Trump Media winds down crypto projects: focus shifts to data and Truth Social
Trump Media and Technology Group has officially abandoned its ambitious joint venture to create a treasury based on the Cronos (CRO) blockchain with Crypto.com and Yorkville Acquisition Corp. Along with this, the company has also annulled the associated service agreements and product suite related to digital assets. This decision is not just a tactical move, but a signal of a deep restructuring of the media giant's strategy.
Acting CEO Kevin McGern confirmed that the crypto deals were scrapped due to oversaturation in the treasury solutions sector. The market, which recently seemed like a goldmine, is now flooded with supply, and competing in it without a clear technological advantage means condemning oneself to losses. Instead, Trump Media will focus on developing Truth Social, data licensing, and the anticipated merger with fusion energy company TAE.
Why Trump Media's crypto plans collapsed
The project, announced last year, was positioned as the first and largest public treasury based on CRO. The partners bet on licensing the Trump Media brand, which was expected to attract institutional investors. However, Yorkville Acquisition Corp — a shell with no operating activities, created to take the project public — supported the decision to end the collaboration. Notably, the affiliated America First ETFs with the Truth Social Funds brand will continue operations.
The abandonment of treasury plans followed a rough start to the year: crypto write-downs led to a quarterly loss of $406 million. McGern directly points out that it was the glut of treasury companies, not regulatory requirements, that triggered the strategy review. "We wanted to focus," he explains laconically.
Interestingly, CRO staking is gradually losing appeal for Crypto.com itself as well, so the termination of the agreement proved logical for both parties. At the time of the deal's closure, the CRO token held at $0.0513, down 0.4% over the day. The asset's market cap stands at about $2.4 billion, placing it 38th in the rankings.
Prediction platform gives way to data licensing
The partners also abandoned initial plans to integrate event betting features into Truth Social. In October last year, Trump Media announced the Truth Predict prediction platform based on Crypto.com Derivatives North America. Now, the focus shifts to marketing: Truth Social users will be promoted Crypto.com's prediction services.
McGern believes this market is already dominated by major players, and building proprietary infrastructure for such services would not yield benefits. He views Trump Media not as a market operator, but as a distribution partner and data provider. This emphasis on data is already visible: the data sales business through the Truth Social API serves about 10 clients, though recently there were roughly five. Most of them are high-frequency trading firms using this data in algorithmic strategies.
The company is also targeting developers of language models and prediction platforms. McGern expects the merger with TAE to be completed by the end of the year. Whether Trump Media can, in a more compact format, turn its audience and Truth Social data into stable profits will be shown by the outcome of the deal.
My view: this is the right, albeit belated, step. The blockchain treasury solutions market is overheated, and without a unique product, there is nothing to do there. But betting on data and licensing is a more sustainable model, especially if the company can monetize its politically active audience. The only question is whether Trump Media will have the discipline not to get distracted by new "hot" trends.