ABTC harvests profits immediately after listing, Trump family wins big again

Today, American Bitcoin Corp (ABTC), a US-based Bitcoin company, was officially listed on Nasdaq. With Eric Trump serving as co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, and close ties to the Trump family, the company delivered a thrilling “capital roller coaster” on its first day of trading.

ABTC’s Pump & Dump

Market data shows that ABTC’s intraday high soared over 110% after opening, but ultimately closed up about 17%.

Within the first hour after opening, ABTC was halted five times by Nasdaq due to extreme volatility, spiking multiple times to $14 before falling back to around $9.50, retracing more than half of its gains.

This price action is a textbook example of the “Pump and Dump” model: leveraging political exposure and capital market enthusiasm to drive up the stock price, then cashing out for profit, leaving ordinary investors to bear the losses.

A Mysterious Transaction: From Mining Machine “Donation” to IPO

In late March this year, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. reached a deal with Hut 8, one of the largest publicly listed Bitcoin mining companies in the US, to establish a new entity called “American Bitcoin.”

According to the agreement, Hut 8 donated all 61,000 of its mining machines to American Bitcoin. In return, Hut 8 received 80% of American Bitcoin’s shares.

The most puzzling aspect of this deal is that the mining company gave up equipment it already owned 100%, only to exchange it for a smaller shareholding by partnering with the Trump sons.

On this, Matthew Sigel, Head of Digital Assets Research at VanEck, posted on social media at the time: “I completely don’t understand why Hut 8 would use 61,000 mining machines to exchange for 80% of a subsidiary it already wholly owns.”

In this new company, Eric Trump serves as Chief Strategy Officer, with the company claiming he brings “business acumen” and a “commitment to a decentralized financial system.” Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, is not listed in any executive position.

In the IPO, Gryphon Digital Mining played the role of a “listing shell company,” providing American Bitcoin with a springboard into the core US capital market. This merger gave the Trump family’s entity a direct channel to Nasdaq, perfectly aligning with its $210 millions financing plan. At the same time, the company holds 2,443 bitcoins as corporate treasury reserves, adding weight to its financial narrative.

On the first day, Eric Trump publicly stated: “Our Nasdaq listing marks a historic milestone for Bitcoin’s entry into the core of the US capital market. Our mission is to make the US the undisputed leader of the global Bitcoin economy.” Donald Trump Jr. emphasized that the company “symbolizes freedom, transparency, and core values of independence.”

However, the reality is that the core narrative is ultimately a cash-out tool—wrapped in the skin of Bitcoin belief, but beneath the surface lies not national revival, but capital arbitrage.

WLFI: Another Wealth Extraction Playbook

Just days before ABTC’s listing, another Trump family crypto bet, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), began trading. Its token WLFI briefly surged to $0.46, but then plummeted about 50%, closing around $0.22.

On the day of WLFI’s listing, the Trump family saw approximately $5 billions in paper wealth increase, with trading volume reaching $1.1billions in the first hour and the token’s market cap approaching $7 billions. According to Reuters, the project has so far brought the family about $500 millions in actual profits.

WLFI’s listing was not a simple issuance, but was enabled through a voting mechanism, where early investors agreed in July to unlock the token for trading. The governance attribute of WLFI is even more intriguing than its economic value—the official team has not even clarified whether it includes rights or dividend distribution.

Political Halo + Retail Enthusiasm = Arbitrage Machine

The following table visually presents the differences in returns for different types of WLFI investors on the first day:

Identity / Group Cost Price Listing Price (approx.) Return

Retail Investors (Secondary Market Buyers)	$0.30–0.46	$0.22	Loss of 20%–50%
Ordinary Early Investors	$0.05	$0.22	About 4x return
Core Insiders / Privileged Investors	$0.015–0.05	$0.22	Nearly 4–14x return

It’s not hard to see from this:

• Retail investors, as “high-level bag holders,” became the main losers;

• Ordinary early investors made money, but were not the biggest winners;

• The privileged camp obtained overwhelming returns at extremely low cost, easily cashing out.

The core logic of this hype is:

• Narrative packaging: From “US Bitcoin economic leader” to “freedom and transparency,” every project is given grand significance;

• Identity exposure: Endorsements from Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. undoubtedly boost project attention and buying interest;

• Hype building: Social media and mainstream media coordinate to stir up FOMO (fear of missing out) among retail investors;

• Cashing out: After a wave of hype, insiders exit, leaving retail investors holding the bag at high prices.

This is a highly institutionalized “scythe-style” harvesting process, and those wielding the blade are always the ones with the lowest-cost power resources.

The Trump family’s crypto path is no accident, but rather a cross-cycle wealth blueprint built on their political capital. For example, in addition to the WLFI token, there are supporting assets such as the stablecoin USD1 to further expand their capital empire. Meanwhile, internal project holdings are as high as 60–75%, indicating a clear and serious alignment of interests.

Coupled with multi-billion dollar collaborations with allies such as Abu Dhabi and Justin Sun, this cross-political-cycle, cross-asset-class capital deployment is not just about arbitrage, but is essentially an “institutional-level ATM.”

The Trump family’s “capital scythe” is now swinging at the market with unprecedented precision: from the violent swings of ABTC’s Nasdaq debut to the sell-off of the WLFI token, a wealth transfer combining political resources and financial games has already been completed.

In this game, privilege enters under the guise of compliance, narrative is the scythe, and retail investors are the crop. When the party ends, the only ones left are ordinary investors holding the scraps and staring at the charts—they become the only “paying audience” of this show.