American Bitcoin Corp, the Trump family’s new mining company, suffered several halts within its first hour of trading on the Nasdaq.
On Wednesday, the stock, which trades under the ticker ABTC, suffered more than five “Limit-Up-Limit-Down” halts. LUDP pauses are designed to prevent extreme volatility.
Still, shares soared. ABTC trades at about $9.80, a 42% markup from when it launched for $6.90. At one point, traders were paying more than $14 per share.
The chaotic opening comes as broader equity markets soar to new all-time highs. For one, the bellwether S&P 500 smashed new records this week, Google touched new peaks. Bitcoin has remained virtually the same price over the past week, changing hands for around $112,000, while Ethereum shed 3.5% of its value, now trading at about $4,400.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller added fuel to the risk-on sentiment by touting the need to “start cutting rates at the next meeting.”
Over the next three to six months, “we could see multiple cuts coming in,” Waller told CNBC on Tuesday.
An unusual deal
American Bitcoin emerged from an unusually complex deal announced in late March between the Trump sons, Eric and Donald Jr., and Hut 8, one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin miners.
Across Wall Street, the deal left market watchers dumbfounded.
Hut 8 donated its entire fleet of 61,000 mining rigs to a Trump-controlled entity, receiving in return an 80% stake in what is now dubbed American Bitcoin.
Basically, the mining outfit forfeited equipment it already owned to partner with the president’s sons for a smaller percentage.
“I don’t fully understand the rationale of selling 61,000 miners in exchange for an 80% stake in a subsidiary that they previously owned 100% of,” Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, wrote on X at the time.
Eric Trump serves as chief strategy officer, bringing what the company has dubbed his “commercial acumen” and “commitment to decentralised financial systems.”
Donald Trump Jr. has no listed executive role.
A crypto empire
American Bitcoin adds another layer to the Trump family’s crypto empire.
By February, the Trump family’s collective worth from ventures in the crypto industry had ballooned to $16 billion.
It includes memecoins, a DeFi platform called World Liberty Financial, a variety of NFTs, Truth.Fi — a planned wealth management service with Charles Schwab that flaunts a website “under construction” — and a $2.5 billion Bitcoin treasury.
Each new venture, however, intensifies questions about potential conflicts of interest as the Trump administration simultaneously pursues a regulatory overhaul — and relaxing of rules — of the crypto industry.
Indeed, the president has promised to make America the “crypto capital of the world” while his family actively profits from the sector.
