Trump's Media Company to Raise $2.5 Billion to Buy Bitcoin — WSJ
By Alexander Osipovich and Jennifer CalfasPresident Trump's media company plans to raise about $2.5 billion from institutional investors to buy bitcoin, the latest entanglement of his private business ventures and the cryptocurrency markets.Trump Media & Technology Group said Tuesday it planned to issue and sell $1.5 billion of the company's stock and $1 billion in convertible debt to about 50 institutional investors. The company said the investment closes its strategic acquisition fund created to buy, merge or join companies that align with the president's "America First" policies.The company, which operates the president's Truth Social platform, plans to use the funding to create a treasury that will hold bitcoin. Trump Media said Crypto.com and Anchorage Digital will provide custody of the bitcoin treasury."We view bitcoin as an apex instrument of financial freedom, and now Trump Media will hold cryptocurrency as a crucial part of our assets," Trump Media Chief Executive Devin Nunes said.Shares for the company dropped 10% on Tuesday. Bitcoin, which last week hit a record high of above $111,000, was trading at around $109,900 on Tuesday afternoon.Trump Media earlier this year launched a finance company called Truth.Fi, and said it would allocate around $250 million into cryptocurrency and other investments.Trump Media's announcement puts it in a rapidly growing group of companies that have added bitcoin to their balance sheets. Most prominent among them is MicroStrategy, a software company that has amassed more than $60 billion worth of bitcoin and plans to issue billions of dollars worth of convertible debt to buy more.Other companies that hold bitcoin include Tesla, Rumble, maker of the video-sharing platform popular with conservatives, and Semler Scientific, a healthcare-technology company that started acquiring bitcoin last year.The second Trump administration has been particularly friendly to the crypto industry, with Congress expected to advance legislation favored by the industry.Last week, Trump hosted the top buyers of his memecoin for a gala dinner. Government-watchdog groups have said the dinner could potentially violate federal rules against soliciting gifts. Trump's sons have also backed a crypto venture called World Liberty Financial and a bitcoin-mining company that plans to go public.Trump's policies toward bitcoin — the oldest and largest cryptocurrency — could potentially affect the value of Trump Media's bitcoin stash. The president owns more than 50% of Trump Media's shares through a revocable trust.In March, Trump ordered the creation of a bitcoin strategic reserve to consolidate the U.S. government's bitcoin holdings. Under his order, new acquisitions to the reserve must be done in a "budget-neutral" way to avoid additional costs to taxpayers, although the Trump administration hasn't detailed how it plans to do that. The government already holds a sizable amount of bitcoin that it has seized from criminals.Proponents call bitcoin "digital gold," arguing that its limited supply — capped at 21 million coins — will eventually make it a safer store of value than traditional currencies, despite its history of volatility.Financial-services firm Cantor Fitzgerald served as an adviser on the bitcoin deal, Trump Media said. Until this year, Cantor was led by Howard Lutnick, a close Trump confidante who is now commerce secretary. The firm said earlier this month that Lutnick would transfer ownership of Cantor to trusts benefiting his children.Write to Alexander Osipovich at [email protected] and Jennifer Calfas at [email protected]