The Trump crypto empire keeps on expanding. On Tuesday, the company that owns the Trump family’s media properties announced it has raised $6.42 billion to acquire a supply of a digital token called Cronus, which is issued by Crypto.com, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. The funding includes a $5 billion credit line, an already acquired stash of $1 billion of Crypto.com’s token, $220 million in warrants, and $200 million in cash.
The billions in capital will be injected into a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, called Yorkville Acquisition Corp. The new public company will trade under the ticker MCGA, a play on President Donald Trump’s slogan Make American Great Again, or MAGA.
Trump Media’s stock is up 5.6% over the past day. Crypto.com’s token, Cronos, also surged and has jumped 25%.
As part of the deal, Trump Media will also partner with Crypto.com to add the crypto exchange’s token and crypto wallet to its platforms. In return, the crypto exchange will buy $50 million of Trump Media’s stock, and the Trump public company will buy $105 million of Crypto.com’s cryptocurrency.
Matt David, an executive for Crypto.com, declined to comment further on any other financial arrangements between the two entities.
Crypto treasury boom
The Crypto.com treasury company is the latest in the crypto industry’s newest trend: digital asset treasuries.
The concept was first popularized by the data analytics software company Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy. In 2020, the company announced that it was buying up Bitcoin and adding it to its balance sheet. Its stock soon became a proxy for the world’s largest cryptocurrency, and the firm’s value soared as Bitcoin surged in price.
Copycats eventually emerged, and, over the last few months, the number of tokens that public companies have acquired has multiplied. There are digital asset treasuries for Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin, and a host of other cryptocurrencies. Tuesday’s announcement appears to be the first example of a crypto treasury company dedicated to the Cronos token.
Proponents say that crypto’s newest form of financial alchemy lets traditional investors, who are usually limited to the stocks and funds tradeable in brokerage accounts, gain exposure to different cryptocurrencies. Detractors, including those in the crypto industry, say the trend is a bubble and will soon pop.
Still, the number of crypto treasury companies continues to sprawl. In fact, Trump Media and Crypto.com’s public vehicle isn’t even the first digital asset treasury in the Trump family’s crypto empire.
Earlier in August, World Liberty Financial, another Trump crypto venture, announced that it had raised $1.5 billion with ALT5 Sigma, a small former biotech firm, to launch a treasury strategy for the World Liberty Financial token.
“It’s a perfect marriage for what World Liberty is trying to accomplish and what they were already doing,” Matt Morgan, the chief investment officer of the former biotech firm, told Fortune. “It’s a very symbiotic relationship.”
