nytimes.com
Donald J. Trump’s social media company is considering developing a cryptocurrency payment service, according to a trademark application filed this week, the latest sign of the president-elect’s embrace of the crypto industry.
Trump Media & Technology Group filed an application on Monday for a service called TruthFi, which it described as a platform for crypto payments, financial custody services and trading in digital assets.
The application was light on details about how the project would work or how close it was to fruition. But the initiative appears to be a bid by Trump Media to diversify its business beyond Truth Social, a social media platform whose business relies on Mr. Trump to continuously post messages to his most loyal supporters.
Any large-scale crypto project would most likely require Trump Media to acquire another firm, given that it has fewer than three dozen employees. This week, shares in the crypto trading platform Bakkt surged after The Financial Times reported that Trump Media was in talks to buy it.
Trump Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bakkt, which is losing money, put out a statement on Tuesday saying it does not comment on market speculation or rumors.
Shares of Trump Media were trading higher after news of the trademark filing, rising about 2 percent, to $30.65.
Josh Gerben, a Washington-based trademark lawyer, said the filing was a way for Trump Media to reserve the TruthFi name if it went forward with a crypto business. He said companies could usually reserve a name for as long as a few years. But companies typically file a trademark application with the intent to use it.
“In my experience, most of the time if a client is going to file an application, there is something going on,” Mr. Gerben said.
Trump Media is currently valued at around $6.5 billion, despite taking in just over $1 million in revenue in the third quarter — all of it from advertising on Truth Social. With Truth Social struggling to gain new users and advertising despite Mr. Trump’s popularity, Trump Media needs new businesses to bolster its revenue.
Mr. Trump has no formal role in the company that bears his name, but he owns nearly 53 percent of Trump Media’s stock, and that stake — valued at $3.4 billion — is his most valuable asset. His eldest son, Donald Jr., is a member of Trump Media’s board, which is stocked with loyalists to the president-elect.
Once a crypto skeptic, Mr. Trump did an about-face during the presidential campaign and endorsed crypto in a big way. He has said the person he appoints to run the Securities and Exchange Commission will back away from the agency’s aggressive approach to regulating crypto under the Biden administration.
Mr. Trump is considering creating a post in the White House dedicated solely to crypto policy, according to Bloomberg.
Also this year, Mr. Trump and his family, along with others, started their own crypto business, World Liberty Financial. They stand to benefit personally from regulatory changes that industry executives have recommended.