Following the Trump family-backed "Core Token," the Trump family is once again using the crypto world as a banner to "raise money" in the financial markets.

On Wednesday, March 3rd, Eastern Time, the Bitcoin mining and accumulation platform American Bitcoin listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ABTC through a merger with its peer Gryphon Digital Mining, with its stock price soaring on its first day of trading.

During early US trading, American Bitcoin's stock price once surged to $14.52, a gain of over 100% intraday, before giving back most of those gains. It closed at $8.04, up about 16.5% for the day. Trading was temporarily halted due to excessive volatility.

American Bitcoin is owned by the eldest and second sons of US President Trump—Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Following the completion of the stock-swap merger with Gryphon Digital Mining, Trump's sons and another Bitcoin miner, Hut 8 Corp., collectively own 98% of the company, with former Gryphon investors holding the remaining shares.

Following the listing of the World Liberty Financial token WLTI on multiple crypto exchanges on Monday, American Bitcoin's listing is the second major event this week driven by the Trump family to push crypto assets into the mainstream capital markets. Its IPO is seen as the latest test of investor interest in Trump family-related cryptocurrency ventures.

A Platform Focused on Bitcoin Accumulation

American Bitcoin calls itself a Bitcoin accumulation platform focused on building key Bitcoin infrastructure in the US. It is a majority-owned subsidiary of Hut 8, positioned as a specialized Bitcoin accumulation platform employing a differentiated dual accumulation strategy. By combining self-mining operations with opportunistic Bitcoin acquisitions, the company aims to maximize Bitcoin holdings per share.

Prior to going public, American Bitcoin had accumulated approximately 2,443 Bitcoins, following a so-called "corporate treasury" strategy. This strategy was popularized by Michael Saylor, co-founder of MicroStrategy, the business intelligence software company that is the publicly traded company holding the most Bitcoin globally.

American Bitcoin states that through its partnership with Hut 8, it gains access to next-generation ASIC technology and utilizes Hut 8's large-scale hosting infrastructure platform for Bitcoin mining, eliminating the need for significant capital investment to build and operate proprietary data centers. American Bitcoin has mining facilities in New York, Alberta, and Texas.

In June of this year, American Bitcoin raised $220 million in cash and Bitcoin through a private placement of stock from investors including the Winklevoss twins, co-founders of Gemini, to purchase more digital tokens and mining equipment.

Asher Genoot, American Bitcoin's Executive Director and CEO of Hut 8, stated that by integrating Bitcoin mining, opportunistic market acquisitions, and the support of Hut 8's energy and digital infrastructure, the company has created an investment vehicle designed to drive rapid and efficient per-share Bitcoin growth.

Warmer Policy Environment Boosts Crypto Market

Trump became a high-profile supporter of cryptocurrency during his campaign and, upon taking office, became the industry's most influential advocate. He signed legislation helping to legitimize certain types of cryptocurrency, created a national reserve for virtual assets, appointed regulators more friendly to the industry, and ended investigations into major cryptocurrency companies.

With the support of the Trump administration, Bitcoin's trading price has fluctuated between $108,000 and $123,000 over the past two months. Trump's two sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have appeared at cryptocurrency conferences worldwide, praising the asset class. Last week, just before a Bitcoin conference in Hong Kong, Eric Trump stated that cryptocurrency is "the most rewarding endeavor of my life."

The shift in government regulatory policy has created a favorable environment for cryptocurrency companies to go public, and American Bitcoin's successful listing was achieved against this backdrop.

Eric Trump, who co-founded American Bitcoin and serves as its Chief Strategy Officer, said this week, "We have become a household name in the cryptocurrency space. American Bitcoin will be the greatest financial company of all time."

Eric also stated that American Bitcoin's Nasdaq debut is a "historic milestone for Bitcoin entering the core of the American capital markets and advances our mission to make America the undisputed leader of the global Bitcoin economy."

Trump Family's Crypto Empire Continues to Expand

The listing of American Bitcoin marks the latest expansion of the Trump family's crypto empire. The family's crypto business now spans various areas from mining operations to meme coins and stablecoins.

On Monday, the token WLFI issued by the Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial began trading on major crypto exchanges such as Binance, Bybit, and OKX.

WLFI opened at $0.20, quickly surging to a high of around 40 cents within five minutes of opening, before turning lower. During Monday's trading, it once fell more than 30% from its intraday high. It is currently up about 1% from its issue price and ranks as the 27th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

World Liberty's official website lists Trump himself and his three sons as initial co-founders of the project, although Trump resigned from his role after assuming the presidency.

The Trump family controls just under a quarter of WLFI—22.5 billion tokens—through a shell company named DT Marks DEFI LLC. Based on Monday's closing price, this represents a paper value of $5 billion, making the token one of the Trump family's most valuable assets, far exceeding their traditional real estate investments like hotels and golf courses.

As mentioned before, the Trump family reached a special agreement with the listed company Alt5, not relying on the price fluctuations of the WLFI token in the secondary market to make money. Alt5 spent $1.5 billion to buy WLFI, with 75% of the sales proceeds going to the Trump family, instantly locking in hundreds of millions of dollars in cash.

However, ethics lawyers and government regulators have expressed concerns about Trump's business interests and his family's involvement in the cryptocurrency business, particularly when he relaxes regulations on the crypto or currency industry.