Trump Media Will Sell $2.5B in Stock to Institutional Investors, Using the Proceeds to Build a Bitcoin Treasury

President Donald Trump's media company said Tuesday that institutional investors will buy $2.5 billion in the company's stock with the proceeds going to build up a bitcoin reserve. By Michael del Castillo. Updated April 4, 2024, 1:13 p.m. PDT.

output: President Donald Trump’s media company said Tuesday that institutional investors will buy $2.5 billion in the company’s stock with the proceeds going to build up a bitcoin reserve.

About 50 institutional investors will put up $1.5 billion in the private placement for common shares in the company and another $1 billion for convertible senior notes, according to Trump Media and Technology Group, the operator of Truth Social and other companies.

Trump Media said it intends to use the proceeds for the creation of a “bitcoin treasury.”

“This investment will help defend our Company against harassment and discrimination by financial institutions, which plague many Americans and U.S. firms,” said Trump Media CEO and Chairman Devin Nunes in prepared remarks.

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., based in Sarasota, Fla., tumbled 9%, reducing the company’s market value to about $3 billion.

The company went public in December 2022 through a merger with blank-check firm MAGA.

Earlier this year, Trump Media disclosed in a regulatory filing that it was in talks with several firms for a private investment in a common unit. It is also planning to sell preferred shares to raise more capital.

Other companies have adopted similar strategies through cryptocurrency. Cloud and mobile software developer MicroStrategy Inc. has built up a treasury reserve containing billions worth of bitcoin through stock sales and debt financing.

Trump, who referred to cryptocurrencies in his first term as “not money,” citing volatility and a value “based on thin air,” has shifted his views on the technology.

During an event at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida during his presidential campaign in May 2024, Trump assuredly told the audience that crypto industry backers would spend lavishly to get him reelected.

Last week, Trump rewarded 220 of the top investors in one of his other cryptocurrency projects — the $Trump meme coin —with a swanky dinner luxury golf club in Northern Virginia, spurring accusations that the president was mixing his duties in the White House with personal profit.