Shares in American Bitcoin, a bitcoin miner, soared as high as US$14.52 on its first day of trade on the Nasdaq, before pulling back to be up 16.5 per cent at US$8.04 by the end of the day.
The company was around 20 per cent owned by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jnr, American Bitcoin executive chairman Asher Genoot said in a previous interview.
This values their stake in American Bitcoin at US$1.5 billion at the close of trade, based on 908.6 million outstanding shares that American Bitcoin said it had in a September 2 stock exchange filing. The highest price struck by the stock on Wednesday valued their stake at US$2.6 billion.
Crypto ventures have become an important driver of growth and potential windfall profits for the president’s family, where the family business – The Trump Organisation – had in the past focused on building and running real estate projects and golf courses.
“Crypto is exploding,” Eric Trump said in an interview on Wednesday. “I would be saying right now, the crypto space is at least 50 per cent of what I’m doing.”
