A Bitcoin mining company backed by two of President Donald Trump’s sons has hit the public markets. American Bitcoin began trading Wednesday on the Nasdaq under the ticker ABTC, according to a press release. Its stock soared 60% to a high of more than $13 in morning trading before falling to around $9.50.
“We’re above $5 billion from a market cap perspective,” Asher Genoot, executive chair of American Bitcoin’s board, told Fortune late Wednesday morning. “You’ll get the exact numbers as the numbers flow through the Nasdaq.”
American Bitcoin is a joint venture among Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Hut 8, another Bitcoin mining firm. To create the Trump-backed Bitcoin mining company, Hut 8 contributed the vast majority of its Bitcoin mining ASICs, or specially designed computer chips, in exchange for 80% of the new company’s stock. Hut 8 will focus its remaining operations on building out its data center business, which includes hosting computer chips to power AI.
To get American Bitcoin to the public markets quickly, the Trumps and Hut 8 negotiated an all-stock merger with Gryphon Digital Mining, yet another Bitcoin mining company. As part of the deal, American Bitcoin sold privately issued stock to raise $220 million.
Eric Trump has pitched his new Bitcoin mining company as a means for investors to gain exposure to the world’s largest cryptocurrency. “I think ultimately it will become a Bitcoin proxy,” he previously told Fortune. “There’s no doubt about it.”
In addition to American Bitcoin, the Trump family’s increasingly complex crypto empire includes cryptocurrency, stablecoins, memecoins, NFTs, publicly traded companies, and a forthcoming application for crypto lending and borrowing.
Their efforts have netted them serious cash.
On Monday, the token connected to World Liberty Financial, another crypto project backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., began trading on crypto exchanges. That made the Trumps around $5 billion richer on paper. Then there’s ALT5 Sigma, another public company that announced plans to establish a $1.5 billion treasury for the World Liberty Financial token.
Shortly after the World Liberty deal, the crypto exchange Crypto.com announced a $6.4 billion crypto treasury deal between it and the Trump family’s publicly traded media company. That’s not to mention that the Trump media company has already announced plans to establish a $2 billion reserve of Bitcoin. And on Wednesday, as American Bitcoin began trading on the Nasdaq, the company announced that it was planning to raise through another share offering $2.1 billion to acquire even more of the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
The accelerating sprawl of the Trump crypto empire has raised alarm bells among ethicists and Democrats, who argue that the crypto ventures provide would-be influence peddlers a direct means of lining the 47th president’s pockets. Eric Trump has previously disputed those allegations and said he doesn’t talk with his father about his business ventures.
“I truly think Bitcoin is one of the great financial assets ever created,” Eric Trump told Fortune Wednesday morning.
Update, Sept. 3, 2025: Changed the headline and beginning of article to reflect comments from an interview with Asher Genoot and Eric Trump. Added both details of the $2.1 billion stock offering and the final quote.
