Like father, like sons.
Scam Fam
Donald Trump’s eponymous meme coin is all but worthless now — but that’s not stopping his kids from launching their next crypto scheme. As Bloomberg and other outlets report, the president’s sons, Eric and Donald Jr., are taking their Bitcoin mining venture public on the traditional stock markets.
Known as American Bitcoin Inc., the Trump boys’ mining and strategic reserve company is slated to be acquired by Gryphon, another crypto mining firm. When news of the deal broke, shares for Gryphon spiked a whopping 460 percent to $2.93 per share — though it’s since dropped down below $2.00.
Previously known as American Data Centers Inc., the venture was launched in February by the elder Trump sons and a group of investors. With the merger, existing investors will own about 98 percent of the company, which will trade under the ticker ABTC.
As CNBC notes, Eric Trump, the company’s cofounder and chief strategy officer, has distanced himself from his father’s administration to focus on crypto full-time without the appearance of conflict of interest.
“We won the space race,” the middle Trump son told CNBC back in early April. “We better win the crypto race.”
Little Wins
Notably, this merger comes at the same time as the president’s own flailing crypto venture, his eponymous $TRUMP coin, hosted a bizarre contest: a dinner with the POTUS for those who own the most of the meme coin.
Though new buyers spent nearly $150 million to get the chance to dine with Trump at one of his golf clubs, savvier investors figured out a smarter scheme.
According to the New York Times, at least 17 of the 220 winning bidders of the contest no longer had any of the coin by the end of the three-week contest period. They apparently exploited a loophole that stipulated only that top bidders must have $TRUMP coin in their wallets before the contest window ended, rather than having it at the time it closed — essentially suggesting that those holders sold off their coins to eager investors while raking in the wins for themselves.
Despite the likely corrupt drama surrounding that scheme, $TRUMP is still only worth about $12.75 per token — more than its all-time low of around $7.50 last month, which fell in the wake of the president’s tariffs announcement, but that’s not saying much.
More on crypto scams: Hawk Tuah Girl Says She’s Horrified by What Happened With Her Crypto Launch