61,000 mining machines + 20% equity: The strategic layout behind the numbers.
When the details of the Trump family's collaboration with Bitcoin mining giant Hut 8 were revealed, the global cryptocurrency market immediately sensed signals of an escalating 'energy war.'
According to the latest disclosed information, the family business American Data Centers, led by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., has formed a new entity called American Bitcoin Corp (ABC) through a merger with the Canadian-listed company Hut 8. In this deal:
The Trump family holds 20%, providing land, infrastructure, and political resources;
Hut 8 holds 80%, investing in core assets — nearly 61,000 Bitcoin mining machines, with a computing power scale of about 2.5 EH/s (equivalent to 25 billion hashes per second);
Eric Trump will serve as the Chief Strategy Officer of ABC, directly participating in company decisions.
"This is not just a business collaboration; it is a deep binding to America's energy advantages," pointed out an anonymous mining analyst. The Trump family has previously accumulated a large amount of energy-related resources through industries such as oil and real estate, while Bitcoin mining is essentially a competition to 'convert electricity into digital gold.'
Why Bitcoin mining? The Trump family's 'physical asset' logic.
"Digital currency is the real estate of the new era." — Eric Trump defined Bitcoin this way in an interview. Behind this statement lies the deep logic of the Trump family's cross-border layout:
Logic One: The 'Dual Circulation' of Physical Assets and the Virtual Economy
Energy infrastructure reuse: The power systems and land resources of the data centers owned by the Trump family can be directly converted into mining infrastructure, with extremely low marginal costs;
Policy leverage effect: Several U.S. states implement tax reductions for cryptocurrency mining, and the resources of the Trump family in the political and business world may further amplify policy dividends.
Logic Two: The 'Ultimate Weapon' Against Inflation
In the context of continued interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, Bitcoin is viewed by some institutions as 'digital gold.' 'When the purchasing power of the dollar declines, computing power is the best hedging tool,' wrote crypto hedge fund Pantera Capital in a research report;
ABC plans to establish a 'Bitcoin reserve,' which means it may directly hold mined Bitcoin in the future instead of selling it all off.
Logic Three: The Capital Feast of Listing Expectations
According to insiders, ABC has initiated preparations for listing. Referencing valuations of similar listed companies (such as Marathon Digital with a market cap of over $3 billion), if ABC successfully lists on NASDAQ, the 20% equity held by the Trump family could exceed $600 million in value.
America's advantage in energy costs: The key to rewriting the global mining field.
The global Bitcoin mining industry is undergoing a 'geographical migration':
After the Chinese crackdown on mining in 2021, the U.S. share of computing power surged from 4% to 38%, becoming the global leader;
Electricity prices in Texas, Wyoming, and other areas are as low as $0.03-$0.04 per kilowatt-hour, providing a significant advantage compared to Europe ($0.35) and Asia ($0.12).
"Our mining machines will never stop running," Eric Trump emphasized in an interview. Due to the energy price advantages brought by the U.S. shale gas revolution, ABC's theoretical profit margin for mining can reach 45%-60%, far exceeding the industry average.
But controversy follows:
Environmental organizations accuse Bitcoin mining of exacerbating carbon emissions (global mining consumes about 127 TWh of electricity annually, exceeding Norway's total electricity consumption);
ABC responded that it will use a 'nuclear + natural gas' mixed power supply and promised to achieve a 30% clean energy ratio by 2025.
From Musk to Trump: The 'Computing Power Worship' of the Elite Class
The Trump family's entry is not an isolated case. In recent years, tech and capital giants have rushed to invest in computing power infrastructure:
Tesla holds over $200 million in Bitcoin and briefly accepted Bitcoin for car purchases;
Amazon AWS provides cloud computing support for over 25 mining companies;
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates invests in carbon-neutral mining projects.
"Whoever controls computing power controls the pricing power of oil in the Web3 era." David Tse, director of the Blockchain Research Center at Stanford University, commented. When a political family teams up with a listed company, this competition is breaking through purely commercial boundaries and evolving into a national strategic infrastructure game.
In the next three years: three variables that could change the industry's direction.
Regulatory game: The U.S. SEC's scrutiny of cryptocurrency mining companies’ listings may become stricter, and ABC needs to balance compliance with expansion speed;
Technological iteration: Next-generation mining machines have improved energy efficiency (e.g., Bitmain S21 Hyd mining machine efficiency reaches 16 J/TH), and an elimination wave of outdated equipment may be coming;
Energy revolution: If nuclear fusion or small modular reactors (SMRs) become commercially viable, mining costs could drop by another 50%.
"This is not a sprint but a triathlon around energy, computing power, and capital." As Hut 8 CEO Jaime Leverton asserted in the earnings call, the entry of the Trump family is just the beginning. When traditional capital giants confront crypto-native forces, the outcome of the Bitcoin mining industry may be more exciting than anyone expects.