Trump family bitcoin operation set to go public on NYSE

NEW YORK

A bitcoin mining start-up backed by U.S. President Donald Trump's two eldest sons has announced plans to go public on the New York Stock exchange via a merger.

American Bitcoin made a deal to be acquired by publicly traded Gryphon Digital Mining Inc. in a stock-for-stock merger transaction.

The combined company will operate as American Bitcoin and led by American Bitcoin's management team, according to a release.

"Our vision for American Bitcoin is to create the most investable bitcoin accumulation platform in the market," said co-founder and chief strategy officer Eric Trump, son of the U.S. president.

Florida-based Hut 8 Corp. launched American Bitcoin earlier this year in partnership with Eric Trump.

The stated goal of the business was to build the world's largest "pure play" bitcoin mining operation along with a strategic reserve for cryptocurrency.

The merger could be completed by October, according to the company.

The Trump family's business ventures involving cryptocurrency have raised questions regarding conflicts of interest for the president.

U.S. crypto investors were major supporters of Trump's presidential campaign, contributing millions of dollars toward his victory in hopes of ending the deep skepticism toward digital currencies held by the administration of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.

Donald Trump now has significant financial ties to the sector, partnering with exchange platform World Liberty Financial and launching a "Trump" memecoin in January.

First Lady Melania Trump also launched memecoin of her own, $MELANIA.

And President Trump has signed an executive order establishing a "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" as well as appointed a crypto advocate to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.