#TrumpBitcoinEmpire Donald Trump at the Bitcoin Conference 2024 in Nashville. (Johnnie Izquierdo via Getty Images)
Since President Trump's election in November, the price of bitcoin has skyrocketed. On election day in 2024, one bitcoin was priced below $75,000. Last week, bitcoin reached an all-time high of over $123,000. (On Monday, it hovered around $118,000).
This is not a coincidence. Trump has systematically used the power of the presidency to promote bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
On Monday, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), a publicly traded company with Trump as its majority shareholder, announced the acquisition of $2 billion in bitcoin. Trump is turning a struggling media company into a bitcoin holding company. TMTG, the parent company of Truth Social, lost over $185 million with just $3.6 million in revenue in 2024.
TMTG is mimicking a pioneering strategy from Microstrategy. The company, now known as Strategy, officially sells software and other tech services, but is actually focused on buying bitcoin. (Strategy and other similar bitcoin-focused companies are valued well above their actual bitcoin holdings, for reasons that are not entirely clear).