Eric Trump says father's energy policies will help crypto

Eric Trump said his latest venture into the crypto industry, American Bitcoin, aims to mine the digital currency for cheaper than its rivals

The president's son, Eric Trump, has revealed that his latest venture, American Bitcoin, aims to mine the digital currency for cheaper than its rivals, and that his father's energy policies will help.

Speaking at the Consensus crypto conference in Toronto on Thursday, Trump promoted his venture, which is a partnership with Gryphon Digital Mining Inc.

The Trump family has become a fixture in the crypto sector this year, with the president's son also launching the World Liberty Financial project, while a $TRUMP meme coin has also attracted attention.

$TRUMP saw a spike in value when it announced that its top 220 holders would be invited to a dinner with the president -- with the top 25 receiving "an exclusive reception" beforehand -- set to take place on May 22 at the Trump National Golf Club near Washington.

American Bitcoin is planning to go public on the New York Stock Exchange via a merger with Gryphon, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024.

The company said it will use the proceeds of the merger to expand its bitcoin mining operations.

"We have a president in the United States that actually believes in having a proper energy policy in the United States of America, where he wants the cheapest energy anywhere in the world because that's going to fuel all the innovation that we're talking about right now," Trump said.

His father's administration has made slashing US energy costs and rolling back clean energy initiatives a key focus, part of a broader effort to ramp up domestic oil and gas production.

The administration has also opened more federal land and offshore areas for drilling.

"If you go to France, if you go to Scotland, try to mine bitcoin, you're not going to be able to do it because the energy price is too high," Trump said.

He added that he sees the bitcoin sector as a competition with "two races."

One area is the accumulation of bitcoin, whose value topped $100,000 again this month.

"Then I think there's the game of who can mine it the cheapest."

American Bitcoin will strive to "accumulate a tremendous amount of bitcoin," he said.

"But I also want to be the person who's mining it, by far the cheapest. And I think we can win that race."

Bitcoin mining involves using computing power to solve complex mathematical problems.

The data centers increasingly required for large-scale mining have drawn criticism from environmentalists over their substantial energy needs.