Trump's Media Company Launches New Business to Buy Billions in Niche Crypto Coin — WSJ

By Vicky Ge Huang

President Trump's media business is launching a new company to buy and hold CRO, a niche token affiliated with Crypto.com, his family's latest expansion into the market for digital assets.

The details

Trump Media & Technology Group said Tuesday it is partnering with Crypto.com and Yorkville Acquisition, a special-purpose acquisition company, to create a new firm called Trump Media Group CRO Strategy.

The entity will raise about $6.4 billion to buy CRO tokens, Trump Media said. Crypto.com, a Singapore-based exchange for digital assets, will seed it with $1 billion in CRO tokens. An affiliate of Yorkville Advisors, a New Jersey financial firm, will provide the new company with a $5 billion line of credit.

Crypto.com is best known in the U.S. for its sports-marketing blitz, including a $700 million, 20-year naming-rights agreement to Los Angeles's Staples Center and a massive ad campaign featuring actor Matt Damon. Yorkville Advisors was retained earlier this year by Trump Media to help manage its exchange-traded funds.

The new company will be majority-owned by the three founding partners: Yorkville, Trump Media, and Crypto.com.

Separately, Trump Media said it agreed to integrate CRO into its various digital platforms, including Truth Social. In this partnership with Crypto.com, Trump Media will buy about $105 million in CRO tokens, with Crypto.com purchasing $50 million in Trump Media stock.

Shares of Trump Media rose more than 6% Tuesday afternoon. CRO jumped over 20%.

The context

Trump Media, the operator of Truth Social, has made a series of significant moves into the crypto market since Trump publicly embraced the industry. The company recently raised more than $2 billion to acquire bitcoin, a strategy that echoes the approach taken by corporate bitcoin-holder MicroStrategy.

Trump Media has also filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch several crypto ETFs and previously signed a nonbinding agreement with Crypto.com to develop these products.

The big picture

From memecoin to bitcoin mining, the Trump family reached into nearly every corner of the crypto market in less than a year. President Trump's involvement in his family's ever-expanding crypto empire has generated conflicts-of-interest concerns, with critics lambasting it as an unprecedented blurring of the lines between his business interests and official duties.

Write to Vicky Ge Huang at vicky.huang@wsj.com