Trump family’s fortunes tumble by $600m as company faces 'deep downturn'

Eric Trump at the 2020 Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA in West Palm Beach, Florida on December 20, 2020 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Although Donald Trump once dismissed Bitcoin as a "scam" and argued that cryptocurrencies are "based on thin air," the U.S. president and his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are now all in for crypto — from the Trump Family's World Liberty Financial to the American Bitcoin Corp., which Eric Trump co-founded. President Trump's net worth his way up, estimated to be $6.5 billion by Forbes. But according to Bloomberg News reporters Tom Maloney and Olga Kharif, problems with the American Bitcoin Corp. have decreased the Trump family's fortunes by $600 million.

"American Bitcoin Corp. was built around a simple idea: that owning and mining Bitcoin would be enough to mint money," Maloney and Kharif report in Bloomberg News. "Instead, the company co-founded by Eric Trump is mired in a deep downturn. As Bitcoin sank into a bear market and demand for artificial intelligence surged, investors increasingly favored miners that could repurpose their infrastructure for AI-focused data centers. American Bitcoin, though, stuck with its crypto strategy and has seen its shares slump more than 95 percent from their peak."

The Bloomberg reporters continue, "That's erased more than $600 million from the market value of Eric Trump's stake over the past 10 months, according to Bloomberg calculations, and forced the company this week into a 1-for-15 reverse stock split to maintain its Nasdaq listing." On Wednesday, (July 8), its stock price hit an all-time low.

The American Bitcoin Corp.'s problems, according to Maloney and Kharif, show "just how quickly investors have soured on crypto pure-plays."

"Success is no longer determined by who can produce the most Bitcoin, but by who has the flexibility to monetize their electricity, land and computing infrastructure," the Bloomberg reports explain. "For the Trump family, American Bitcoin's struggles illustrate the volatile nature of the first family's digital asset investments. Even as President Donald Trump reported at least $1.4 billion in crypto earnings last year in his latest financial disclosure, many retail investors have taken a hit as Trump-affiliated tokens and American Bitcoin stock tanked."

Maloney and Kharif add, "Eric Trump owns roughly 6 percent of American Bitcoin, according to Bloomberg calculations, and serves as its chief strategy officer. Adviser Donald Trump Jr.'s stake is undisclosed."

On X, activist/author Amy Siskind said of Bloomberg News' reporting on Eric Trump and the American Bitcoin Corp., "May this mark a turning point."

Eric Trump is insisting that American Bitcoin has no plans to sell its holdings.

"Indeed, it's continued to buy the token in the market, adding another 500 on Monday," Maloney and Kharif note. "In the first quarter, the company posted a $118.2 million operating loss after it marked down its Bitcoin treasury by $117.2 million. Many investors believe Bitcoin's price is near this cycle's bottom. If it recovers, American Bitcoin's focus on the cryptocurrency could eventually pay off, especially as competitors that shifted focus can't easily re-enter the space."

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