Original title: How Eric Trump Got Rich From Bitcoin While Losing Investors A Fortune
Original author: Dan Alexander, Forbes
Original translation: Peggy, BlockBeats
Editor's Note: The Trump family has a family heirloom: bluster, making something sound bigger than it actually is.
This time, Eric Trump brought this method into the cryptocurrency circle. He packaged his Bitcoin company as a "money printing machine," claiming it could mine Bitcoin at nearly half the market price.
But when Forbes reporter Dan Alexander opened the books, the story revealed another side: 70% of the Bitcoin held by the company was not mined but purchased through issuing new shares; the real total cost was far higher than the figures Eric mentioned; the financing structure that made the balance sheet look prettier might also mean that all the Bitcoin mined so far will eventually be used to pay for the mining equipment bills.
The numbers ultimately pointed to a more direct conclusion: Eric's personal wealth increased by about $90 million, while ordinary investors lost a total of about $500 million.
After the report was released, Eric Trump quickly retaliated on X, accusing Forbes of being acquired by China, claiming the report was politically driven propaganda, and citing a string of operating data as a rebuttal: 7,000 Bitcoins, nearly 90,000 mining machines, and fourth-quarter revenue of $78.3 million. He also dug up an old story from twenty years ago about fundraising for a children's hospital, trying to prove that Forbes has always targeted someone like him, a "good person."
There was only one thing he never responded to directly: Where did that $500 million go?
The following is the original text:
Eric Trump inciting the crowd below. Photo: Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images
The ability to incite a crowd is useful not only in politics. Just ask Eric Trump: his Bitcoin company attracted a large number of followers, then hit them with a bunch of overvalued stocks.
In February this year, Eric Trump appeared energetically on a earnings call, ready to do what the Trump family does best—sell.
His company "American Bitcoin" had been listed for just over a year and was already trading on Nasdaq. "We are rapidly becoming leaders in the world of Bitcoin, I truly believe we have the strongest brand," Eric said, "I want to thank Mike (Mike Ho), Asher (Asher Genoot), Matt (Matt Prusak), and every one of my colleagues at American Bitcoin."
Note: Mike Ho, CEO of American Bitcoin, also serves as Chief Strategy Officer of Hut 8. Asher Genoot, Executive Chairman of American Bitcoin, co-founder of Hut 8, led the collaboration deal with the Trump family. Matt Prusak, President of American Bitcoin, a former Hut 8 employee sent by Hut 8.
This closing remark is quite thought-provoking. Saying "every one of my colleagues" is because there are virtually no other people at American Bitcoin.
A month after the earnings call, the annual report submitted showed that the company officially had only two full-time employees, likely the CEO Mike Ho and President Matt Prusak. Maybe there are a few more—Ho also serves as an executive at another company; someone who held an investor relations position at that company for less than a year now lists himself as "Chief of Staff" at American Bitcoin on LinkedIn; another woman stated she has been the company's social media manager since January this year. (Executive Chairman Asher Genoot, Ho, and three independent directors form the five-member board.)
The Trump family has long understood a rule: saying things are bigger than they actually are can be profitable.
It is said that Donald's father, Fred Trump, once deceived regulators by inflating project costs for profits. Donald Trump inflated asset values to banks and media like Forbes, eventually being ruled by a New York judge as constituting fraud. Eric was also embroiled in that lawsuit, banned from serving as an executive or director of any registered company in New York for two years. Nevertheless, he started anew, registered in Delaware, and established his own company, marketing it in a way that even made his predecessors notice.
Note: Fred Trump, Donald Trump's father, a New York real estate developer, was once suspected of inflating construction costs for higher profits.
Eric Trump's latest Bitcoin business perhaps sells more of a story than a real business. According to him, American Bitcoin can mine Bitcoin at about half the market price, being a genuine "money printing machine." But delving deeper into the numbers raises doubts: can this company actually profit from mining, let alone maintain such an astonishing profit margin? Eric Trump, the Trump Organization, and representatives of American Bitcoin did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Forbes. There are many who trust the president's son, and they have already put their real money down. On September 3, 2025, American Bitcoin went public, at which time the balance sheet held about $270 million in Bitcoin, but the market capitalization given by investors reached as high as $13.2 billion.
In the past eight months, American Bitcoin continued to use this ridiculous high valuation to sell stock and buy more Bitcoin. The heavily diluted share price has now fallen 92% from its peak. Eric Trump seemed to have spent almost no cost to enter the scene, and he still swims easily, with his personal wealth estimated to have swollen from about $190 million to $280 million through a financial alchemy. Other insiders also benefited greatly. In contrast, ordinary investors who believed the sales story and invested real money are estimated to have lost a total of $500 million.
Eric Trump (left) showcased a charitable image in his early years, shortly after graduating from college, he initiated a fundraising event at his father's golf course for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Photo: Bobby Bank/WireImage
Eric Trump's first real independent project was not an apartment building, but a charity.
In 2006, he graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in finance and management, full of enthusiasm to change the world. At that time, his brother Don Jr. and sister Ivanka were already at Trump Tower, engaged in real estate projects. One day while driving on the New Jersey Turnpike, Eric later recalled in a Forbes interview, another thought suddenly came to his mind: how could he really do something for the world. Thus began his earliest entrepreneurial practice—a non-profit organization called "Eric Trump Foundation."
This organization did a lot of good things. Rather than being an operational charity, it was more of a fundraising platform, having sent over $16 million to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. However, as time went by, this organization and even Eric himself began to become increasingly "Trumpified."
Documents obtained by Forbes through a public information request (despite objections from the organization's legal team) show that this organization exhibited dishonest fundraising rhetoric, weak governance structures, and confused financial situations. Eric claimed to donors that he kept costs to a minimum, almost funneling all funds directly to St. Jude, partly because his father provided the venue for Trump-owned clubs for free and high-profile individuals agreed to perform "pro bono." But checks and invoices obtained by Forbes show: over $500,000 went to other charities, over $500,000 went to Trump-owned businesses, at least $90,000 paid to various performers, and over $35,000 paid to a car service company—passengers included Eric's mother, a reality TV star, and a van full of people headed to Hooters.
In the day-to-day operations of his father's company, Eric early on was mainly responsible for the hotel business, from which he learned a lot, including a key insight: it's much easier to profit from branding a business than from actually building it.
The Trump Organization defaulted on loans for its Chicago hotel in 2008 and filed for bankruptcy protection for its Atlantic City asset portfolio in 2009; the Washington, D.C. hotel had also been losing money for years. Ultimately, the Trump family shifted the expansion direction of their hotel empire to what is called a "light asset" model, focusing on management and brand licensing rather than development.
Another training ground for Eric was his father's golf course investment portfolio, where he saw the ingenuity of unconventional financing structures. In the 1980s and 1990s, golf clubs usually collected deposits when members joined, promising to return them without interest after thirty years. These liabilities remained on the books, making many investors hesitant to buy the property. But Donald Trump was unfazed, ultimately inheriting about $250 million worth of these liabilities, thereby acquiring more than a dozen golf properties scattered across the U.S., while long recording these liabilities on his personal balance sheet as zero. By the time the repayment period approached, the value of these properties had far exceeded the owed amount.
In January 2017, Donald Trump took office as president, and Eric and his brother Don Jr. took over their father's asset portfolio. Eric seemed to have little of his own plans, just hoping to go with the flow. "We are not the type of company that sells assets," he said in an interview with Forbes in February 2017 from the office on the 25th floor of Trump Tower, "We buy them and make them look pretty." The Trump brothers attempted to explore new businesses, including launching two mid-range hotel brands, but to little avail. Under the backdrop of struggling operations and their father facing cash shortages, they did a lot of things Eric said they wouldn't do over the next seven years: selling assets, estimated to have cashed out about $411 million in total.
Then, new money-making opportunities arose: the 2024 election.
Returning to the White House means business opportunities. President 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 evolved into American Bitcoin was quietly registered in Delaware. It initially wasn't a cryptocurrency bureau. Dubai developer Hussain Sajwani, who had collaborated with the Trump family on a golf project in Dubai, appeared at Mar-a-Lago, announcing an investment of $20 billion in a data center in the U.S., leveraging the AI boom. "That guy knows what he's doing," praised the then-elect president. A few weeks later, Trump's two sons revealed plans following this strategy and named the company "American Data Center," with Eric Trump calling it "crucial for the development of the U.S. AI infrastructure."
A month later, he changed course. Through mutual friends, Eric and Don Jr. met two entrepreneurs: Asher Genoot and Mike Ho. These two already owned a company similar to what the Trump brothers envisioned—a data center giant, Hut 8, which not only had an exposure to AI but also boasted considerable Bitcoin mining power. Shortly after the AI boom began, the reward for solving each mathematical problem in Bitcoin halved, leading to a significant rise in mining costs. On an industry level, a large amount of computational power shifted to AI, and Hut 8's institutional shareholders pressured Genoot to follow suit.
However, Genoot and Ho, with their backgrounds in brand operations and arbitrage trading, came up with a more creative solution: using 20% equity of their Bitcoin mining equipment as bait to convince the Trump brothers to abandon the data center plan. Then, with the first family's involvement, they could package this hardware into a public company, igniting a momentum machine driven by the Trump aura.
This trading structure was custom-made, seemingly designed for someone familiar with the hotel business. The machine roared day and night, yet American Bitcoin's operations resembled a light asset hotel brand: Hut 8 owns the properties, operates the data center, handles backend affairs, and even the executives are sent from Hut 8—Prusak previously worked at Hut 8, and Ho still serves there, holding both positions as CEO of American Bitcoin and Chief Strategy Officer of Hut 8. This way, the Trump brothers only needed to focus on their strengths: sales.
"I always remember saying to them, 'Listen, the name has to have two words,'" Eric Trump recalled later in a CoinDesk video interview, "it has to have 'American,' and it has to have 'Bitcoin.' One of them said, 'Eric, let's call it American Bitcoin; that's the name.'"
On the day of American Bitcoin's IPO, investors eagerly embraced it, and Eric Trump's personal wealth estimate briefly exceeded $1 billion. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Since Eric Trump stepped into the cryptocurrency circle, he has been telling a myth about why he entered the business. "Every bank in this country has blacklisted me," he said last August at a conference in Wyoming. "Because my father is a political figure, we have experienced de-banking," he added about a week later in Hong Kong. "Every major bank began closing our accounts," he claimed earlier this year in Palm Beach, "You know what we did? We went out and entered decentralized finance because we realized that was the future of finance."
But that wasn't the case.
Indeed, Capital One and JPMorgan Chase closed some of Trump's accounts in 2021, six years after Donald Trump entered politics. At that time, the president's reputation was severely stained due to the Capitol incident and the New York Attorney General's extensive investigation, which ultimately ruled that the Trump Organization had committed fraud and was very likely to reoffend.
Nevertheless, many banks were still willing to work with the Trump family—even JPMorgan Chase, shortly after closing some accounts, participated in refinancing the two largest loans in Trump's asset portfolio. When Trump left the White House, his cash was scarce, and leverage was high, urgently needing support from major lending institutions, which he indeed received: from January 2021 to mid-2022, the former president, with the help of his sons Eric and Don Jr., completed nearly $700 million in debt refinancing as part of a comprehensive restructuring of the balance sheet.
So, why did Trump really enter the cryptocurrency field? A more reasonable explanation is that he sensed the opportunity to extend his licensing business, just like selling sneakers and guitars while peddling non-fungible tokens (NFTs). He started with NFT trading cards, launching digital images that depicted Trump as a superhero. The products sold out in one day, ultimately bringing the former president over $7 million in cash and cryptocurrency earnings—crucial for someone facing a nearly $500 million fraud ruling. (Later, an appeals judge overturned the ruling on the grounds of disagreement with the penalty amount but did not deny the finding of Trump's fraud.) Subsequent cryptocurrency projects brought in additional liquidity worth billions, leading the first family to increase their bets, including an independent plan announced last May to spend about $2 billion on cryptocurrencies through Trump Media and Technology Group.
In 2025, hoarding Bitcoin became the hottest transaction of the year. More than 200 public companies rushed to replicate the strategy of Michael Saylor's company, accumulating over $50 billion in Bitcoin positions, with soaring valuations during a bull market, followed by steep declines. American Bitcoin stood out particularly in this trend, for obvious reasons: the first family's aura. But on the very day that American Bitcoin went public on September 3, 2025, Eric Trump presented a more data-driven argument during a Spaces dialogue on the X platform. "Our actual cost of mining Bitcoin every day is about $57,000, $58,000 per coin," he said, noting that the market price of a Bitcoin at that time was about double that figure, "Our fundamentals couldn't be better."
This argument was quite persuasive, even though the speaker had grown accustomed to selectively ignoring unfavorable expenditures while hosting charitable fundraising events. Over $50,000 indeed covers American Bitcoin's equipment operating costs. However, if other expenses are included—such as equipment purchases, marketing, and capital allocation—the comprehensive cost would climb to a much higher figure, approximately $92,000 per Bitcoin at that time, manageable only if cryptocurrency prices remained high.
Including depreciation in the calculations is particularly crucial in the case of American Bitcoin, as it adopted a highly unconventional financing strategy from Hut 8. Between August and September 2025, American Bitcoin splurged about $330 million on upgrading its mining machine fleet. However, the company did not immediately pay cash, instead pledging a batch of Bitcoin and obtaining an option regarding the final payment method: if the price of Bitcoin rises, the company can pay about $330 million in cash and redeem the pledged Bitcoin; if the price falls, the company can simply offset the payment with the pledged cryptocurrency.
Since this large purchase, Bitcoin has fallen about 30%. This means, at this point, American Bitcoin will likely pay for the machine costs using the pledged crypto assets. But the problem is that the total pledged Bitcoin for American Bitcoin is 3,090 coins (as of March 25), while the company has only estimated to have mined about 1,800 coins so far. In other words, if the price does not rebound, all the Bitcoin mined so far will all offset the equipment costs when the options are set to expire around August 2027, leaving nothing.
Investors may not understand this. The company still has about 15 months to decide whether to pay for the equipment with cryptocurrency or cash; during this period, the mined Bitcoin remains on the balance sheet. The result is that American Bitcoin appears far more robust than it actually is. The company promotes this batch of Bitcoin reserves as a core selling point to investors while deliberately downplaying one fact: all or most of it will ultimately be used to pay for the price of the machine that mined them.
Apart from the appeal on a marketing level, it is not difficult to understand why the Trump family is interested in this payment method—they built a portfolio of golf courses using similar unconventional financing. They won that bet because the value of the assets indeed went up.
Eric Trump has become a regular at major cryptocurrency conferences around the world, pictured here attending an event in Hong Kong. Photo: Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images
The cryptocurrencies held by American Bitcoin are about 70% not mined but acquired through stock sales and direct purchases of Bitcoin on the open market. This is the core secret of American Bitcoin.
Why would Hut 8 be willing to hand over 20% equity in its Bitcoin mining equipment to a newly established data center company? The reason may be this: in an era of meme stocks and MAGA fervor, a Trump name is sufficient to attract enough "dumb money" to flood in and push the stock price to the clouds. When the stock price becomes absurdly high, the company can sell its own stock and reinvest the proceeds into Bitcoin, accumulating mountains of cryptocurrency.
This is an arbitrage game driven by speculation: convincing investors that the company is worth a fortune, then selling shares once they know the stock price is absurd. As long as the profits generated from this arbitrage game exceed the value of that 20% mining equipment equity, it is a profitable trade for the insiders setting up the scheme—as for the retail investors buying the stock off-exchange, that is another matter.
The sell-off almost started immediately after going public. In the 27 days following American Bitcoin's IPO, at the height of popularity, the company sold a total of 11 million shares, cashing out $90 million, with an average price of about $8 per share. After deducting the intermediary's cut (which was $2 million for this time), American Bitcoin purchased about 725 Bitcoins. Subsequently, as the share price gradually declined, the sell-off continued. From early October to mid-November, the company once again liquidated 7 million shares, cashing out $44 million, with an average slightly above $6 per share. Entering late November, following a sharp drop in Bitcoin prices, the company made an all-out effort, concentrating on selling 47 million shares before the end of the year, cashing out about $106 million, with an average of about $2.25 per share.
The sell-off was not just of the company itself. In early December, early investors' lock-up periods expired sequentially, and in two trading days, the share price plummeted 48%. Notable supporters came out to boost confidence. Cryptocurrency evangelists Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss—who actively connected with the first family through donations to Trump-related super PACs, supporting White House gala events, etc—publicly expressed their support.
Note: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, twin brothers, well-known cryptocurrency investors in the U.S., closely related to the Trump family, publicly endorsed American Bitcoin.
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci also joined the endorsement. Event host Grant Cardone identified himself as a "long-term investor, not a short-term trader," adding that his tweet "does not constitute investment advice." American Bitcoin's official social media accounts retweeted all these endorsements to its followers. Cardone and the Winklevoss brothers did not respond to requests for comments, and Scaramucci's representative declined to comment.
Note: Anthony Scaramucci briefly served as White House communications director under Trump, a term lasting only 11 days, later transitioning to cryptocurrency investor, endorsing American Bitcoin. Grant Cardone, a well-known sales trainer and motivational speaker, publicly expressed support for American Bitcoin on social media but also stated that related content "does not constitute investment advice."
Bitcoin prices remained under pressure, especially after the Federal Reserve paused interest rate cuts in January. The company stuck to its original strategy; according to Forbes calculations, from January 1 to March 25, American Bitcoin sold a total of 84 million shares, cashing out $111 million, and used this to buy around 1,430 Bitcoins. In total, the estimated overall投入 by American Bitcoin in cryptocurrencies from its founding until the end of March this year was about $525 million, while this batch of coins currently has a market value of about $390 million, leading to a cumulative loss of about $135 million for shareholders.
Last year, Eric Trump praised the UAE at a cryptocurrency conference in Dubai. "Other countries in the world must remain alert to the UAE, and the reason is simple," he told the audience, "They will always give you a 'yes'." Photo: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images
The mining business of American Bitcoin continues. However, as Bitcoin prices have fallen 31% since the company went public, the economic calculations are becoming increasingly difficult. Optimizing the new mining machine fleet has lowered operational costs to about $47,000 per Bitcoin. However, the total comprehensive cost—due to management fees, amortization, and depreciation—is still estimated to be high at around $90,000 per Bitcoin, which is about $13,000 higher than Bitcoin's current market price. The stock price has again dropped 29% this year.
If investors no longer believe the "money printing machine" story, where will Eric Trump's company go? The president's son can pray for a significant rebound in Bitcoin prices—after all, this is a highly volatile asset. According to Forbes calculations, if the price rises by 35%, American Bitcoin can pay for the equipment in cash, preserve its pledged cryptocurrency, and turn that $135 million trading loss into a small profit. At that time, Eric can easily claim that all of this was part of the plan.
Of course, if he does not want to gamble the company's success solely on luck, there might be another path: seeking out a few overseas sponsors eager to provide financial support. UAE Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan has established connections with another Trump cryptocurrency project, reportedly providing approximately $375 million to the presidential family. This investment has been underwhelming in terms of financial returns so far, but the UAE has indeed gained support from President Trump in advancing its AI agenda. Reports indicate that this Gulf nation is currently seeking some form of relief from the economic pressures arising from the Iran war.
The last recorded residence of American Bitcoin CEO Mike Ho was in the UAE, as of November 2023, although company representatives did not respond to inquiries about his current residence. Regardless, Ho appeared in this Gulf nation last October, giving an interview to a reporter from Arabian Gulf Business Insight, during which he mentioned contacts with ADQ Investment Group and TAQA Energy, both associated with Sheikh Tahnoon. A spokesperson for American Bitcoin told Forbes in October that Ho was referring to early communications before American Bitcoin was established. However, recordings obtained by Forbes recently show that American Bitcoin is open to overseas partnerships.
"I have met with many sovereign wealth funds here through Hut 8 and in the name of American Bitcoin," Ho said in the recording, "the conversations are always ongoing." When asked whether they were considering launching Bitcoin mining operations in the region, Ho replied, "We are always looking at this area. I have had discussions with ADQ and TAQA. We have studied their asset portfolios. The UAE has a lot of excess power, and Bitcoin mining is a great way to monetize that excess power."
This comes from someone deeply aware of readily available arbitrage opportunities.
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