Trump Media announces plans to expand into crypto
Trump Media announces plans to expand into crypto
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Shares jump 15% in pre-market trading after president’s social media startup announced launch of Truth.Fi. Donald Trump’s social media startup has announced plans to branch out into financial services including cryptocurrencies, drawing the president’s business empire further into crypto as his administration looks to boost the space.
Shares in Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of Trump’s Truth Social platform, jumped 15% during pre-market trading after it announced the launch of Truth.Fi, a financial technology brand Truth.Fi, in a brief statement. In a move likely to prompt fresh conflict of interest concerns, Trump Media, or TMTG, said it plans to invest up to $250m into investment accounts and “Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies or crypto-related securities”.
The funds will be managed by the brokerage Charles Schwab, it said. The president has already faced criticism for launching a multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency meme coin on the eve of his inauguration last week. Former government ethics officials and presidential experts said the venture amounted to a “shameful” conflict, as Trump had pledged to transform the US into the crypto capital of the world.
Trump Media has struggled to build a social network that comes anywhere close to that created by Facebook and Instagram, owned by Meta Platforms; or X, owned by Elon Musk. But its status as a “meme stock” has helped it raise tens of millions since it went public on the stock market last year.
