll be living in a nightmare of chaos and crime.' The president warned that 'you sort of have that to a certain extent now.' Trump's call for early voting echoed the pitch he made to voters in the 2024 presidential election. Ciattarelli said his first executive order if elected would be to end any sanctuary policies for immigrants in the country illegally. Currently, the state attorney general has directed local law enforcement not to assist federal agents in civil immigration matters. There is no legal definition for sanctuary city policies , but they generally limit cooperation by local law enforcement with federal immigration officers. Ciattarelli also said the attorney general he appoints if he wins won't be bringing lawsuits against the White House. New Jersey's current attorney general has pursued several high-profile challenges to the president's agenda, including a case challenging Trump's order calling for the end of birthright citizenship . Ciattarelli is running against former radio talk host Bill Spadea, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and a southern New Jersey contractor named Justin Barbera. The Democratic field isn't set. There's a six-way contest between Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill (pictured); Mayors Ras Baraka of Newark and Steven Fulop of Jersey City; former state Senate President Steve Sweeney; and teacher's union president Sean Spiller Early in-person voting begins Tuesday and goes through Sunday. Primary day is June 10, though voters have been sending mail-in ballots in since late April. Though the primary isn't over, Ciattarelli hinted at what attacks against his eventual Democratic challenger in the general election might be, saying the party's eight years in the governorship and more than two decades of power in the legislature have been a failure. The Democratic field isn't set. There's a six-way contest between Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill; Mayors Ras Baraka of Newark and Steven Fulop of Jersey City; former state Senate President Steve Sweeney; and teacher's union president Sean Spiller. New Jersey tilts Democratic in presidential and Senate elections in particular, and the party has a roughly 800,000 voter registration advantage over Republicans. But independents make up a significant bloc as well, and voters have tended to alternate between Democratic and Republican administrations for governor. Murphy crawled over the finish line to a second term, ending with 51.22 percent of the vote to 48.00 against former state GOP lawmaker Ciattarelli. It was expected to be an easy victory for Murphy for weeks leading up to Election Day.
Daily Mail
32 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Bad news for Aussie borrowers as Reserve Bank signals it won't be in a hurry to slash rates
Aussie borrowers have been told to downplay their expectations of mega rate cuts - despite concerns about Donald Trump 's tariffs. The Reserve Bank last month cut interest rates by 25 basis points, taking them down to 3.85 per cent for the first time since June 2023. But the minutes of that May 20 meeting have revealed that while a bigger 50 basis point cut was considered, this was deemed unwise because the effects of American tariffs had yet to be felt. 'They agreed that developments in the domestic economy on their own justified a reduction in the cash rate target and that the case for that action was strengthened by developments in global trade policy,' it said. 'However, members were not persuaded that the combination of these was sufficient to warrant a 50 basis point reduction at this meeting.' The Reserve Bank hasn't cut rates by 50 basis points since May 2012, when the Greek debt crisis was weighing on global growth. The RBA's latest meeting minutes were released on Tuesday, just days after Trump doubled tariffs on Australian steel from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. It noted that earlier US tariffs, including 10 per cent on most Australia exports, were yet to affected the domestic economy. 'Members noted the absence of signs in the Australian data to date that global trade policy uncertainty was having a significant negative impact on the economy, and that some plausible adverse scenarios could see upward pressure on inflation,' the Reserve Bank said. The futures market is now only expecting a 25 basis point rate cut at the RBA's next meeting in July, which would be occurring before the release of June quarter inflation data. Most economists are expecting the next move to be occurring in August, but with another quarter of a percentage point easing.
Reuters
44 minutes ago
- Reuters
Shares dither, dollar falls as trade angst persists
SINGAPORE, June 3 (Reuters) - Asia shares edged cautiously higher on Tuesday while the dollar fell to a six-week low as erratic U.S. trade policies clouded over markets and investors turned defensive ahead of key developments later in the week. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will likely speak this week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday, days after Trump accused China of violating an agreement to roll back tariffs and trade restrictions. The call between the two leaders will be closely watched by markets to see if the tariff-induced blow to global stocks and the dollar this year could get some reprieve or ratchet up, as trade tensions between the world's two largest economies simmer. Data on Monday showed U.S. manufacturing contracted for a third straight month in May and suppliers took the longest time in nearly three years to deliver inputs amid tariffs. "The May ISM showed tariff pressure is beginning to bite for manufacturers who are seeing slowing activity, longer lead times and declining inventories," said economists at Wells Fargo. China's factory activity in May also shrank for the first time in eight months, a private-sector survey showed on Tuesday, indicating U.S. tariffs are starting to hurt manufacturers. The gloomy global trade situation left U.S. futures falling early in the Asian session, failing to sustain the slight gains made during the cash session on Wall Street overnight. Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures were both down 0.2% each. In Europe, EUROSTOXX 50 futures advanced 0.28% and FTSE futures added 0.15%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), opens new tab reversed early losses to last trade 0.6% higher, while Japan's Nikkei (.N225), opens new tab rose 0.66%. "Trump really does have sentiment in the palm of his hands once again," said Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at City Index. "I suspect we'll hear about 'a really great call' or words to the effect," he said, referring to the expected call between Trump and Xi. "But we'll need to wait for confirmation from China, who tends to take their time on these matters. Until we get concrete confirmation, price action could be shaky and vulnerable to false also have the June 4 deadline for 'best trade deals' from U.S. trading partners to factor in." In China, mainland markets returned from an extended break on a muted note, with the CSI300 blue-chip index (.CSI300), opens new tab up 0.23% while the Shanghai Composite Index (.SSEC), opens new tab gained 0.3%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index (.HIS), opens new tab jumped more than 1%, rebounding from Monday's one-month low. The dollar fell to a six-week low against a basket of currencies to 98.58 on Tuesday, ahead of Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls data, which will offer a timely reading on the pulse of activity in the world's largest economy. A rise in unemployment is one of the few developments that could get the Federal Reserve to start thinking of easing policy again, with investors having largely given up on a cut this month or next. The euro scaled a six-week top earlier in the session before paring some of its gains to last trade at $1.1426, while sterling dipped 0.09% to $1.3532. A softer U.S. jobs report would be a relief for the Treasury market, where 30-year yields continue to flirt with the 5% barrier as investors demand a higher premium to offset the ever-expanding supply of debt. The Senate this week will start considering a tax-and-spending bill that will add an estimated $3.8 trillion to the federal government's $36.2 trillion in debt. "The evidence suggests term premium being re-priced considerably higher to account for U.S. fiscal, trade, credit, and geoeconomic risks alongside some hedge against (U.S. dollar) debasement," said Vishnu Varathan, head of macro research for Asia ex-Japan at Mizuho. The dollar was up 0.35% against the yen at 143.20 , reversing some of its 0.9% decline from the previous session. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Tuesday it is important to make policy judgements without any preset ideas as uncertainty over global tariff policies remains extremely high. In commodities, oil prices rose on concerns about supply, with Brent crude futures climbing 0.88% to $65.20 a barrel, while U.S. crude surged 1% to $63.13 per barrel. Spot gold rose to a roughly one-month high of $3,392.03 an ounce.
