Donald Trump’s namesake Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) wants to launch a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, marking another way the US president could participate financially in a digital asset surge that followed his election.
The announcement of plans for the “Bitcoin Plus ETF” came this past week as Trump Media said it had filed to register trademarks for a series of ETFs under its new Truth.Fi brand, including a “Made in America ETF” and “U.S. Energy Independence ETF.”
The pitch from Trump Media, which is majority-owned by the president, is that investors will be able to get exposure to areas that align with the president’s economic priorities.
“We aim to give investors a means to invest in American energy, manufacturing, and other firms that provide a competitive alternative to the woke funds and debanking problems that you find throughout the market,” Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said in a press release.
“We’re exploring a range of ways to differentiate our products, including strategies related to bitcoin.”
The announcement was the latest example of how Trump may be able to benefit from investor bullishness about cryptocurrencies while also encouraging more favorable regulation of the industry in Washington, D.C.
Last year, while campaigning, Trump pledged to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet,” and just before taking office his team launched the official meme coin for the 47th president (TRUMP) along with one for first lady Melania Trump (MELANIA) on the Solana (SOL) blockchain.
Fight Fight Fight LLC and CIC Digital LLC, an affiliate of The Trump Organization, own 80% of the meme coin’s total supply, subject to a three-year unlocking schedule, according to a disclosure on the meme coin’s website.
Trump and his sons are also backers of World Liberty Financial, a separate crypto project they have promoted on social media.
In Trump’s first week in office he signed an executive action that created a presidential group to coordinate the establishment of clear regulation for the digital assets industry and directed the new working group to evaluate “the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile.”
The group will be chaired by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and include the Treasury secretary, SEC chair, and other various financial regulatory heads.
Trump reiterated his support for the industry during a virtual speech at the World Economic Forum last month, saying he planned to make the US “the world capital of artificial intelligence and crypto.”
