Trump Triples Down on Bitcoin with Media Company's $3B Treasury Plans
Trump's DJT announced plans to scoop up nearly $3 billion in Bitcoin after denying reports
It may be a short week, but crypto is continuing to ride high on a swarm of positive momentum builders, including Trump’s media company announcing a new Bitcoin treasury, right as Bitcoin2025 kicks off in Las Vegas. Plus, one of the top companies in the space gears up to test public markets with a major IPO.
Here are all the top stories in crypto — including what we learned from the Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. French Hill (R-AR) at Solana’s conference in New York City. (As always you can catch our live video recap of these stories and more on our weekly X Space.)
Trump Triples Down on Bitcoin
Michael Saylor’s Strategy has seen growing competition for high-profile Bitcoin buys from a publicly traded company, and now President Trump’s media company Trump Media & Technology Group ($DJT) may be giving him a run for his money.
After denying reports from “dumb writers” over the weekend after the Financial Times reported on a potential $2.5 billion debt and stock sale to buy Bitcoin, the company behind Truth Social made it official on Monday. DJT sold $1.5 billion in the Company’s common stock and $1 billion in convertible notes and plans to use those proceeds to establish a Bitcoin treasury. The stock slid by about 10% on the day.
Stablecoins The Talk of The Town
As much as the narrative may seemingly shift to Bitcoin this week, it’s interesting to consider just how much stage time has been given to stablecoins.
At Solana’s conference in New York this week, Friday featured a plethora of power players in Congress. Not only was Rep. Ritchie Torres there, but so was Sen. Bill Hagerty — co-sponsor or the all-important GENIUS Act in the Senate. But we sat down with Chair of the Financial Services Committee French Hill to get his take on stalled progress on the push to finally codify the rules on stablecoins.
He told us that getting Trump’s full crypto agenda (the stablecoin bill and a broader market structure framework) across the finish line is still possible before the August recess.
“We need to see the success in the Senate in the next two or three weeks when they pass their GENIUS Stablecoin Act,” he told me. “What amendments will they take? What will be the structure of it at the end of the day from that sausage making, and then we'll consult with them on how best to deal with it in the House.”
Even while hopes were dashed that it might pass before Memorial Day, things sound like they are back on track in a major way.
USDC-Issuer Gears Up for IPO
That may explain why the second-largest stablecoin player, Circle, is back in IPO mode, targeting a $6.7 billion valuation. The company unveiled an updated S-1 on Monday as it seeks to go public since it last tried at a $9 billion valuation in an abandoned 2022 SPAC deal that came in the shadows of the FTX collapse.
But now, as Congress seeks to deliver on stamping stablecoins into legislation, Circle may be riding an even larger wave. Perhaps that is also why Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has also signaled plans to buy up to $150 million in CRCL shares.
It also may explain why Fundstrat’s Sean Farrell is still confident in his $175K Bitcoin target — not just based on speculation, but on actual policy progress. “There's a lot of capital waiting for defined rules,” he told us. “This could be the thing that gets it off the sidelines.”
But it’s not just Bitcoin. Ethereum, after lagging for most of the year, is now showing signs of life. Yes, we’ve been here before — maybe eight times, if you’re keeping count. But with Ethereum now pushing back above key levels we raised last week and traders rotating out on the risk curve, there’s reason to think it could finally be ETH’s turn. If so, altseason may not be far behind.
Crypto Kidnappings on the Rise?
Meanwhile, there’s been no shortage of darker stories. An Italian crypto investor visiting New York was allegedly kidnapped and tortured by one of Kentucky’s “crypto kings.” John Woeltz, 37, was arrested that same day and was arraigned Saturday on one count each of second-degree assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm, court records show.
Woeltz is alleged to have participated in the attempt to force the 28-year-old investor to share his passwords by beating him, shocking him with electric wires and hitting him over the head with a gun, according to a criminal complaint.
In another (albeit less violent) extortion attempt, just this weekend Solana co-founder Raj Gokal appeared to be the latest blackmail target after hackers who took over Migos’ Instragram shared KYC photos from Gokal and his wife.
Gokal poked fun at the leak on X, reminding people to always dress smart when submitting KYC photos.
A Bitcoin Layer-2 Kicker
As a record amount of money continues to flow into Bitcoin, there are a number of Bitcoin scaling projects continuing to gain steam. One of them is Stacks, which announced a new proposal today to set up an endowment to lean into accelerating adoption.
We caught up with Stacks co-founder Muneeb Ali to dig into what comes next for Bitcoin DeFi.
That’s all for now — we’ll continue to cover the latest happenings from New York and Las Vegas this week. And as always, if you want to shape what we cover next — join the Coinage DAO and vote with us. The conversation (and the coverage) continues at coinage.media.