The US-based Trump media and technology group announced a partnership with a cryptocurrency exchange to award digital tokens to its shareholders.

The announcement corresponded with a slight rise in the company’s shares on Wednesday, with shares up 5% as of 11am ET (16:00 GMT).

Trump Media is majority owned by eponymous US President Donald Trump, who has been a strong advocate of cryptocurrencies, especially during his second term.

The company explained in a press release that it will be partnering with Singaporean firm Crypto.com to offer shareholders one digital token for every entire share they own.

There is no timetable for the plan, but Trump Media said the tokens will be available “in the near future.”

It added that “various rewards” will be “available to token holders regularly throughout the year,” including “benefits and discounts” related to Trump’s social media platform Truth Social and its affiliated streaming platform Truth+.

“We look forward to leveraging Crypto.com’s blockchain technology and increasing regulatory transparency to implement this first-of-its-kind token distribution,” Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said in a press release.

Building an “encrypted capital”

Wednesday’s announcement is not Trump’s first foray into cryptocurrency, nor is it Trump Media’s first collaboration with Crypto.com.

If anything, Trump has described himself as the “crypto president” during his second term.

Part of his latest agenda is to roll back regulations and end investigations that he believes are holding back cryptocurrencies.

To that end, Trump has repeatedly pledged to make the United States the “cryptocurrency capital of the world,” echoing similar pledges by other right-wing leaders including Argentina’s Javier Mire and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele.

Crypto.com is one of the companies benefiting from this push.

In October 2024, Crypto.com announced that it had filed a lawsuit against the federal government, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allegedly issued a “Wells Notice” to the company, indicating the possibility of imminent regulatory action.

But government investigations into Crypto.com and other digital currency platforms were quickly dropped after Trump’s second term began in January.

Trump, a Republican, has described the investigations and prosecutions as attacks on innovation and accused his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, of unfairly targeting the crypto industry.

“My administration is also working hard to end the federal bureaucracy’s war on cryptocurrency, which has been really intense under the Biden administration,” Trump said at a cryptocurrency leaders roundtable in March, praising cryptocurrency leaders as “highly intelligent people.”

In the same month, the Trump administration announced the establishment of a “strategic reserve” at the U.S. Treasury Department, which includes the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and digital asset reserves.

The government has also taken other steps to push cryptocurrencies into the mainstream, including promoting their use in retirement accounts.

This month, Trump issued an executive order preventing states from imposing their own cryptocurrency restrictions, arguing that such action would create a cumbersome patchwork of rules.

But critics warn that a lack of regulation of cryptocurrencies and the industry’s reliance on loans could lead to investment volatility. This, in turn, could leave consumers vulnerable to significant losses.

Still, the digital currency industry has responded to Trump’s efforts, embracing the Republican leader, with companies donating millions of dollars to his 2025 inaugural fund.

Crypto.com was among the companies that donated to the inauguration and to super PACs (political action committees) associated with the president.

In addition, Trump Media has established an increasingly close relationship with Crypto.com.

In August, for example, the two companies announced that Trump Media would serve as a vault for one of Crypto.com’s assets, the digital currency Cronos.

Then, in October, Trump Media unveiled plans to partner with Crypto.com to create a market prediction platform called Truth Predict.

Such platforms are sometimes called betting markets because they allow users to bet money on the outcome of world events, including political elections.

Although Trump has placed many of his shares in Trump Media into a revocable trust overseen by his son Eric, he still stands to benefit from any gains made by the company.

Critics accuse business leaders of trying to influence the president by supporting his family’s financial interests and corporate ventures.

Still, Trump Media has struggled to gain a foothold since its inception in 2021.

Its signature product, social media platform Truth Social, continues to lag behind competitors, with a relatively low estimated monthly user count of 6 million.

In recent weeks, however, the company has sought to diversify its portfolio and generate new momentum, including announcing a merger with fusion energy company TAE Technologies.