Trump's Bitcoin Game: Made $100 million of his own, got $500 million in loose ends.

Original title: How Eric Trump Got Rich From Bitcoin While Losing Investments A Fortune

Photo by Dan Alexnder, Forbes

Original by Peggy, Block Beats

The editor said that the Trump family had a family legacy: bluffing, saying one thing more than it really was。

This time, Eric Trump brought this into the encrypted currency circle. He packed his Bitcoin company into a "money-printer", claiming that it could dig bitcoin at a cost close to half the market price。

But when Forbes journalist Dan Alexander opened his books, the story came out on the other side: the company held no bitcoin, 70% of which was not dug up, but purchased it with additional stocks; the real combined cost was much higher than Eric's; the financing structure that made the balance sheet look better could mean that all bitcoins that the company had dug up so far would have to pay the miner bill in bulk in the future。

The figures ultimately point to a more direct conclusion: Eric ' s personal wealth increased by about $90 million, while ordinary investors combined lost about $500 million。

FOLLOWING THE RELEASE OF THE REPORT, ERIC TRUMP RESPONDED QUICKLY ON X, ALLEGING THAT FORBES HAD BEEN ACQUIRED BY CHINA, CLAIMING THAT THE REPORT WAS POLITICALLY DRIVEN, AND REMOVING A SET OF OPERATIONAL DATA TO COUNTER IT: 7,000 BITCOIN, NEARLY 90,000 MINING MACHINES, AND A FOURTH QUARTER RECEIPT OF $78.3 MILLION. BY THE WAY, HE ALSO TURNED OVER THE OLD COLLECTION OF MONEY FOR A CHILD HOSPITAL 20 YEARS AGO AND TRIED TO PROVE THAT FORBES HAD BEEN TARGETING HIM AS A "GOOD MAN"。

Only one thing he never responded positively: that $500 million, where he went。

The following is the original text:

Eric Trump incited the crowd. Photo by Daniel Ceng/Anadolu Via Getty Images

The ability to incite crowds is not limited to politics. Ask Eric Trump to know: his Bitcoin company attracted a large number of followers and then threw a bunch of expensive shares at them。

In February of this year, Eric Trump appeared in the spirit of a financial teleconference, preparing to do what the Trump family does best — marketing。

His company, American Bitcoin, has been listed for trading in NASDAQ for just over a year. "We are rapidly becoming world leaders of Bitcoin, and I really think we have the most powerful brand, and Eric says, "I would like to thank Mike Ho, Asher Genoot, Matt Prasak, and every fellow American Bitcoon."

Note: Mike Ho, Chief Executive Officer, Bitcoin, United States, also serving as Chief Strategic Officer, Hut 8. Asher Genoot, Executive Director of Bitcoin, Hut 8, co-founder of the United States, led the deal with the Trump family. Matt Prusak, President of Bitcoin, United States, former Hut 8 employee, posted by Hut 8。

This is interesting. Say "everybody" because there's hardly anyone else in Bitcoin。

The annual report submitted one month after the teleconference showed that the company had only two full-time employees, probably Chief Executive Officer Mike Ho and Managing Director Matt Prusak. There may also be a few others — Holl, who is also the executive of another company; someone who worked for less than a year in the company's investor relations position, who now holds the title of chief of staff in Bitcoin in the United States on LinkedIn; and another woman, who says that she has been the company's social media manager since January this year. (Asher Genoot, Executive Chairman, together with Ho and three independent directors, constituted a five-member board

The Trumps had a long history of saying things bigger than they really were and making money。

It is alleged that Donald ' s father Fred Trump used to defraud regulatory agencies and profit from the cost of the project. Donald Trump misrepresented the value of the assets to banks and media such as Forbes, and was finally found by the New York judge to constitute fraud. Eric was also involved in the case and was prohibited from being a director or director of any New York incorporated company for a period of two years. Nevertheless, he set up a new stove, registered in Delaware, based in Florida, and created his own company and marketing it in a way that impressed all his predecessors。

Note: Fred Trump, father of Donald Trump, New York Realtor, was suspected of misrepresenting construction costs in order to leverage higher profits。

Eric Trump's latest bitcoin business is probably more a story than a business. According to him, bitcoin in the United States can dig it out at about half the market price, a real money printer. However, when looking at figures, one wonders whether the company can make a profit from mining, let alone maintain such an amazing profit margin. The representatives of Eric Trump, Trump and Bitcoin in the United States did not respond to Forbes' repeated requests for comment. There are not many who trust the son of the President, and the real money has been betted. On 3 September 2025, United States bitcoin landed on the open market, at a time when about $270 million was on the balance sheet, while investors gave a market value of $13.2 billion。

Over the past eight months, bitcoin in the United States has continued to sell stocks and buy more bitcoin using this incredibly high valuation. Stock prices, which have been significantly diluted, have now fallen from peaks to 92 per cent. Erik Trump, who seemed to have spent little money on the project, is still doing as much as he did today, and through financial refining techniques, personal wealth estimates have swelled from about $190 million to $280 million. Other insiders are equally profitable. In contrast, the total losses for ordinary investors who listen to sales stories and buy real money and silver are estimated at $500 million。

In his early years as a charity, Eric Trump (left) launched a fund-raising campaign at his father ' s golf course shortly after university graduation to raise funds for the St. Judah Children ' s Research Hospital. Photo by Bobby Bank/WireImage

The first truly independent project in Eric Trump ' s life was not an apartment building, but a charity。

In 2006, he graduated from the University of Georgetown in finance and management with the enthusiasm to change the world. At that time, brother Don Jr. and sister Ivanka had been stationed in the Trump Building and had been involved in the real estate project. One day, driving on the tollway in New Jersey, Eric later remembered in an interview with Forbes that there was another thought in his head: how to really do something for the world. In this connection, the first entrepreneurship exercise in his life began with a non-profit organization called the Eric Trump Foundation。

This organization has done a lot of good. It is not so much an operating charity as a fundraising platform, which has transferred over $16 million to the St. Judah Children ' s Research Hospital. But as the years passed, the organization, and even Eric himself, began to become "trumpy."。

Forbes obtained through a public application for information (although the legal team of the non-profit organization objected) showed that the institution was characterized by dishonest fund-raising tactics, weak governance structures and a confused financial situation. Eric had claimed to donors that he had kept the costs to a minimum and had allocated almost all of his money directly to St. Judah, partly because his father had provided free premises for the club under the flag of Trump and prominent personalities had agreed to perform "free". However, the cheques and invoices obtained by Forbes show that more than $500,000 went to other charities, more than $500,000 went to industries owned by Trump, at least $90,000 was paid to a variety of performers, and more than $35 million was paid to a specialized car service company — passengers including Eric's mother, an actor from The Real Show Home Woman, and a van full of people driving to the Hooters。

In the day-to-day work of the father company, Eric was in charge of hotel operations in the early years and learned a great deal, including a key lesson: branding the company is easier to earn than building。

The Trump Group had defaulted on its loans to the Chicago Hotel in 2008 and in 2009 had put Atlantic City assets in bankruptcy protection, while the Washington Hotel in Washington, D.C., under its flag had lost year after year. Eventually, the Trump family shifted the expansion route of the hotel empire to what the industry calls the "light asset" model, with a shift in emphasis from development to management and branding。

Another training ground for Eric is the investment portfolio of his father's golf course, where he sees the wonders of an unconventional financing structure. In the 1980s and 1990s, golf clubs usually received a deposit on membership and promised to return at zero interest after 30 years. These liabilities are on the books, which discourages many investors from selling property. But Donald Trump, without fear, finally took over some $250 million of such liabilities, which would spread across the United States in more than a dozen golf estates, with these long-term liabilities recorded as zero on his balance sheet. The value of the property was already well above the amount owed when the repayment period approached。

In January 2017, Donald Trump was admitted to the White House, and Eric and his brother Don Jr. took over the father ' s portfolio. Eric doesn't seem to have much of his own planning, just hoping to follow him. "We're not the kind of company that sells the assets," he said in February 2017 at the 25th floor office of the Trump Building, "We buy them and make them pretty." " The Tromp Brothers tried to open up new businesses, including the launch of two mid-end hotel brands, with little success. Against the backdrop of a difficult operation and a desperate father ' s cash reserves, they did a great deal of what Eric said he would not do in the next seven years: selling assets, estimated a total of $411 million。

And then there's a new chance for money: the 2024 election。

Back to the White House means business opportunities. President Trump ' s children attended his father ' s second inauguration on 20 January 2025. Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getti Images

Only two weeks after Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris, the company that later became a bitcoin in the United States was registered and established in Delaware. This was not the beginning of an encrypted monetary authority. The Dubai developer Hussein Sajwani, who had worked with the Trump family on the Golf project in Dubai, appeared at the Lake Lake Estate and announced that $20 billion had been spent building a data centre in the United States to take advantage of a wave of artificial intelligence. "That man knows what he's doing," the President-designate praised. Less than a few weeks later, Trump's two sons revealed their plans to follow this strategy and named the company "American Data Center", which Eric Trump called "critical to the development of an artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States."。

A month later, he changed direction. Through a partnership of friends, Eric and Dom met two entrepreneurs: Asher Ginot and Mike Haugh. They already own a company close to the Trump Brothers' vision, the data centre giant Hut 8, with not only AI business openings, but also considerable bitcoin mining. Just after the advent of the wave of artificial intelligence, the cost of mining rose dramatically with the reduction by half of the bitcoin incentive for solving a mathematical dilemma. At the industry level, there is a significant shift in computing to artificial intelligence, and Hut 8 institutional shareholders pressured Ginot to follow the current。

But Ginot and Haugh, in the context of brand operations and arbitrage, have come up with a more creative solution: using 20 per cent of the Bitcoin mining equipment under the flag as bait to convince the Tromp Brothers to abandon the data centre plan. Then, through the entry of the first family, the hardware was loaded into a listed company and a motor machine driven by the Trump Ring was lit。

The transaction structure is tailored as if it were designed for a person familiar with the hotel business. The machine booms day and night, while the United States operates more like a light asset hotel brand: Hut 8 owns property, operates data centres, handles backstage services, even executives from Hut 8 — where Prusak worked in Hut 8 and Huo is still serving, along with the United States Chief Executive Officer and Chief Strategic Officer Hut 8. So the Trump brothers just focus on their long story: sales。

"I will always remember saying to them, 'Listen, there must be two words in the name,' and Eric Trump later remembered in his video interview with CoinDesk, 'There must be'American' and there must be'bitcoin'. One of them said, "Eric, that's American bitcoin, that's the name." "'"

On the day United States Bitcoin came on the market, investors enthusiastically followed Eric Trump's estimate of personal wealth by a one-time breakthrough of $1 billion. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getti Images

He's been telling a myth about why he went into business ever since he hit Eric Trump. "Every bank in this country hacked me," he said at a conference in Wyoming last August. "Because my father was a politician, we were de-banked," he added in Hong Kong about a week later. "Every big bank started closing our accounts," he said earlier this year at Palm Beach, "You know what we do? We went out and went into centralized finance because we realized that it was the future of finance."

But it's not。

Indeed, Capital One and JP Morgan Chase closed a number of Trump accounts in 2021, six years after Donald Trump entered politics. At that time, the President ' s reputation was undermined by the incident at Hill and the extensive investigation by the Attorney-General of the State of New York, and the Court finally found that the Trump Group had committed fraud and was most likely to repeat it。

Even so, there are still a large number of banks willing to work with the Trump family — even Morgan Chase, who was involved in refinancing two of the largest loans in the Trump portfolio shortly after closing some of its accounts. Trump left the White House with high cash and leverage, in urgent need of the support of large lending institutions, and did receive: between January 2021 and mid-2022, the former President, assisted by his son Eric and Tang, completed almost $700 million in debt refinancing as part of a comprehensive balance sheet reorganization。

So, why does Trump really go into encryption? A more rational explanation is that he smelled the opportunity to extend his authorized business, selling non-homogenic coins (NFTs) like shoes and guitars. He started with a NFT trading card and launched a digital image of Trump as a superhero. The product was sold out in one day and eventually brought over $7 million in cash and encrypted money to the former President. Every penny is crucial for a person who is responding to a nearly $500 million fraud judgement. (A later appeal judge overturned the judgement on the grounds that there was an objection to the amount of the fine, but did not deny Trump’s finding of fraud.) Subsequently, the encryption money project brought in hundreds of millions of additional liquidity, boosting the scale of the first family’s investment, including an independent plan announced last May: a $2 billion purchase of encrypted money through the Trump Media and Technology Group。

In 2025, the accumulation of bitcoin became the hottest trade of the year. More than 200 listed companies competed for a copy of Strategy under Michael Saylor's banner: The company has accumulated more than $50 billion in bitcoin positions, which has been followed by a sharp rise in market value at a time when currency prices have soared. Bitcoin in the United States is particularly visible in this heat for the obvious: the first family halo. But on the day that Bitcoin landed on the open market on September 3, 2025, Eric Trump made a more digitized statement in the Spaces dialogue on platform X. "We actually dig up bitcoin every day at about 57,000, 58,000 dollars a piece," he said, and pointed out that at that time a bitbitcoin was about twice the market price for that, "the basic face of ours would be perfect."

That statement was convincing, although speakers had become accustomed to selective neglect of adverse expenditure when hosting charitable fundraising activities. More than $50,000 does cover the cost of operating equipment in bitcoin in the United States. However, when other expenditures are included together — including the acquisition of equipment, marketing promotion and capital allocation — the combined costs will rise to a much higher figure of about $92,000 per bitcoin, as was the case at the time, and will be profitable only if the price of the encrypted currency remains high。

The inclusion of depreciation was particularly critical in the case of Bitcoin in the United States, as it followed the Hut 8 set of unconventional financing strategies. Between August and September 2025, the United States of America spent about $330 million in bitcoin to upgrade its mining fleet. However, the company did not immediately pay the cash, but pledged a consignment of bitcoin and obtained a choice of the final payment method: If a bitcoin price rises, the company can pay approximately $330 million in cash and redeem the pledged bitcoin; if the price drops, the company can pay directly in the secured currency of the pledge。

Bitcoin has fallen by about 30 per cent since this large procurement. This means that, for the time being, it is likely that bitcoin in the United States will pay for the equipment with the pledged encrypted assets. The problem, however, is that the total amount of bitcoin pledged in bitcoin in the United States is 3090 (as of March 25), while the company has so far estimated that only about 1800 have been dug out. In other words, if prices cannot rise back, all bitcoin that the company has dug up so far will be fully offset against the cost of the equipment at the end of August 2027, when the selection rights expire。

Investors do not necessarily understand this. The company also had approximately 15 months to decide whether to pay for the equipment in encrypted currency or in cash, during which time the bitcoin that had been excavated remained on the balance sheet. As a result, United States bitcoin appears to be much more robust than it actually is. In its advocacy to investors, the company used the Bitcoin reserve as its core selling point, but deliberately diluted the fact that all or most of it would ultimately be used to pay the price of the machine that dug out them。

In addition to the attraction at the marketing level, it is not difficult to understand why the Trump family is interested in this form of payment - It was with similar unconventional financing that they built up a portfolio of golf course assets. That time they won the bet because the asset itself was worth it。

Erik Trump has become a regular guest at major encrypted monetary conferences around the world, and he attends events in Hong Kong. Photo by Daniel Ceng/Anadolu Via Getty Images

About 70 per cent of the encrypted currency held by bitcoin in the United States is not mine-drilling at all, but by selling shares and buying bitcoin directly on the open market. That is the core secret of bitcoin in the United States。

Hut 8 why would you give 20% of the interest in the bitcoin mining facility to a new data centre company? And that's probably why: in an era of memes and maga fanatics, a Trump's name is enough to attract enough "dumb money" to push stock prices up into the clouds. When the stock price is too high to be logical, the company can sell its stock, reinvest the money in bitcoin and build up a mountain of encrypted currency。

It is a arbitrage-driven game that convinces investors of the company ' s value and sells shares when they know their stock prices are ridiculous. So long as this arbitrage game generates more than 20% of the value of the mine equity, it's a good deal for insiders -- it's a different thing for out-of-the-counter bulk。

The sale started almost immediately after the sale. Within 27 days of the United States bitcoin listing, the company sold 11 million shares at the most hot spot, cashing $9 million at an average price of about $8 per share. After deducting the broker ' s share of $2 million this time, United States bitcoin purchased approximately 725 bitcoins. Since then, sales have continued as stock prices have declined. Between the beginning of October and mid-November, the company cleared another 7 million shares, cashing out $44 million at a price slightly higher than $6 per share. In late November, after a sharp drop in bitcoin prices, the company went ahead with its best shot, concentrating on 47 million shares by the end of the year, with an estimated $106 million at an average price of $2.25 per share。

It's not just the company itself. Early in December, the locks of early investors were released periodically and the stock price fell by 48 per cent in two trading days. There are a lot of famous crowds who have raised confidence. The encrypted money preachers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who actively communicate with the First Family through donations to the related Super-Political Action Committee in Trump and support for the activities of the White House banquet hall, have spoken out。

Note: Cameron is a twin brother with Taylor & Tyler Winklevoss, a well-known United States encrypted money investor with close ties to the Trump family, who publicly endorsed Bitcoin in the United States。

Anthony Scaramucci, former White House Communications Director, also joined the list of endorsements. The presenter, Grant Cardone, described himself as a "long-term investor, not a short-term dealer", adding that his tweet "does not constitute an investment proposal". Official social media accounts in bitcoin in the United States relay all this to fans. Neither Cardone nor the Venclavos brothers responded to the request for comment, while the representative of Skaramuc refused to respond。

Note: Anthony Scaramucci was briefly appointed White House Communications Director of the Trump government for 11 days, then transformed into an encrypted money investor and a bitcoin station in the United States. Grant Cardone, a well-known sales trainer and inspirationist in the United States, publicly expressed support for bitcoin in social media, while stating that the content did not constitute an investment proposal。

Bitcoin prices continued to be under pressure, especially after the Fed suspended interest-rate cuts in January. The company adheres to its original strategy and, according to Forbes, from 1 January to 25 March, a total of 84 million shares were sold in bitcoin in the United States, cashing $111 million, and thus recovering about 1430 bitcoins. The aggregate calculation is that between the establishment of the company and the end of March this year, the total investment of United States bitcoin in encrypted currency is about $525 million, with the current market value of the currency at about $390 million and accumulated losses of shareholder funds at about $135 million。

Eric Trump paid tribute to the United Arab Emirates last year at a conference on encrypted currency in Dubai. "The rest of the world must be alert to the United Arab Emirates for one reason only," he said to the audience, "they will always give you a 'yes' word. Photo by Giuseppe Cacce/AFP via Getty Images

Mining operations in Bitcoin in the United States continue. But with Bitcoin prices falling by 31 per cent since the company came on the market, the economy became more difficult to calculate. Optimizing the new mix of miners, lowering the operating cost of equipment to approximately $47,000 per bitcoin. However, the combined costs — inclusive of management costs, amortization and depreciation — are estimated to be as high as approximately $90,000 per item, approximately $13 million higher than the current market value of bitcoin. The stock price has again declined 29 per cent during the year。

If investors don't believe in the money-printer story, where will Eric Trump's company go? The son of the President can pray for a sharp rebound in bitcoin prices — after all, it is an extremely volatile asset. Forbes estimates that if the increase reaches 35 per cent, United States bitcoin will be able to pay in cash for the equipment, retain the secured currency, and convert the $135.0 million transaction losses into small profits. At that time, Eric could well claim that it was all planned。

If, of course, he doesn't want to put the company's success or failure in luck, there may be another way: to look for a few overseas gold owners who are anxious to send their money in the snow. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates has established links with another Trump encryption currency project, sending an estimated $375 million to the President ' s father and son. This investment has so far been modest in financial returns, but the United Arab Emirates has indeed received the support of President Trump in advancing its artificial intelligence configuration. It is reported that the Gulf State is currently seeking some form of relief from the economic pressure caused by the Iranian war。

The last recorded residence of United States Chief Executive Officer, Mike Haugh, was in the United Arab Emirates in November 2023, although the company representative did not respond to queries about his current residence. In any event, Hao appeared in this Gulf country last October and was interviewed by an Arabian Gulf Business Insight journalist who referred to contacts with ADQ Investment Group and TAQA Energy Company, both of which were linked to Sheikh Tahnoun. American Bitcoin spokespersons told Forbes in October that Ho was referring to early communications before the establishment of Bitcoin in the United States. However, recent interviews by Forbes show that bitcoin in the United States is open to overseas cooperation。

"I have met here with many sovereign wealth funds through Hut 8, also in the name of United States Bitcoin, "Holl said in the recording, "The conversation is going on." When asked whether to consider mining bitcoin in the region, Haugh responded: "We've been focusing on this area. I had a conversation with ADQ and TAQA. We've studied their portfolio. The United Arab Emirates has a large amount of excess electricity, and the mining of bitcoin is a good way to realize these excess electricity production."

This comes from a man who has a chance of arbitrage available to him。

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