Trump Media’s $2 billion Bitcoin buy shows business empire is now crypto empire

The market appeared to approve of the move as stock in Trump’s firm jumped 7.2% on Monday morning from the previous close. It’s up 9% at almost $20 over the past week. About two-thirds of the company’s nearly $3 billion in liquid assets are allocated to Bitcoin.

‘We’re rigorously implementing our publicly announced strategy and fulfilling our Bitcoin treasury plan,” Trump Media president and CEO Devin Nunes said in a statement. “These assets help ensure our Company’s financial freedom.”

Trump owned the majority of shares in Trump Media and transferred them in December to a revocable trust before he became president. The stock issued to buy Bitcoin has diluted Trump’s ownership percentage.

The mammoth crypto buy comes almost two months after the company said it had issued $2.5 billion of new stock and debt to pursue a Bitcoin treasury. The move also reinforces how crypto, not real estate, increasingly fuels the Trump family’s business empire.

Real estate to crypto

For decades, Trump has touted his real estate dealmaking prowess. There was Mar a Lago, his golf club in Palm Beach; the Trump Tower, his skyscraper in midtown Manhattan; and a host of other properties that he said fueled a billion-dollar-plus empire.

But, beginning in December 2022, just a month after the crypto exchange FTX declared bankruptcy, the longtime real estate mogul dove into crypto. His crypto businesses now account for at least half of his business’s on-paper worth, according to previous reporting from Fortune and Forbes. 

Trump’s early crypto forays included launching his own collection of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, that depicted him as a muscular superhero or cowboy. Then, in 2024, as he was campaigning for reelection, Trump aligned himself with crypto executives and spoke at a marquee conference for Bitcoin. 

That summer, his sons Eric and Donald Jr. dove into crypto and launched their own decentralized finance application called World Liberty Financial. Add in a memecoin from Trump, another one for Melania, and a new Bitcoin mining business, and the Trumps’ network of ventures increasingly looked less like a real estate empire and more like a crypto conglomerate.

This includes Trump Media, which encompasses Truth Social, Trump’s alternative to the social media website X. The company went public in March 2024 and has reported little revenue since its launch. For the first quarter of 2025, it recorded only $821,000 in its topline, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

As it’s struggled to find its footing in media, it’s pivoted to crypto. In addition to its Bitcoin treasury, Trump Media has also filed to launch a string of crypto ETFs for tokens like Bitcoin,  Ethereum, Solana, and others. 

It’s even hinted at launching its own cryptocurrency and digital wallet.