A media group owned by the family of U.S. President Donald Trump has ultimately fallen into a large-scale deficit. The cause was unrealized losses from Bitcoin holdings that the company had aggressively purchased, with the cryptocurrency trading far below its purchase price and dragging down earnings.
According to Bloomberg on the 10th (local time), Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) recorded a net loss of $405.9 million, or about 598 billion won, in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. The company, of which President Trump is listed as the largest shareholder with a 41% stake, absorbed losses of nearly 600 billion won in just one quarter.
The source of the loss is clear. It was the collapse in the valuation of cryptocurrency the company had held as an asset.
Buying at the peak, unable to get out
According to crypto analytics site CoinGecko, TMTG began its full-scale Bitcoin accumulation in July last year. At the time, Bitcoin was trading at around $108,519 per coin on average, near its all-time high.
Prices then began to fluctuate. In February this year, TMTG sold 2,000 Bitcoins at around $70,000 each, taking a loss to do so. However, it is reported to still hold more than 9,500 Bitcoins.
Bitcoin is now above the $80,000 level, a partial recovery. Still, it remains well below the average purchase price. The larger the holding, the greater the valuation loss inevitably becomes.
In other words, the decision by a media company to pour money into digital assets unrelated to its core business has shaken its quarterly results.
The path taken by the Truth Social parent company
TMTG was created after President Trump had his Twitter, now X, account suspended following the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The idea was to build a space where his statements would not be controlled by others. It is the parent company of the social networking service Truth Social and also operates TMTG News, among others.
The start was glamorous. At the time Truth Social was founded in early 2022, the stock price surged to $97.54. The market was energized by expectations for a media platform tied to the Trump political brand.
The trajectory since then has moved in the opposite direction. As of the close on the 8th, the stock stood at $8.93, more than 90% below its peak.
Executive departures amid weak earnings
Signs of instability are also visible inside the company. Devin Nunes, who resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives in 2021 and took the CEO position at TMTG, left the company as of the 22nd of last month.
CEO turnover alone cannot be taken as an immediate sign of crisis. Still, the fact that widening losses, a plunging stock price, and the resignation of a key executive are aligned in one direction is not something that can be easily dismissed.
The essence of a media company is content and users. For TMTG, its social network Truth Social and news services should be the foundation of revenue. Yet the key variable that shattered this quarter’s earnings was neither content nor users, but the Bitcoin sitting in the company’s treasury.
A risky marriage for a political brand company
From the market’s perspective, a listed media company whose assets are tied to the wealth of a presidential family and whose quarterly earnings swing with the price of digital currencies is a burden in itself. It means that factors unrelated to the fundamentals of the media business determine profit and loss.
If Bitcoin recovers to TMTG’s purchase price, the valuation loss could flip into unrealized gains. If not, the losses will deepen further. Either way, the connection to the core business is weak.
As TMTG, which brands itself as a media company but has effectively transformed into a large-scale crypto holder, decides how to manage its assets going forward will likely become the key turning point for next quarter’s results.
The fact that the controlling shareholder is a sitting president could either support market confidence or, depending on political conditions, make the company more vulnerable. It carries that dual nature as well.