Trump Media announced that the company has signed a binding agreement with Crypto.com, one of the largest crypto platforms in the U.S., and Yorkville America Digital, an America-First asset management firm, to launch a series of exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products (collectively, “ETFs”) through the Truth.Fi brand.
The ETFs will include digital assets and securities with a focus on the Made in America trend, covering various sectors including energy. Crypto.com will provide the technical platform and cryptocurrencies for these funds, as well as a “unique cryptocurrency ETF basket.”
What is known
On March 25, Trump Media (DJT), a media company owned by US President Donald Trump, has partnered with Crypto.com, one of the largest US crypto exchanges, to launch exchange-traded products under the Truth.Fi brand. As stated in a press release, the exchange will be the operator for crypto asset transactions.
TMTG CEO and Chairman Devin Nunes said, "We’re excited to join Crypto.com, along with our partner Yorkville America, to launch America First investment products supporting innovative crypto ventures, great American companies, and cutting-edge technologies. We aim to create inventive funds incorporating firms that concentrate on rapid growth, technological innovation, and strengthening the U.S. economy, unencumbered by woke nonsense and political posturing.''
The cryptocurrency of blockchain project Cronos (CRO), developed by the team of the U.S. exchange Crypto.com, rose more than 40% in a few hours from a peak of $0.116 in the morning of March 25.
At the time of writing, the price is at 0.087. Trading volume over the past 24 hours increased by 97%, almost to $40 million. The capitalization of the token exceeded $2.38 billion, which allowed CRO to occupy the 39th position in the ranking of the top-100 largest crypto assets by capitalization.
Shares of Trump Media are trading on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker DJT as of April 22 at about $22, down 30% from early 2025 levels. According to TradingView, the company has a market capitalization of about $4.96 billion. The organization is the operator of social media platform Truth Social.
In late January, the board of directors of Trump Media approved fintech startup Truth.Fi and a $250 million investment, including the purchase of cryptocurrencies and exchange-traded products based on them. And in early February, the company filed to register trademarks related to bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds - Truth.Fi Bitcoin Plus ETF, Truth.Fi Bitcoin Plus SMA.
In late November 2024, Trump Media discussed the purchase of Bakkt, a platform that provides digital asset trading services. No new details have been forthcoming since then, though.
It is known that in mid-December 2024, Crypto.com head Chris Marszalek met with the president at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. They discussed appointments of officials open to the crypto industry, as well as the creation of a strategic bitcoin reserve.
Following the meeting, Crypto.com withdrew a lawsuit against the U.S. exchange regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), alleging that the SEC had overstepped its authority by labeling some cryptocurrencies as securities.
"We look forward to working with the new administration to develop and implement clear regulations for the crypto industry so that the U.S. can become a global leader in digital assets and innovation," Chris Marszalek said.
The new strategy
In early March, a day after Trump announced that his cryptocurrency task force should move more aggressively with the creation of a "strategic digital asset reserve," the Cronos team announced the reissuance of 70 billion CROs (about $7.7 billion at March 25 exchange rates).
The announcement came as part of the project's new development strategy and the CRO 70 billion will go towards development with the condition that it will be locked in for the next ten years with gradual release once a month:
In 2021, 70 billion CROs were burned in one of the most significant burn transactions in history. Under today's offer, an equal number of tokens will be reissued on Cronos.
The Cronos blockchain is an unremarkable network in terms of user activity. According to data TokenTerminal on March 25, for the past 365 days, the network was able to earn only $2.7 million in transaction fees. And the number of daily active users is just over 5 thousand.
At the peak, in April 2022, the figure exceeded 50 thousand users. For comparison: Solana blockchain has the same indicators for the same period amounted to more than $1 billion in commission revenue and the number of active users 4.2 million with a peak of 6.4 million.
Prominent crypto detective ZachXBT wrote in a comment on the Crypto.com head's reported partnership with Trump's media company that the reissue of 70 billion CROs is "no different than fraud."
"Not sure why Truth chose to partner with your exchange and not Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, etc. after this move by your team [CRO reissue]," wrote expert.
