Trump Media says investors will fund a company ‘bitcoin reserve’ through share purchases

Then Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference, July 27, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

U.S. President Donald Trump’s media company said Tuesday that institutional investors will buy US$2.5 billion in the company’s stock with the proceeds going to build up a bitcoin reserve.

About 50 institutional investors will put up $1.5 billion in the private placement for common shares in the company and another $1 billion for convertible senior notes, according to Trump Media and Technology Group, the operator of Truth Social and other companies.

Trump Media said it intends to use the proceeds for the creation of a “bitcoin treasury.”

Trump, who referred to cryptocurrencies in his first term as “not money,” citing volatility and a value “based on thin air,” has shifted his views on the technology.

During an event at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida during his presidential campaign in May 2024, Trump received assurances that crypto industry backers would spend lavishly to get him reelected.

Last week, Trump rewarded 220 of the top investors in one of his other cryptocurrency projects — the $Trump meme coin —with a swanky dinner luxury golf club in Northern Virginia, spurring accusations that the president was mixing his duties in the White House with personal profit.

The Associated Press