Trump owns 53% of the Trump Media company, which has recently announced it’s getting into crypto. Three days after Trump Media announced a partnership with Crypto.com, Crypto.com got the news that the SEC was dropping its investigation into their company.
![Truth Social and Truth.Fi
Trump Media & Technology Group, behind Trump’s Truth Social platform, is also newly exploring the cryptocurrency world. Trump owns about 53% of the shares, estimated to be worth around $2 billion, in the publicly traded company, which recently submitted filings to allow the trust holding his shares (controlled by Donald Trump Jr.) to sell them [I81].
In January, the company announced it would enter the fintech space with a brand called Truth.Fi, focusing on “America First investment vehicles”.6 On March 24, TMTG announced a partnership with Singapore-based crypto exchange Crypto.com — a company under SEC investigation, that had in August 2024 received a Wells notice informing them of an impending enforcement action [I68]. On March 27, only three days after the partnership announcement, Crypto.com revealed that the SEC had dropped its investigation [I81].
Simultaneously with its announcement about entering fintech, TMTG announced it would allocate up to $250 million of its cash reserves into investment vehicles including bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.7 By investing in crypto, the company (and thus Trump) stands to profit from Trump’s own actions to pump crypto prices, including announcing a bitcoin strategic reserve to “elevate this critical industry”, and exploring avenues to use government money to buy bitcoin [I80].](/proxy/post_attachment/481370/55ff574d0c.png "Truth Social and Truth.Fi
Trump Media & Technology Group, behind Trump’s Truth Social platform, is also newly exploring the cryptocurrency world. Trump owns about 53% of the shares, estimated to be worth around $2 billion, in the publicly traded company, which recently submitted filings to allow the trust holding his shares (controlled by Donald Trump Jr.) to sell them [I81].
In January, the company announced it would enter the fintech space with a brand called Truth.Fi, focusing on “America First investment vehicles”.6 On March 24, TMTG announced a partnership with Singapore-based crypto exchange Crypto.com — a company under SEC investigation, that had in August 2024 received a Wells notice informing them of an impending enforcement action [I68]. On March 27, only three days after the partnership announcement, Crypto.com revealed that the SEC had dropped its investigation [I81].
Simultaneously with its announcement about entering fintech, TMTG announced it would allocate up to $250 million of its cash reserves into investment vehicles including bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.7 By investing in crypto, the company (and thus Trump) stands to profit from Trump’s own actions to pump crypto prices, including announcing a bitcoin strategic reserve to “elevate this critical industry”, and exploring avenues to use government money to buy bitcoin [I80].")
Trump is reportedly exploring launching a crypto game, which is a sector that has faced regulatory scrutiny. SEC lawsuits naming crypto gaming tokens as securities have been dropped, and Rs in Congress just voted to overturn a CFPB consumer protection rule for game assets.
![A crypto game
Fortune recently reported that Trump plans to release a blockchain-based real estate-themed game similar to Monopoly.8 Unlike many traditional games where players use in-game currencies that can’t be transferred outside of the game, crypto games often aim to use cryptocurrencies for game economies, attracting players with promises of earning real money simply by playing a video game. Blockchain games, sometimes dubbed “play-to-earn” games, have a troubled history, struggling to balance in-game economies where wealthier players can simply pay to win, poorer players can’t afford to play at all, and more and more new players must constantly join to sustain token prices.b Games like Axie Infinity, which surged in popularity in late 2021, spawned a form of digital sharecropping where wealthier individuals leased in-game assets to those in the Philippines and other lower-wage areas, who were promised they could earn more playing these video games than from other local jobs.9 Other moral issues arose from children playing games with gambling-like mechanics, where they were encouraged to spend (and often later lose) real money on new characters or items. Then, of course, there was the record-breaking $625 million Axie Infinity exploit by North Korean hackers in March 2022 [W3IGG], which caused players’ tokens to plummet in value and never recover.
Before the second Trump administration, play-to-earn games faced new regulatory scrutiny. In its lawsuits against Coinbase](/proxy/post_attachment/481371/d8bb0bff27.png "A crypto game
Fortune recently reported that Trump plans to release a blockchain-based real estate-themed game similar to Monopoly.8 Unlike many traditional games where players use in-game currencies that can’t be transferred outside of the game, crypto games often aim to use cryptocurrencies for game economies, attracting players with promises of earning real money simply by playing a video game. Blockchain games, sometimes dubbed “play-to-earn” games, have a troubled history, struggling to balance in-game economies where wealthier players can simply pay to win, poorer players can’t afford to play at all, and more and more new players must constantly join to sustain token prices.b Games like Axie Infinity, which surged in popularity in late 2021, spawned a form of digital sharecropping where wealthier individuals leased in-game assets to those in the Philippines and other lower-wage areas, who were promised they could earn more playing these video games than from other local jobs.9 Other moral issues arose from children playing games with gambling-like mechanics, where they were encouraged to spend (and often later lose) real money on new characters or items. Then, of course, there was the record-breaking $625 million Axie Infinity exploit by North Korean hackers in March 2022 [W3IGG], which caused players’ tokens to plummet in value and never recover.
Before the second Trump administration, play-to-earn games faced new regulatory scrutiny. In its lawsuits against Coinbase")
![Since his inauguration, Trump has been hard at work bulldozing regulatory or legal barriers for crypto companies that could require registration with financial regulators, more burdensome oversight, customer support programs and recourse for players whose in-game and/or crypto assets are stolen, and limits on gambling mechanisms in games — all things that would cut into crypto gaming companies’ profits. The Securities and Exchange Commission has practically broken the sound barrier in its race to drop investigations and enforcement actions (including the lawsuits involving Binance and Coinbase naming the gaming tokens as securities). They’ve also declared most cryptocurrency assets exempt from its authority, and invited crypto executives and lobbyists to write their own rules. The Trump administration has been working to shut down the CFPB entirely, with vocal support from crypto industry executives [Debanking]. Meanwhile, Congress is chipping away CFPB regulations where both the House and Senate recently voted to overturn the CFPB’s rule on crypto games, which also would have applied broader protections for crypto holders outside of the gaming sector. These votes fell along party lines, with all Democrats and Independents opposing the removal of the rule and all Republicans except for one token Senator supporting its nullification.1213 All that remains is for Trump to sign the bill eliminating the rule, in a move that will personally profit him.](/proxy/post_attachment/481372/a0d775b34b.png "Since his inauguration, Trump has been hard at work bulldozing regulatory or legal barriers for crypto companies that could require registration with financial regulators, more burdensome oversight, customer support programs and recourse for players whose in-game and/or crypto assets are stolen, and limits on gambling mechanisms in games — all things that would cut into crypto gaming companies’ profits. The Securities and Exchange Commission has practically broken the sound barrier in its race to drop investigations and enforcement actions (including the lawsuits involving Binance and Coinbase naming the gaming tokens as securities). They’ve also declared most cryptocurrency assets exempt from its authority, and invited crypto executives and lobbyists to write their own rules. The Trump administration has been working to shut down the CFPB entirely, with vocal support from crypto industry executives [Debanking]. Meanwhile, Congress is chipping away CFPB regulations where both the House and Senate recently voted to overturn the CFPB’s rule on crypto games, which also would have applied broader protections for crypto holders outside of the gaming sector. These votes fell along party lines, with all Democrats and Independents opposing the removal of the rule and all Republicans except for one token Senator supporting its nullification.1213 All that remains is for Trump to sign the bill eliminating the rule, in a move that will personally profit him.")
