Eric Trump has mounted a forceful defence of American Bitcoin after sharp criticism over the company’s market performance, valuation and investor losses, turning the spotlight back on one of the Trump family’s most prominent cryptocurrency ventures.The American Bitcoin co-founder and chief strategy officer rejected allegations that the Nasdaq-listed miner had served mainly as an arbitrage vehicle built around the Trump name. He argued that the company had moved from a start-up to a sizeable public bitcoin holder in less than a year, pointing to its stock-market listing, expanding mining fleet and growing digital-asset reserve as evidence of operational progress rather than financial engineering.
American Bitcoin, trading under the ticker ABTC, began public trading on Nasdaq in September 2025 after an all-stock merger with Gryphon Digital Mining. The company was created earlier that year through a venture involving Hut 8 and American Data Centers, with Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr among its backers. Hut 8 has remained the dominant shareholder and operational partner, while Eric Trump has served as the public face of its bitcoin accumulation strategy.
The dispute intensified after criticism focused on the company’s valuation at listing, its steep share-price decline and the scale of losses suffered by retail investors who bought into the stock near its highs. ABTC was valued at about $13.2 billion at its peak, despite holding bitcoin worth only a fraction of that amount at the time. Its market value later fell to nearly $1.24 billion, representing a drop of about 90 per cent from its highs and raising questions over whether enthusiasm for the Trump brand helped push the stock beyond levels justified by the company’s assets.
Eric Trump dismissed the criticism as politically motivated and defended the company’s trajectory. He said American Bitcoin did not exist just over a year ago and had already built a treasury of more than 7,000 bitcoins, placing it among the larger publicly traded corporate holders of the cryptocurrency. He also said the company had climbed global bitcoin-holder rankings at exceptional speed while continuing to mine and scale operations.
Operationally, American Bitcoin has sought to present itself as more than a passive bitcoin treasury company. The firm announced this month that it had completed the energisation of about 11,298 additional ASIC miners at its Drumheller site, adding roughly 3.05 exahashes per second to its capacity. That expansion lifted its owned fleet to about 89,242 miners with total capacity of about 28.1 exahashes per second and average fleet efficiency of around 16 joules per terahash.
The company’s model combines bitcoin mining, open-market purchases and treasury accumulation. Supporters argue that this structure gives investors exposure to bitcoin through a public equity vehicle while allowing the company to build reserves when market conditions are favourable. Critics counter that the structure exposes shareholders to bitcoin volatility, equity dilution and valuation premiums that can evaporate quickly when sentiment turns.
The debate comes at a time when public bitcoin treasury companies face closer scrutiny across global markets. Several firms have adopted strategies inspired by MicroStrategy, using equity or debt issuance to buy bitcoin and market themselves as leveraged vehicles for cryptocurrency exposure. The approach can produce strong gains during bull markets but can also magnify losses when bitcoin prices weaken or share valuations detach from underlying holdings.
American Bitcoin’s defenders point to its reserve growth as a sign of execution. Its bitcoin holdings have expanded sharply since its Nasdaq debut, rising from about 2,443 bitcoins at listing to more than 7,000 by late March 2026. At bitcoin prices near the upper five-figure range, that reserve is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The company has also highlighted lower-cost mining as a central part of its strategy, arguing that self-mined coins can improve long-term accumulation economics.
The counterargument is that much of the company’s bitcoin growth has been supported by share sales and capital-market activity rather than mining alone. That distinction matters because shareholders bear the risk of dilution when companies issue stock to buy more cryptocurrency. A larger bitcoin treasury may not automatically translate into stronger per-share value if the number of shares expands rapidly.
The Trump family connection has added another layer of controversy. President Donald Trump has positioned his administration as supportive of digital assets, while family-linked ventures have expanded across cryptocurrency trading, tokens, mining and treasury companies. That overlap has drawn criticism from ethics experts who argue that policy influence and private-sector crypto investments create perceived conflicts, even where no formal rule is breached.
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Cryptocurrency