[ad_1]
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The company behind Donald Trump’s social network has announced plans to distribute a new cryptocurrency token to shareholders, driving the share price sharply higher on the final day of the year.
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), controlled by Trump’s family, on Wednesday said it would distribute the token “in the near future” in partnership with the Crypto.com exchange.
Shares in TMTG, which is listed on the Nasdaq, jumped more than 9 per cent in New York following the announcement. The stock has fallen in recent months and remains roughly 60 per cent lower than at the start of the year.
The announcement of a new token adds to the sprawling cryptocurrency interests Trump and his family’s businesses have amassed.
These ventures, which include memecoins and a stablecoin, have made more than $1bn, according to a Financial Times analysis earlier this year, in part thanks to the White House’s crypto-friendly policies.
TMTG, founded in 2021 primarily as the holding company behind Trump’s Truth Social site, has since accumulated roughly $2bn in bitcoin as part of a broader push into the crypto sector.
Earlier this month, the company also moved into the artificial intelligence space, merging with Google-backed fusion energy company TAE Technologies in a deal valued at $6bn, as part of a bet on nuclear energy powering the AI boom.
TMTG said its new tokens will not be transferable and “cannot be exchanged for cash”.
But it held out the prospect of “various rewards being made available to token holders periodically throughout the year . . . [which] may include benefits or discounts tied to Trump Media products”.
The Trumps’ crypto activities have increased recently, with an Eric Trump-backed bitcoin venture soaring in its stock market debut in September.
TMTG has worked with Crypto.com on earlier deals. In August, the Trumps’ company agreed a $6.4bn deal to buy a token issued by the exchange, deepening the ties between the president’s businesses and the digital asset industry.
Crypto.com has in the past year been one of the largest donors to groups supporting Trump. In February, it donated $10mn to MAGA Inc, a Trump-linked Super Pac. The company had also donated $1mn to Trump’s inauguration.
The company had faced an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission under Joe Biden’s administration. The regulator dropped the probe in March.
[ad_2]
Source link
