How Eric Trump Grew Rich on Bitcoin While Losing Investors a Fortune
Original author: Dan Alexander, Forbes
Peggy, BlockBeats
Editor’s Note: The Trump family has a family tradition of exaggeration—making something sound bigger than it really is.
This time, Eric Trump brought this approach into the cryptocurrency world, branding his Bitcoin company as a "money-printing machine" and claiming it could mine Bitcoin at a cost close to half the market price.
But when Forbes journalist Dan Alexander reviewed the books, another side of the story emerged: seventy percent of the company’s Bitcoin holdings were not mined, but acquired through stock issuances; the actual combined cost far exceeded the figures Eric cited; and the financing structure that made the balance sheet look more attractive could also mean that all the Bitcoin the company has mined to date will need to be sold in bulk to pay for its mining equipment bills.
The numbers ultimately point to a more direct conclusion: Eric's personal wealth increased by approximately $900 million, while retail investors collectively lost about $5 billion.
After the report was published, Eric Trump swiftly retaliated on X, accusing Forbes of being acquired by China and labeling the report as politically motivated propaganda. He countered with a series of operational figures: 7,000 bitcoins, nearly 90,000 mining machines, and $78.3 million in revenue for the fourth quarter. He also brought up a decades-old story of fundraising for a children’s hospital, attempting to portray Forbes as targeting him—a “good person.”
One thing he never directly addressed: Where did the $500 million go?
The following is the original text:
Eric Trump incited the crowd. Photo: Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images
The ability to incite crowds isn't just useful in politics. Ask Eric Trump: his Bitcoin company attracted a large following, then dumped a bunch of overpriced stocks on them.
In February this year, Eric Trump appeared energized on an earnings call, ready to do what the Trump family does best—pitching.
His company, American Bitcoin, has been publicly traded on Nasdaq for exactly one year. “We’re rapidly becoming the leader in the world of Bitcoin, and I truly believe we have the strongest brand,” Eric said. “I’d like to thank Mike Ho, Asher Genoot, Matt Prusak, and everyone at American Bitcoin.”
Note: Mike Ho, CEO of Bitcoin America and Chief Strategy Officer of Hut 8. Asher Genoot, Executive Chairman of Bitcoin America and co-founder of Hut 8, led the collaboration deal with the Trump family. Matt Prusak, President of Bitcoin America and former Hut 8 employee, seconded by Hut 8.
The conclusion is rather intriguing. By saying "every colleague," it implies there are almost no other people left in the U.S. Bitcoin space.
The annual report filed one month after the earnings call revealed that the company had only two full-time employees—likely CEO Mike Ho and President Matt Prusak. Perhaps a few more: Ho also holds an executive position at another company; someone who worked in investor relations at that other company for less than a year now lists themselves on LinkedIn as the "Chief of Staff" for American Bitcoin; another woman claims she has served as the company’s social media manager since January of this year. (Executive Chairman Asher Genoot, along with Ho and three independent directors, forms the five-member board.)
The Trump family understood early on a key principle: exaggerating things beyond reality can be profitable.
It is alleged that Donald’s father, Fred Trump, deceived regulators by inflating project costs to profit from them. Donald Trump misrepresented his asset value to banks and media outlets such as Forbes, ultimately being ruled by a New York judge to have committed fraud. Eric was also implicated in that lawsuit and barred for two years from serving as an officer or director of any company registered in New York. Nevertheless, he started anew, incorporating his own company in Delaware with its base in Florida, and marketed it in ways that impressed even his predecessors.
Note: Fred Trump, Donald Trump’s father, a New York real estate developer, was suspected of inflating construction costs to secure higher profits.
Eric Trump’s latest Bitcoin venture may be selling more of a story than a tangible business. According to him, American Bitcoin can mine Bitcoin at roughly half the market price, making it a genuine “money printer.” But a closer look at the numbers raises questions: Can this company even achieve profitable mining, let alone sustain such extraordinary profit margins? Representatives of Eric Trump, the Trump Organization, and American Bitcoin have not responded to multiple requests for comment from Forbes. Many trust the president’s son—and have already put real money behind that trust. On September 3, 2025, American Bitcoin went public with approximately $270 million in Bitcoin on its balance sheet, yet investors valued the company at a staggering $13.2 billion.
Over the past eight months, the U.S. Bitcoin entity has consistently sold its shares and bought more Bitcoin, taking advantage of its wildly inflated valuation. The heavily diluted stock price has since plunged 92% from its peak. Eric Trump, who seemingly entered at minimal cost, continues to thrive, using financial sleight of hand to increase his estimated personal wealth from around $190 million to $280 million. Other insiders have also profited significantly. In contrast, ordinary investors who believed the sales pitch and invested real money have collectively suffered estimated losses of $500 million.
Eric Trump (left) initially presented himself as a philanthropist, soon after graduating college launching a fundraising campaign at his father’s golf course for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Photo: Bobby Bank/WireImage
Eric Trump's first truly independent project, not an apartment building, but a charitable organization.
In 2006, he graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in finance and management, eager to make a difference in the world. At the time, his brother Don Jr. and sister Ivanka were already working at Trump Tower, involved in real estate projects. One day, while driving on the New Jersey Turnpike, Eric later recalled in an interview with Forbes, he suddenly had another thought: how could he truly make an impact on the world? This marked the beginning of his first entrepreneurial endeavor—a nonprofit organization called the Eric Trump Foundation.
This organization has done a lot of good. Rather than being an operational charity, it functioned more as a fundraising platform, having delivered over $16 million to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. But over time, the organization—and Eric himself—became increasingly "Trump-like."
Documents obtained by Forbes through a public records request—despite objections from the nonprofit’s legal team—reveal deceptive fundraising practices, weak governance, and chaotic finances. Eric had told donors that he kept costs to a minimum and directed nearly all funds directly to St. Jude, partly because his father had provided venues at Trump-owned clubs at no cost, and celebrities had agreed to perform “pro bono.” However, checks and invoices obtained by Forbes show that over $500,000 was sent to other charities, more than $500,000 went to Trump-owned businesses, at least $90,000 was paid to various performers, and over $35,000 was paid to a ride-share company transporting Eric’s mother, a cast member from The Real Housewives, and a van full of people heading to Hooters.
In the day-to-day operations of his father’s company, Eric initially focused on the hotel business, where he learned many lessons—including a key insight: branding a business is far easier than actually building buildings.
The Trump Organization defaulted on its loan for its Chicago hotel in 2008, placed its Atlantic City portfolio into bankruptcy protection in 2009, and saw its Washington, D.C. hotel incur annual losses. Ultimately, the Trump family shifted the expansion strategy of its hotel empire toward what the industry calls a "light asset" model, focusing less on development and more on management and brand licensing.
Eric’s other training ground was his father’s portfolio of golf courses, where he witnessed the advantages of unconventional financing structures. In the 1980s and 1990s, golf clubs typically collected membership deposits with a promise to repay them interest-free after thirty years. These liabilities appeared on balance sheets, deterring many investors from purchasing the properties. But Donald Trump was undaunted, ultimately assuming approximately $250 million in such liabilities to acquire more than a dozen golf properties across the United States, while keeping these obligations recorded as zero on his personal balance sheet for years. By the time repayment came due, the value of these properties had far exceeded the outstanding amounts.
In January 2017, Donald Trump moved into the White House, and Eric and his younger brother Donald Jr. took over their father’s portfolio. Eric appeared to have little personal vision, simply hoping to follow in his father’s footsteps. “We’re not a company that sells assets,” he told Forbes in February 2017 in his office on the 25th floor of Trump Tower. “We buy them and make them look great.” The Trump brothers attempted to launch new businesses, including two mid-tier hotel brands, but with minimal success. Amid struggling operations and dwindling cash reserves from their father, over the next seven years they did far more of what Eric had said they wouldn’t do: selling assets, collectively cashing out approximately $411 million.
Then, a new opportunity to earn emerged: the 2024 election.
Returning to the White House signals new business opportunities. Trump’s children attended their father’s second inauguration on January 20, 2025. Photo: Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images
Just two weeks after Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris, the company that later became American Bitcoin was quietly incorporated in Delaware. It was not initially a cryptocurrency venture. Hussain Sajwani, a Dubai developer who had previously collaborated with the Trump family on golf projects in Dubai, appeared at Mar-a-Lago and announced a $20 billion investment to build data centers in the U.S., capitalizing on the AI boom. "That man knows what he's doing," the president-elect praised. Within weeks, Trump’s two sons revealed plans to follow this strategy and named the company "American Data Centers," with Eric Trump calling it "critical to the development of America’s AI infrastructure."
A month later, he changed course. Through a mutual friend, Eric and Xiao Tang met two entrepreneurs: Asher Ginott and Mike Ho. These two already owned Hut 8, a data center giant whose business closely aligned with the Trump brothers’ vision—boasting not only exposure to AI but also substantial Bitcoin mining hashpower. Shortly after the AI boom began, the Bitcoin reward for solving each mathematical puzzle halved, causing mining costs to rise sharply. Across the industry, vast amounts of computing power shifted toward AI, and Hut 8’s institutional shareholders pressured Ginott to follow the trend.
However, Ginot and Ho, leveraging their background in brand operations and arbitrage trading, devised a more creative solution: using a 20% equity stake in their Bitcoin mining equipment as bait to persuade the Trump brothers to abandon their data center plan. Then, with the First Family’s involvement, they integrated the hardware into a publicly traded company, igniting a publicity machine powered by the Trump brand.
This transaction structure was tailor-made, as if specifically designed for someone familiar with the hotel business. The machines hum day and night, yet the operation of Bitcoin.com USA resembles a lightweight hotel brand: Hut 8 owns the properties, operates the data centers, and handles back-office tasks—even its executives are sent by Hut 8. Prusak previously worked at Hut 8, and Ho still works there today, serving simultaneously as CEO of Bitcoin.com USA and Chief Strategy Officer of Hut 8. In this setup, the Trump brothers need only focus on what they do best: sales.
"I always remember telling them, 'Listen, the name must have two words,'" Eric Trump later recalled in a CoinDesk video interview. "'It must have 'America' and it must have 'Bitcoin.' One person said, 'Eric, how about American Bitcoin? That’s the name.'"
On the day Bitcoin was listed in the U.S., investors flocked to buy, and Eric Trump's estimated personal wealth briefly surpassed $1 billion. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Since Eric Trump entered the cryptocurrency space, he has been telling a myth about why he got into the industry. "Every bank in this country blacklisted us," he said at a conference in Wyoming last August. "Because my father is a political figure, we were de-banked," he added about a week later in Hong Kong. "Every major bank started closing our accounts," he claimed earlier this year in Palm Beach, "and you know what we did? We went out and entered decentralized finance, because we realized that’s the future of finance."
But that is not the case.
Indeed, Capital One and JPMorgan Chase closed some of Trump’s accounts in 2021, six years after Donald Trump entered politics. At the time, the president’s reputation had been severely damaged by the Capitol riot and a broad investigation by the New York Attorney General, which ultimately led courts to rule that the Trump Organization had engaged in fraud and was likely to reoffend.
Even so, many banks remained willing to work with the Trump family—JPMorgan Chase, for instance, participated in refinancing two of the largest loans in Trump’s portfolio shortly after closing some accounts. At the time he left the White House, Trump was cash-strapped and highly leveraged, and he urgently needed support from major lending institutions; he received it: between January 2021 and mid-2022, with the assistance of his sons Eric and Donald Jr., the former president completed nearly $700 million in debt refinancing as part of a comprehensive balance sheet restructuring.
So why did Trump really enter the cryptocurrency space? A more plausible explanation is that he sensed an opportunity to extend his licensing business—selling NFTs just like he sold sneakers and guitars. He started with NFT trading cards, launching digital images depicting Trump as a superhero. The product sold out within a day, ultimately generating over $70 million in cash and cryptocurrency proceeds for the former president—each dollar critical for someone facing a nearly $500 million fraud judgment. (Later, an appellate judge overturned the judgment citing disagreement with the fine amount, but did not dispute the finding of fraud by Trump.) Subsequent cryptocurrency projects have brought in hundreds of millions more in liquidity, further escalating the First Family’s bets, including last May’s announcement of an independent initiative: to spend approximately $2 billion on cryptocurrencies through Trump Media and Technology Group.
In 2025, hoarding Bitcoin became the hottest trade of the year, with over 200 public companies racing to replicate the strategy of Michael Saylor’s company, which accumulated over $50 billion in Bitcoin holdings—causing its market capitalization to surge during price rallies and recently plummet alongside it. U.S. Bitcoin stood out in this frenzy for obvious reasons: the first-family aura. Yet on the very day U.S. Bitcoin launched on public markets, September 3, 2025, Eric Trump offered a more data-driven narrative during an X Spaces conversation: “Our actual cost to mine Bitcoin daily is about $57,000 to $58,000 per coin,” he said, noting that the market price at the time was roughly double that amount. “Our fundamentals have never been stronger.”
This argument is compelling, even though the speaker is accustomed to overlooking unfavorable expenses when hosting charity fundraising events. Fifty thousand dollars does cover the operational costs of Bitcoin equipment in the United States. However, when other expenses are included—such as equipment procurement, marketing, and capital allocation—the total cost rises significantly, reaching approximately $92,000 per Bitcoin at the time, making profitability feasible only if cryptocurrency prices remained consistently high.
Including depreciation in the calculation is especially critical in the case of Bitcoin Inc. in the U.S., as it follows Hut 8’s unconventional financing strategy. Between August and September 2025, Bitcoin Inc. spent approximately $330 million to upgrade its mining fleet. However, the company did not pay cash immediately; instead, it pledged a batch of bitcoins and secured an option on the final payment method: if the price of bitcoin rises, the company can pay approximately $330 million in cash and reclaim the pledged bitcoins; if the price falls, it can settle the obligation directly using the pledged cryptocurrency.
Since this large purchase, Bitcoin has declined by approximately 30%. This means that, as things stand, American Bitcoin will likely pay for the equipment using staked crypto assets. However, the issue is that the total amount of Bitcoin staked by American Bitcoin stands at 3,090 (as of March 25), while the company has estimated it has mined only about 1,800 so far. In other words, if the price does not recover, all the Bitcoin the company has mined to date will be fully applied toward offsetting equipment costs as the options expire around August 2027, leaving nothing remaining.
Investors may not fully understand this. The company has approximately 15 months to decide whether to pay for the equipment in cryptocurrency or cash, and during this period, the mined bitcoins remain on the balance sheet. As a result, U.S. Bitcoin appears far more robust than it actually is. The company highlights this bitcoin reserve as a key selling point to investors, while deliberately downplaying the fact that all or most of these bitcoins will ultimately be used to pay for the very machines that mined them.
Beyond the marketing appeal, it’s easy to understand why the Trump family would be interested in this payment method—they previously built a portfolio of golf courses using similar unconventional financing, and they won that bet because the assets’ value indeed rose.
Eric Trump has become a regular at major cryptocurrency conferences worldwide, shown here attending an event in Hong Kong. Photo: Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images
About 70% of the Bitcoin held in the United States was not mined at all, but rather acquired by selling stocks or purchasing Bitcoin directly on public markets. This is the core secret of Bitcoin in the United States.
Why would Hut 8 be willing to give up 20% equity in its Bitcoin mining equipment to a newly established data center company? The reason may lie here: in an era dominated by meme stocks and MAGA fervor, just mentioning Trump’s name is enough to attract a flood of "dumb money," pushing the stock price to astronomical levels. Once the stock price reaches absurd heights, the company can sell its shares and reinvest the proceeds into Bitcoin, accumulating mountains of cryptocurrency.
This is a speculation-driven arbitrage game: convincing investors that the company is worth a fortune, then selling shares when insiders know the stock price has become absurdly inflated. As long as the profits from this arbitrage game exceed the value of the 20% mining equipment equity, it’s a profitable arrangement for the insiders orchestrating it—though retail investors who buy the stock from outside are a different story.
Selling began almost immediately after the listing. Within 27 days of the U.S. Bitcoin listing, during the peak of market enthusiasm, the company sold 11 million shares, raising $90 million at an average price of approximately $8 per share. After deducting the intermediary fee (amounting to $2 million in this case), U.S. Bitcoin acquired about 725 bitcoins. Subsequently, as the stock price gradually declined, the selling continued. From early October to mid-November, the company sold another 7 million shares, raising $44 million at an average price slightly above $6 per share. By late November, following a sharp drop in Bitcoin’s price, the company intensified its selling efforts, offloading 47 million shares before year-end and raising approximately $106 million at an average price of about $2.25 per share.
It wasn’t just the company being sold off. In early December, lock-up periods for early investors expired, and within two trading days, the stock price plummeted 48%. Prominent supporters stepped forward to boost confidence. Cryptocurrency evangelists Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss—who have actively cultivated ties with the First Family through donations to Trump-related super PACs and participation in White House dining events—publicly declared their support.
Note: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, twin brothers and prominent U.S. cryptocurrency investors with close ties to the Trump family, have publicly endorsed Bitcoin in the United States.
Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci has also joined the list of endorsers. Event host Grant Cardone described himself as a "long-term investor, not a day trader," and then added that his tweet "does not constitute investment advice." The official social media account of Bitcoin USA reposted all of this content to its followers. Neither Cardone nor the Winklevoss twins responded to requests for comment, and Scaramucci’s representative declined to answer.
Note: Anthony Scaramucci briefly served as White House Communications Director in the Trump administration for only 11 days before transitioning into a cryptocurrency investor and advocating for Bitcoin in the U.S. Grant Cardone, a well-known American sales trainer and motivational speaker, has publicly expressed support for Bitcoin on social media, but has disclaimed that such content does not constitute investment advice.
Bitcoin prices have continued to face pressure, particularly following the Federal Reserve’s pause on rate cuts in January. The company has stuck to its original strategy; according to Forbes, from January 1 to March 25, U.S. Bitcoin sold 84 million shares, cashing out $111 million, and used the proceeds to repurchase approximately 1,430 bitcoins. Overall, since its inception through the end of March this year, U.S. Bitcoin’s total investment in cryptocurrencies amounts to approximately $525 million, while the current market value of these holdings is around $390 million, resulting in an accumulated loss of approximately $135 million in shareholder funds.
Eric Trump took the stage last year at a cryptocurrency conference in Dubai to praise the UAE. "The rest of the world must take notice of the UAE for one reason only," he told the audience, "they will always say 'yes' to you." Photo: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images
Bitcoin mining operations in the U.S. continue, but the economics are becoming harder to justify as the Bitcoin price has fallen 31% since the company’s listing. By optimizing its new mining rig portfolio, operational costs have been reduced to approximately $47,000 per Bitcoin. However, total costs—including management fees, amortization, and depreciation—are still estimated at around $90,000 per Bitcoin, roughly $13,000 above the current market price. The stock has declined another 29% this year.
If investors no longer believe the "printing press" story, what becomes of Eric Trump’s company? The president’s son can only hope for a significant rebound in Bitcoin’s price—after all, it is an asset with extreme volatility. According to Forbes, a 35% increase would allow U.S. Bitcoin to pay for its equipment in cash, preserve its staked cryptocurrencies, and turn its $135 million transaction loss into a small profit. At that point, Eric could easily claim it was all part of the plan.
Of course, if he doesn’t want to stake the company’s fate entirely on luck, there may be another path: seeking out overseas investors eager to provide timely support. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the UAE has already established ties with another Trump-related cryptocurrency project, reportedly channeling an estimated $375 million to the president and his son. While this investment has so far yielded modest financial returns, the UAE has gained President Trump’s support in advancing its artificial intelligence initiatives. Reports indicate that this Gulf nation is now seeking some form of relief from the United States amid economic pressures stemming from potential conflict with Iran.
The last documented residence of Mike Hall, CEO of American Bitcoin, was the UAE in November 2023, although company representatives have not responded to inquiries about his current location. Regardless, Hall was present in this Gulf nation last October, where he gave an interview to a journalist from Arabian Gulf Business Insight, mentioning contacts with ADQ Investment Group and TAQA Energy Company—both linked to Sheikh Tahnoon. In October, an American Bitcoin spokesperson told Forbes that Hall was referring to early communications prior to American Bitcoin’s formation. However, recent recordings of the interview obtained by Forbes indicate that American Bitcoin is open to overseas collaborations.
"I've met with many sovereign wealth funds through Hut 8, also under the name of American Bitcoin," Ho said in the recording. "Conversations are always ongoing." When pressed on whether he is considering launching bitcoin mining operations in the region, Ho responded: "We are always monitoring this space. I’ve had discussions with ADQ and TAQA. We’ve studied their portfolios. The UAE has significant excess electricity, and bitcoin mining is an excellent way to monetize that surplus power."
This statement comes from someone who understands readily available arbitrage opportunities.