American Bitcoin, the mining and treasury company co-founded by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., added more than 1,400 Bitcoin to its holdings.
According to a Monday announcement, American Bitcoin acquired 1,414 Bitcoin (BTC) for about $163 million. This brought the total holdings to 3,865 BTC, worth almost $445 million.
Eric Trump, who serves as chief strategy officer, said the company is focused on increasing its Bitcoin-per-share ratio, a metric it considers central to shareholder value. “We believe one of the most important measures of success for a Bitcoin accumulation platform is how much Bitcoin backs each share,” he said.
The company sprang to life in March when mining firm Hut 8 acquired a majority stake in it in exchange for Hut 8’s Bitcoin mining hardware.
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American Bitcoin’s rapid rise
The announcement followed American Bitcoin’s public listing on the Nasdaq exchange in early September, with the company closing its choppy first day up over 16%. Still, its trading was halted five times amid heightened price volatility on the day, with the share price surging by 85% intraday.
The listing followed a late August merger with Gryphon Digital Mining, a publicly traded Bitcoin miner based in Las Vegas. Shareholders approved the stock-for-stock merger, which led the company to begin trading under the ticker symbol “ABTC” while retaining the American Bitcoin name.
The listing was preceded by a 230% spike in Gryphon’s stock, which rallied ahead of the merger’s completion.
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Political ties and growing scrutiny
President Trump’s increasing engagement with digital assets, both as a policymaker and investor, has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers. His recent pardon of Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who pleaded guilty to violating US Anti-Money Laundering laws, reignited accusations of corruption and conflicts of interest.
Democratic Representative Maxine Waters described the decision as “an appalling but unsurprising reflection of his presidency” and said that Trump is “doing massive favors for crypto criminals.” She also accused him of corruption and of leveraging the presidency to gain personal wealth.
The statements follow analysis finding that Trump’s second term in office has coincided with an extraordinary increase in his personal wealth. Trump’s family has been open about its growing fortune. Eric Trump recently told supporters that the family’s profits from its digital asset ventures were “probably more” than the $1 billion reported.
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