Two of President Trump's sons announced Monday that they were investing in a new Bitcoin mining venture, an expansion of family business benefits in the crypto industry.
Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. said they will join forces with Bitcoin mining company HUT 8 to establish a company called American Bitcoin. Bitcoin Mining is a lucrative branch of the crypto industry, with large companies operating energy gazling machines that help process Bitcoin transactions.
“From the start, we supported our beliefs in Bitcoin personally and through our business,” Donald Trump Jr. said in a statement. “But simply buying Bitcoin is only half the story. Mining it in favorable economics opens up even greater opportunities.”
Under the terms of the transaction, HUT 8 will manage 80% of the new company, with the other 20% going to a business entity called American Data Centers Inc., where investors include two Trump's sons. The announcement on Monday by Hatt8 cited Eric Trump as the co-founder of the new mining venture, saying he will serve as its chief strategy officer.
The Mining Project is the third major crypto venture the Trump family has launched in the past year. During the campaign, Donald Trump and his sons launched World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company that offers two types of digital currencies, including the so-called stubcoin announced last week.
Later, on the eve of Trump's inauguration, he and his wife, Melania Trump, each launched Memocoin, a kind of cryptocurrency based on online jokes and mascots.
According to government ethics experts, these business ventures have produced some of the most obvious conflicts of interest in the history of the US president. Since taking office, Trump has eased enforcement in the crypto industry and announced the creation of government stockpiles for Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
Four years ago, Trump was a skeptical person and dismissed Bitcoin as a “scam.” Now he regularly promises to turn the United States into the “crypto capital of the earth.”
Bitcoin mining is one of the most widely criticized features in the crypto industry. When Bitcoin is a niche and innovative investment, anyone can run a computer program to help process Bitcoin transactions and earn new Bitcoin as rewards.
However, as the industry grew, the amount of computing power required to mining has skyrocketed. Public companies like Hut 8 run vast data centers packed with servers that power Bitcoin transactions. These mining operations have elicited complaints from environmental organizations and people living near noisy machines.
The Trump family's mining venture originates back in February. When investment firm Dominali Holdings announced the creation of the American Data Center at the time, Eric Trump, a member of Dominali's advisory committee, said the venture was designed to develop computing infrastructure for the artificial intelligence industry.
However, for now, the purpose is Bitcoin mining. The Trump family venture will focus on running Bitcoin mining machines and establishing a large stockpile of cryptocurrency, according to the announcement. According to a post on the new venture's X account, Eric Trump said he will present “vision and strategy” for American Bitcoin on a live stream Tuesday.
