The Trumps Promote a New Crypto Venture: Bitcoin Mining
Live Events
BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM.
END OPTIONAL TRIM.
STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.
(You can now subscribe to our
(You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel
On a Wall Street conference call in April, Eric Trump made a pitch for the newest venture in his family's rapidly expanding cryptocurrency empire.Trump, the president's second son, said he was joining forces with the crypto firm Hut 8 to start a company focused on bitcoin mining, the business of running energy-guzzling machines to generate new coins.Bitcoin mining is a notoriously difficult industry. But in the pitch, Trump made clear that the policies of his father's administration would give the new company, American Bitcoin , a "competitive advantage.""We're doing it in America with a government that's dedicated to low-cost energy," he said, later adding, "We've got the best energy policy in this country. That policy is only getting better."Virtually every aspect of the Trump family's business portfolio is fraught with conflicts of interest that have blurred the boundary between government and industry. The debut of American Bitcoin, which is set to merge with a publicly traded company later this year, has heightened those concerns, introducing new ethical questions and pulling the Trumps even deeper into crypto, a business the White House has aggressively championed.President Donald Trump is financially intertwined with two other crypto ventures -- a so-called meme coin created by a longtime business partner, and a separate company, World Liberty Financial , that he and his sons founded before the election. At the same time, he has ended a yearslong enforcement campaign against crypto companies by the Securities and Exchange Commission and vowed to sign legislation that would advance the industry's priorities.Now his family is seeking to profit from a branch of the industry tied directly to bitcoin, a famously volatile asset that has seen its price surge based on the president's pronouncements. Eric Trump serves as chief strategy officer for American Bitcoin. A business entity he formed with his older brother, Donald Trump Jr., controls 20% of the new company.Over the past month, the Trump brothers have embarked on a promotional tour, trumpeting American Bitcoin at high-profile corporate conferences in Las Vegas and Toronto, where a giant company banner hung over the convention hall.The new venture could soon become an important source of capital for the Trump family. American Bitcoin has a stash of 215 bitcoin, worth about $22.5 million at current prices, with plans to accumulate more. And once the company's shares become available on Wall Street, it will offer another avenue for traders to invest in a Trump entity."They're doing this because they want to make money," said Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee . "In so many ways, it's a conflict."In the crypto world, mining serves a vital purpose. A central appeal of bitcoin is that it allows people to transfer money without a bank overseeing the exchange. Instead, a loose network of computers across the globe run calculations that verify every transaction -- a process known as "mining" because the computers are rewarded for that work with newly generated bitcoin.The computing power necessary to run these machines is enormous. The constant whirring of bitcoin miners has prompted noise complaints in states like Arkansas, where mining facilities have popped up near small communities. For years, environmental groups have argued that the energy-intensive practices of miners have contributed to climate change.But the business is growing. Many prominent bitcoin mining companies have been traded on the public market for years, including MARA Holdings , Core Scientific and Riot Platforms, which are worth more than $12 billion combined.All of those firms have profited from the Trump presidency.This year, the White House announced the creation of a national bitcoin stockpile and other pro-crypto policies, propelling bitcoin to a record price. Mining companies could be poised for even bigger gains if the president follows through on his campaign promises to reduce the cost of energy sources that help power mining operations."With low energy cost, America will become the world's undisputed bitcoin mining powerhouse," Trump declared on the campaign trail last year.The Trump family's bitcoin business is also likely to intersect with trade policies dictated by the White House. In a recent securities filing, Gryphon Digital Mining , the firm chosen to merge with American Bitcoin, warned that tariffs could hinder the new company's efforts to "import equipment at levels that are cost effective."The majority of bitcoin mining firms buy machines from Chinese providers, said Fred Thiel, CEO of MARA, a publicly traded mining firm."I do find it rather comical that American Bitcoin is running all Chinese equipment," Thiel said.The White House maintains that Trump has no conflicts of interest, noting that his assets have been placed in a trust managed by his children. In a text message, Eric Trump said he was "incredibly proud" of American Bitcoin. "We're mining the American dream!" he wrote.American Bitcoin's leaders have said Eric Trump is not acting as an extension of his father's administration. He is a "private businessman for sure" and "not related to anything on the political side," Mike Ho, the company's executive chair, said at a conference last month.A spokesperson for Hut 8, Gautier Lemyze-Young, said in a statement that Trump's role in the company was to provide "commercial acumen.""Like every industry and company in the United States, we stand to benefit from the administration's pro-business policies," the statement said.Eric Trump, 41, has spent most of his career in real estate. But lately, bitcoin has "truly become a love of mine," he said in April.At the Las Vegas conference, Trump recounted a formative conversation with Michael Saylor, co-founder of Strategy, a publicly traded software firm that has accumulated tens of billions of dollars of bitcoin.About a year ago, he recalled, Saylor told him that he should "take $2 billion out of Mar-a-Lago right now" and "go long bitcoin."Trump did not mortgage his father's Florida club. But in recent months, he has become the face of the family's crypto ventures, traveling the world to promote World Liberty Financial.In February, an investment firm that Eric Trump helps run, Dominari Holdings, announced the creation of a business entity called American Data Centers. Six weeks later, American Data Centers joined with Hut 8 to establish American Bitcoin. A presentation on the new venture's website called Trump a "strategic amplifier" with "exceptional network reach."The company's unveiling took place at a delicate moment. On the campaign trail, Donald Trump had heavily endorsed bitcoin, writing on Truth Social that mining firms would help the United States become "ENERGY DOMINANT!!!"But like many businesses, the bitcoin mining industry was plunged into uncertainty this year, when the White House announced 145% tariffs on China, as well as import taxes targeting dozens of other countries. The market for a crucial type of hardware used in bitcoin mining is dominated by Bitmain, a Chinese manufacturer, according to Stephen Glagola, a mining analyst at JonesTrading.Hut 8 was among the likely casualties of the tariffs. A subsidiary of the company has a deal with Bitmain to purchase as much as $320 million of the Chinese firm's mining machinery, according to securities filings. It's possible some of those machines had arrived in the United States before the tariffs were issued. But a recent filing suggested that not all the supplies had been delivered and that the deal's official price tag did not include any "applicable tariffs.""That does imply there might be some tariff impact," Glagola said.Bitmain did not respond to requests for comment, and Hut 8 did not address detailed questions about the hardware deal. Lemyze-Young, the Hut 8 spokesperson, said the company sources "some equipment and materials overseas, including China" and complies with tariffs.In the end, the president rolled back the Chinese tariffs. That same day, his sons announced that American Bitcoin would pursue a public offering.There is no evidence that the company's reliance on Bitmain's machines played any role in the tariff debate. But the announcements vividly illustrated how the Trumps' business interests are intertwined with policies set by the White House.None of this appears to have deterred Eric Trump. At the Las Vegas conference in May, he took the stage alongside his older brother and predicted that bitcoin would reach a price of at least $170,000 by next year."We have a president who loves this industry and is behind this industry 100%," he said. "And guys, I'm telling you, we as a family could not be more excited about this."This article originally appeared in The New York Times
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
26 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Delhi must underline for Washington the grave dangers of Asim Munir's vision of Pakistan
In 2018, in his first term, US President Donald Trump had spelt out, in his typically blunt style, the sense that Rawalpindi and Islamabad had taken advantage of Washington: 'The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools… they give safe haven to terrorists'. This week, he said: 'I love Pakistan'. It would be simplistic to view the unprecedented lunch meeting at the White House between Trump and General Asim Munir — the first time a military leader who is not head of state in Pakistan has been accorded the honour — as a major u-turn. Indeed, India-US ties have been steadily deepening over the last three decades, based on a convergence of economic and strategic interests and shared values, even as the US-Pakistan relationship has grown more volatile. That said, the current moment in international relations is one of flux and Delhi must tread carefully. The Pahalgam attack underscored the grave national security threat that Pakistan-sponsored terrorism continues to present for India. With Operation Sindoor, Delhi has made it clear to both Rawalpindi and the world that it will pierce the shield of 'proxies' and not give in to Pakistan's nuclear blackmail. India has raised the costs of terror in order to ensure that such attacks on its soil are not carried out with impunity. Communicating the new normal it has etched with Pakistan after Pahalgam to its friends abroad is Delhi's challenge. To be sure, Delhi cannot control who Trump chooses to engage, and for what reasons. Pakistan's geography — it shares a 900-km border with Iran — may make it an attractive tactical partner for the US in the current Israel-Iran war. There is speculation that Pakistan's rolling out the red carpet for the privately-owned US cryptocurrency firm, World Liberty Financial (WLF), may have helped ingratiate Munir to the White House — Donald Trump Jr has close ties with WLF. A White House spokesperson has claimed that Munir has proposed Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his self-proclaimed role — firmly denied by India — in the post Op Sindoor cessation of hostilities. For India, though, the question is less why the Munir-Trump meeting, and more about how to ensure that the red lines it has laid down are respected, including by the US. Just a fortnight before terrorists killed 26 people in Pahalgam after confirming their religion, Munir had reiterated some of the nastiest tropes of the two-nation theory. He called Kashmir Pakistan's 'jugular vein', and reduced the complex and layered identities of the Subcontinent's people to their religion. It is now for Delhi — diplomatically, through the appropriate channels — to remind Washington that Pakistan's Field Marshal is a fundamentalist with an army at his disposal. Delhi has done well so far in standing its ground and making it clear that it will not compromise on its national interest: Even if belatedly, it issued a clear denial of President Trump's claims about mediating the ceasefire. Now, it must underline for Washington the danger that Munir's vision of Pakistan poses for stability in the region and for global order — and why Delhi has drawn some hard red lines.
Mint
26 minutes ago
- Mint
Iran-Israel conflict: Donald Trump warns Iran has ‘two weeks' to avoid US strikes
US President Donald Trump warned escalating tensions on Friday, giving Iran a "maximum" of two weeks to avoid potential American air strikes. His remarks come as Israel asserts it has already delayed Iran's presumed nuclear ambitions by at least two years. Trump also dismissed European diplomatic efforts, saying it would be "very hard" to ask Israel to halt its ongoing military actions, according to a report by AFP. A series of blasts were heard in Tehran on Friday as Israel kept up the massive wave of strikes it says is aimed at stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons -- an ambition Tehran has denied. 'According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb,' Israel's foreign minister Gideon Saar said in an interview published Saturday. Saar said Israel's week-long onslaught will continue. "We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat," he told German newspaper Bild. As Trump mulls the prospect of joining the war on Israel's side, top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva and urged him to resume talks with the United States that had been derailed by Israel's attacks. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said "we invited the Iranian minister to consider negotiations with all sides, including the United States, without awaiting the cessation of strikes, which we also hope for." But Araghchi told NBC News after the meeting that "we're not prepared to negotiate with them (the United States) anymore, as long as the aggression continues." Trump was dismissive of European efforts, telling reporters, "Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this." Trump also said he's unlikely to ask Israel to stop its attacks to get Iran back to the table. "If somebody's winning, it's a little bit harder to do," he said. Any US involvement would likely feature powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses to destroy an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo. On the streets of Tehran, many shops were closed and normally busting markets largely abandoned on Friday. Since Israel launched its offensive on June 13, targeting nuclear and military sites but also hitting residential areas, Iran has responded with barrages which Israeli authorities say have killed at least 25 people. A hospital in the Israeli port of Haifa reported 19 injured, including one person in serious condition, after the latest Iranian salvo. More than 450 missiles have been fired at the country so far, along with about 400 drones, according to Israel's National Public Diplomacy Directorate. We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat. Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. It has not updated the toll since.
The Hindu
27 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Pakistan nominates Donald Trump for Nobel Peace Prize for ‘leadership' during India-Pakistan conflict
Pakistan has said in a post on social media platform X that U.S. President Donald Trump should get Nobel Peace Prize in 2026 'in recognition of his decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership during the recent India-Pakistan crisis'. Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for playing a substantial role in easing the conflict — despite Indian authorities disputing that. The nomination came after Mr. Trump was asked on Friday (June 20, 2025) about the Nobel and said he should be awarded it for a variety of reasons, including his work on India and Pakistan and arranging a treaty he said would be signed on Monday to end hostilities between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. 'I should have gotten it four or five times,' the President said. 'They won't give me a Nobel Peace Prize because they only give it to liberals.'
