Crypto World
Trump Media killed the CRO treasury deal, and the entire crypto treasury boom may be next
Trump Media and Technology Group terminated its planned Cronos treasury venture with Crypto.com and Yorkville on August 7. The retreat signals that the corporate crypto treasury thesis, built on the premise that holding tokens is a balance sheet strategy, is running into the same saturation problem it was supposed to solve.
Summary
- Trump Media and Technology Group, Crypto.com, and Yorkville Acquisition Corp mutually terminated the CRO Strategy treasury venture on August 7, 2026, ending a deal announced in August 2025 that was billed as the first and largest publicly traded CRO treasury firm with an initial $6.42 billion war chest.
- Interim CEO Kevin McGurn told Axios that saturation among corporate crypto treasury companies drove the decision, not regulatory pressure, and that Trump Media will instead concentrate on Truth Social, data licensing revenue, and a pending merger with fusion energy company TAE.
- The original deal involved Trump Media purchasing approximately $105 million in CRO tokens (684.4 million tokens at roughly $0.153 each) while Crypto.com purchased $50 million in Trump Media shares, creating a cross-investment structure that tied both companies to CRO price performance.
- The retreat follows a $406 million quarterly loss driven by crypto asset markdowns, raising questions about whether token treasury strategies can survive extended periods of price stagnation or modest drawdowns in the assets they are designed to accumulate.
- CRO traded near $0.0513 on August 7 with a market capitalization of roughly $2.4 billion, ranking 38th overall, a fraction of the valuation environment that existed when the deal was structured and announced.
On August 7, 2026, Trump Media interim CEO Kevin McGurn told Axios that the company had terminated the CRO Strategy venture, the services agreement, and the digital asset product suite that accompanied the original deal. The companies also abandoned a related prediction market integration. Yorkville Acquisition Corp, the blank check vehicle created to take the treasury venture public, agreed to the termination. McGurn cited saturation. The treasury sector, he said, had become crowded.
The deal between Trump Media and Crypto.com was announced with the kind of numbers that attract headlines. A $6.42 billion treasury play. A branded entity called Trump Media Group CRO Strategy. A SPAC vehicle to take it public. The premise was simple: acquire CRO tokens at scale, hold them on a public balance sheet, and let market appreciation create shareholder value. The strategy echoed what MicroStrategy had done with Bitcoin, but applied to a token that was orders of magnitude smaller in market capitalization, less liquid, and tied to a single exchange ecosystem. The termination, coming less than a year after the announcement, is not just a deal falling apart. It is the first major public admission that the corporate crypto treasury model may have structural limits that its promoters did not advertise.
What the CRO Strategy deal was supposed to build
The original announcement in August 2025 outlined a multi-layered financial structure. Trump Media would purchase approximately $105 million in CRO tokens, acquiring 684.4 million tokens at a price of roughly $0.153 per token. Crypto.com would purchase $50 million in Trump Media shares, creating a reciprocal ownership link between the media company and the exchange. The two parties would then form Trump Media Group CRO Strategy, a dedicated entity designed to function as a publicly traded digital asset treasury.
Yorkville Acquisition Corp, a blank check company, would serve as the public listing vehicle. The SEC filing described the venture as the first and largest publicly traded CRO treasury firm, a designation that was accurate only because no one else had attempted the same structure with that specific token.
The deal also included a services agreement covering digital asset product development and a prediction market integration called Truth Predict, which would embed betting features inside Truth Social using Crypto.com Derivatives North America as the infrastructure provider.
The combined structure tied Trump Media to CRO price performance in multiple ways: through direct token holdings, through the treasury entity, through the SPAC listing, and through the product integrations that assumed continued engagement with the Cronos blockchain ecosystem. The multi-layered exposure was presented as strategic depth at the time of the announcement. In retrospect, it created a situation where CRO price weakness propagated through every component of the deal simultaneously, amplifying the downside in a way that a simpler structure would not have.
The valuation environment that produced the deal was also unusual. At the time of the announcement, corporate crypto treasuries were attracting premium multiples from investors who treated token accumulation as a growth strategy. Trump Media’s management appears to have structured the CRO Strategy venture to capture that premium. When the premium disappeared and the valuation environment shifted, the economic rationale for the deal evaporated alongside it.
Why the parties walked away
McGurn framed the termination around focus and saturation rather than failure. “We wanted to get focused,” Axios reported him saying. He characterized the crypto treasury sector as overcrowded, arguing that the competitive dynamics had shifted since the deal was announced.
The saturation claim has some factual basis. Between the second half of 2025 and mid 2026, more than 30 public companies announced crypto treasury strategies of various sizes. Most were modeled on the MicroStrategy template: issue equity or convertible debt, buy Bitcoin, and report the holdings as a core balance sheet item. The Trump Media venture stood apart because it targeted CRO rather than Bitcoin, but the underlying logic was the same.
What McGurn did not say is arguably more revealing than what he did. He did not claim the deal was restructured or paused. He confirmed mutual termination, meaning all three parties agreed that the venture no longer served their interests. The services agreement was also terminated. The prediction market integration was downgraded from a full product to a marketing arrangement.
McGurn added that staking CRO had become less central for Crypto.com itself, making a split logical for both sides. That detail matters. If the exchange that issues a token is de-emphasizing it, the case for a third party to build a treasury around it weakens considerably.
The $406 million loss that changed the math
The termination did not occur in a vacuum. Trump Media reported a $406 million quarterly loss earlier in 2026, driven primarily by markdowns on its digital asset holdings. The loss was not a realized trading loss in the traditional sense. It reflected the accounting treatment of crypto assets under fair value rules, where price declines flow directly through the income statement.
For a company with limited operating revenue, a nine figure markdown on token holdings is not a rounding error. It is a thesis test. The crypto treasury model assumes that holding tokens creates long term value for shareholders. But the same model forces the company to report price declines as losses, creating quarterly volatility that public market investors tend to punish.
MicroStrategy, the original corporate Bitcoin treasury, has navigated this problem by leaning into it. The company rebranded as Strategy, made Bitcoin accumulation its primary corporate identity, and attracted a shareholder base that understood and accepted the volatility. Trump Media was not positioned to make the same bet. Its core business is a social media platform. Its shareholders purchased the stock for reasons that included but were not limited to the crypto treasury thesis. When the token holdings produced a loss that exceeded the company’s operating revenue by orders of magnitude, the strategic case for continuing became harder to make.
The regulatory environment added complexity. While McGurn explicitly denied that regulatory pressure drove the termination, the broader landscape has shifted. The GENIUS Act and related legislative efforts have introduced new compliance requirements for companies holding digital assets at scale. Whether those requirements directly affected the CRO Strategy venture or simply increased the cost of maintaining it is an open question that the termination announcement did not address.
The accounting treatment itself deserves closer examination. Under ASC 820, crypto assets held at fair value require quarterly mark to market adjustments. When token prices rise, the company reports unrealized gains that flow through its income statement, inflating earnings in ways that may attract shareholders who mistake accounting gains for operating performance. When prices fall, the reverse occurs, and the company must explain why its core business lost hundreds of millions of dollars in a quarter where nothing operationally changed. The asymmetry between the two scenarios creates a ratchet effect: the company captures enthusiasm during price increases but faces existential questions during declines. For a company like Trump Media, whose operating revenue from Truth Social was in the low tens of millions annually, a $406 million markdown made the treasury strategy the dominant item on the income statement, overshadowing every other aspect of the business.
Truth Predict and the prediction market retreat
The CRO Strategy termination was not the only product that got scaled back. Truth Predict, the prediction market feature that Trump Media unveiled in October 2025, was also restructured.
The original plan embedded betting features inside Truth Social, powered by Crypto.com Derivatives North America. Users would trade prediction market contracts without leaving the social media platform. The integration assumed that Truth Social’s user base represented a captive audience for event contracts on politics, sports, and financial outcomes.
Under the new arrangement, the companies will pursue a marketing partnership rather than a full product integration. Crypto.com will promote its prediction products to Truth Social users, but Trump Media will not operate the back end infrastructure. McGurn argued that the space was already crowded with prediction market operators and that running infrastructure offered little return compared to simply distributing someone else’s product.
The reasoning reveals a broader shift in how Trump Media sees itself. The company is moving away from operating crypto infrastructure and toward licensing its brand and audience as distribution assets. That pivot is visible in its API business, which now serves roughly 10 customers (up from about five), most of whom are high frequency trading firms that feed Truth Social data into algorithmic strategies. McGurn said the company is also courting large language model developers and prediction market platforms as API customers.
The transition from infrastructure operator to data licensor is a meaningful strategic shift. It reduces Trump Media’s exposure to the operational risks of running crypto products while creating revenue streams that do not depend on token price performance. Whether the data licensing business can generate enough revenue to replace the value that was supposed to come from the treasury venture remains to be seen.
The prediction market landscape that existed when Truth Predict was conceived looked different from the one that emerged by mid 2026. At the time of announcement, Polymarket was the dominant player and the only U.S. focused platform with meaningful liquidity. By August 2026, Kalshi had expanded into event contracts for political and financial outcomes, Robinhood had added prediction market features to its mobile app, and several crypto native platforms had launched competing offerings. The window for Truth Social to capture a meaningful share of the prediction market audience had narrowed considerably, and the cost of operating back end infrastructure for a feature that would compete with well funded competitors no longer justified the investment when a simpler marketing arrangement could provide the same user exposure at a fraction of the cost.
The API pivot also reframes Truth Social’s value proposition. Under the treasury model, Truth Social was a distribution channel for crypto products. Under the data licensing model, it is a source of sentiment signals that have value to financial firms. The platform’s concentrated user base, which skews toward politically engaged American adults, generates text and engagement data that reflects a demographic segment that is underrepresented in other social media sentiment feeds. High frequency traders and LLM developers are willing to pay for access to that signal precisely because it is different from what Twitter, Reddit, or Stocktwits provides. The commercial value of the platform may ultimately have less to do with how many users it retains than with how unique the data those users generate is.
What happens to Yorkville and the SPAC structure
Yorkville Acquisition Corp agreed to the termination alongside the other parties. The blank check vehicle was created specifically to take the CRO treasury venture public. Without that venture, the SPAC’s original purpose no longer exists.
However, one piece of the Yorkville structure survives. Yorkville America’s America First ETFs, branded as Truth Social Funds, will continue operating. These funds existed as a separate product line from the SPAC and were not dependent on the CRO Strategy venture for their investment thesis.
The survival of the ETF products while the SPAC terminates illustrates the fragmented nature of the original deal. What was presented as a unified strategic partnership between Trump Media, Crypto.com, and Yorkville was in practice a collection of loosely connected agreements. The treasury venture, the services agreement, the prediction market integration, and the ETF products could be separated because they were never truly integrated at the operational level.
For the broader SPAC market, the termination adds another data point to an already difficult environment. Blank check companies that target crypto related ventures have faced elevated scrutiny from the SEC, and the completion rate for crypto focused SPACs has declined steadily since 2024. The Yorkville termination does not set a legal precedent, but it reinforces the pattern of crypto SPAC deals that announce with fanfare and unwind quietly.
The economics of the SPAC structure also contributed to the deal’s fragility. Blank check companies carry a deadline for completing their acquisition or merger, typically 18 to 24 months from IPO. If the deal is not completed within that window, the SPAC must return capital to shareholders. This deadline pressure means SPAC targets are selected and structured under time constraints that do not always align with the pace at which crypto markets evolve. When the CRO Strategy venture was designed, the crypto treasury thesis was still generating investor enthusiasm. By the time the SPAC needed to close, the market had moved on.
The corporate crypto treasury model under stress
The Trump Media termination arrives at a moment when the corporate crypto treasury thesis is being tested across the industry. The model, popularized by MicroStrategy’s multi-year Bitcoin accumulation campaign, rests on three assumptions. First, that the asset being accumulated will appreciate over time. Second, that public market investors will assign a premium to companies that hold the asset. Third, that the cost of capital used to acquire the asset (equity dilution, convertible debt, operating cash) will be lower than the asset’s long term return.
When those assumptions hold, the strategy works. MicroStrategy’s stock price outperformed Bitcoin itself during periods when all three conditions were met. But the model breaks when any of the three conditions fail. If the asset declines or stagnates, the balance sheet deteriorates. If investors stop assigning a premium, the stock trades at a discount to the value of its holdings. If the cost of capital rises, each new acquisition dilutes existing shareholders more than the asset appreciation can offset.
The Trump Media case exposed a fourth vulnerability specific to non-Bitcoin treasuries. CRO is not Bitcoin. It does not have the same market depth, the same institutional custody infrastructure, or the same regulatory clarity. A treasury strategy built around a mid-cap token tied to a single exchange ecosystem carries concentration risk that Bitcoin treasuries do not. When the issuing exchange itself begins de-emphasizing the token, the treasury holder’s position becomes structurally isolated.
The concentration risk extended beyond token price. CRO is the native token of the Cronos blockchain, which is operated by Crypto.com. Unlike Bitcoin, which has no single issuer or controlling entity, CRO’s value and utility are tied to the decisions of one company. If Crypto.com shifts its product strategy away from the Cronos chain, reduces staking incentives, or faces its own regulatory challenges, the token’s value proposition changes in ways that the treasury holder cannot influence. This dependency on a single counterparty’s strategic choices is a risk category that does not exist in Bitcoin treasury strategies, and it helps explain why the CRO Strategy venture was more fragile than its promoters acknowledged.
The question now is whether the Trump Media termination is an outlier or a leading indicator. At least a dozen other public companies have announced crypto treasury strategies since mid 2025. Most hold Bitcoin, which provides more liquidity and a deeper buyer base. But the smaller companies that adopted the model with limited operating revenue and concentrated token positions face the same pressures that led Trump Media to walk away: quarterly markdowns, shareholder skepticism, and the realization that holding tokens does not generate operating revenue on its own.
There is a structural irony in McGurn’s saturation argument. The treasury model was supposed to give companies a differentiated balance sheet strategy. When one or two companies hold crypto, it is a differentiator. When 30 companies adopt the same playbook, it becomes a crowd trade. The more firms that pile into the strategy, the less novel it becomes to investors and the more correlated the stock prices of those companies become to the underlying token price. At that point, an investor who wants crypto exposure can simply buy the token directly rather than paying a management overhead premium to hold it through a public company. The model works best when few firms use it and breaks down precisely when it succeeds in attracting imitators.
What to watch
CRO price and volume over 30 days. The token traded at $0.0513 on termination day, down roughly 66 percent from the $0.153 purchase price in the original deal. A continued decline would indicate that the treasury venture was providing structural demand that no longer exists.
Quarterly earnings from other crypto treasury companies. If more firms report significant markdowns on token holdings, the pattern of terminations or strategy shifts could accelerate. Watch for language changes in earnings calls, particularly around “strategic review” or “rebalancing” of digital asset positions.
Crypto.com’s Cronos ecosystem activity. McGurn’s comment that staking CRO has become less central for Crypto.com raises questions about the exchange’s own commitment to the token. Watch for changes in staking rewards, validator counts, or DeFi activity on the Cronos chain.
SPAC completion rates for crypto focused deals. The Yorkville termination adds to a growing list of crypto SPACs that failed to complete their intended transactions. A further decline in completion rates would signal broader market skepticism about the SPAC-to-crypto pipeline.
Trump Media’s data licensing revenue in subsequent quarters. The pivot to API sales and LLM partnerships is the replacement thesis. If Truth Social API revenue scales meaningfully, it validates the decision to abandon the treasury model. If it does not, the company will need yet another strategic direction.
The TAE Technologies merger timeline. Trump Media’s pending merger with fusion energy company TAE Technologies represents the next strategic bet after crypto. The valuation assigned to that merger, the SEC review timeline, and shareholder reaction will determine whether the company can execute a pivot away from digital assets without losing its investor base.
Crypto treasury company stock price correlations. If companies that adopted the treasury model begin trading with higher correlation to each other and to bitcoin, it would validate McGurn’s saturation argument. A cluster of small cap treasury companies moving in lockstep suggests that investors treat them as interchangeable bitcoin proxies rather than differentiated businesses, which removes the strategic rationale for the model.
Frequently asked questions
What was the Trump Media CRO Strategy deal?
Trump Media Group CRO Strategy was a planned joint venture between Trump Media and Technology Group, Crypto.com, and Yorkville Acquisition Corp. The venture would have created the first publicly traded company built around a treasury of CRO tokens, with Trump Media purchasing approximately $105 million in CRO and Crypto.com purchasing $50 million in Trump Media shares. Yorkville would have served as the SPAC vehicle to take the venture public.
Why did Trump Media terminate the deal?
Interim CEO Kevin McGurn cited saturation in the corporate crypto treasury sector. He said the competitive landscape had shifted since the deal was announced in August 2025, and that Trump Media wanted to focus on Truth Social, data licensing, and a pending merger with fusion energy company TAE rather than operating crypto infrastructure.
How much did Trump Media lose on its crypto holdings?
Trump Media reported a $406 million quarterly loss driven by markdowns on digital asset holdings. This was an accounting loss under fair value rules rather than a realized trading loss, but it demonstrated the balance sheet volatility that token treasury strategies create for public companies.
What happens to CRO after the deal termination?
CRO traded near $0.0513 on August 7, 2026, with a market capitalization of roughly $2.4 billion. The token was down approximately 66 percent from the $0.153 purchase price in the original deal. The termination removes a source of structural demand, but CRO remains the native token of the Cronos blockchain and continues to be used across the u003ca href=u0022https://crypto.news/kraken-xstocks-tokenized-equity-voting-rights/u0022 target=u0022_blanku0022u003eCrypto.com ecosystemu003c/au003e.
What is Truth Predict and is it still operating?
Truth Predict was a prediction market feature planned for Truth Social, powered by Crypto.com Derivatives North America. The full product integration was downgraded to a marketing arrangement. Crypto.com will promote its prediction products to Truth Social users, but Trump Media will not operate the infrastructure.
How does this compare to MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin treasury strategy?
MicroStrategy (now Strategy) built its treasury around Bitcoin, which has deeper liquidity, broader institutional custody, and clearer regulatory treatment than CRO. MicroStrategy also made Bitcoin accumulation its primary corporate identity, attracting a shareholder base that accepted the volatility. Trump Media’s core business is a social media platform, making the treasury strategy a secondary bet that was harder to sustain when token prices declined.
What is Yorkville Acquisition Corp and does it still exist?
Yorkville Acquisition Corp was a blank check (SPAC) company created to take the CRO Strategy venture public. The SPAC agreed to the mutual termination. However, Yorkville America’s America First ETFs, branded as Truth Social Funds, will continue operating as a separate product line.
Does the termination affect Trump Media’s stock price?
Trump Media trades under the ticker MCGA. The stock was down 0.10 percent on August 7. The longer term impact will depend on whether investors view the termination as a positive (reduced crypto exposure risk) or a negative (loss of a growth catalyst). The company’s pivot to data licensing and the TAE merger will shape the next phase of its valuation narrative. This is educational analysis, not investment advice.u003cemu003eDisclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Cryptocurrency markets carry significant risk. Always conduct independent research before making investment decisions. Information is current as of August 8, 2026.u003c/emu003e
Bitdeer (BTDR) stock fell to its lowest level since March 31, after the crypto miner reported a wider second-quarter loss and revenue that missed Wall Street forecasts.
The Nasdaq-listed miner lost $0.37 per share, wider than the $0.32 expected by analysts. Revenue of $228.8 million also trailed the $231.16 million consensus.
Earnings Miss Overshadows Revenue Growth
Bitdeer’s net loss widened to $92.3 million from $62.9 million a year earlier. The company also swung to a gross loss of $8.5 million from a $12.0 million gross profit, according to its reported results.
The shortfall extended a difficult stretch that followed a $159.5 million deficit in the first quarter. Revenue still climbed 47% to $228.8 million from $155.6 million.
However, the cost of revenue outpaced that gain, rising to $237.3 million on electricity and depreciation charges.
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Mining Output and AI Push Continue
Operationally, the quarter told a stronger story. Self-mining revenue nearly tripled, from $59.3 million to $168.4 million. The gain came as Bitcoin (BTC) mined jumped to 2,694 from 565 a year earlier.
Adjusted EBITDA improved sharply to $31.1 million from $4.6 million over the same period. Bitdeer is also pushing deeper into artificial intelligence infrastructure.
AI Cloud revenue reached $14 million, up from $1.3 million. The CFO framed the period as measured progress.
“Our AI Cloud revenue continues to scale, alongside our mining business as our SEALMINER fleet comes online. Together, these results show the advantage of owning the fully integrated vertical stack, from power, to hardware, and infrastructure,” Michael G. Potter said.
Bitdeer Stock Erases Its Q2 Rally
Meanwhile, the results weighed heavily on the stock. BTDR fell 20.08% on Monday, closing at $8.70, a four-month low.
The slide capped a sharp reversal. BTDR gained roughly 83% in the second quarter, outpacing the broader Bitcoin market.
Since July, however, the stock has dropped 43.7%, and Monday’s decline erased what remained of those gains. Bitdeer’s next earnings update is due in November.
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The post Bitdeer Stock Craters 20% Following Wider Second-Quarter Net Loss appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Luke Dashjr lost his BIP editor privileges after developers raised concerns over his role in BIP 110 and its stalled minority fork.
Trump Media said it is overhauling how it manages its digital-asset portfolio after unrealized losses on cryptocurrencies and securities pushed the company to a $238 million net loss in the second quarter. In its Q2 update released Monday, the business behind Truth Social and financial services brand Truth.Fi said it plans a “revamp” of its treasury approach aimed at keeping long-term crypto exposure while better controlling balance-sheet volatility.
The company attributed $190.4 million in unrealized losses across digital assets, pledged digital assets and equity securities. It also framed the changes as a way to improve the “productivity” of its balance sheet—an emphasis that suggests it intends to continue earning yield and structuring risk around Bitcoin, rather than simply holding spot exposure indefinitely.
Key takeaways
- Trump Media reported $190.4 million in unrealized losses tied to its digital assets, pledged holdings and equity securities during Q2.
- The company plans a new treasury framework to preserve long-term digital-asset exposure while managing volatility and improving balance-sheet efficiency.
- Trump Media’s Q2 filing indicates it already used options to manage Bitcoin volatility and to generate premium income, alongside deploying some BTC into yield arrangements.
- In July, Trump Media increased its Bitcoin exposure after selling Bitcoin-related securities worth $159.6 million and buying BTC with the proceeds.
- Trump Media warned that its Bitcoin yield/carry strategies introduce counterparty credit risk, including potential inability to recover Bitcoin if a counterparty becomes insolvent.
A larger rethink after a heavy Q2 loss
Trump Media said the portfolio losses were a key driver of its Q2 results, which ended in a $238 million net loss. Alongside the headline loss, the company disclosed a specific figure for unrealized drawdowns: $190.4 million spanning digital assets, pledged digital assets and equity securities.
Management’s stated intent for the “revamp” is not to eliminate crypto exposure, but to keep it while refining how the company absorbs and mitigates volatility. That framing matters for investors because it signals an ongoing commitment to crypto-linked strategies—particularly ones that may involve derivatives or lending structures—rather than a full shift toward holding only unencumbered assets.
Trump Media’s broader business context also provides a clue about the internal priorities behind the treasury shift. The company said it plans to direct more resources toward Truth Social, Truth+, and other media segments as part of a capital-allocation change.
Where the Bitcoin stood: little movement in Q2, a jump in July
According to the company’s Q2 reporting, its Bitcoin exposure was relatively stable throughout the second quarter. As of June 30, Trump Media held 9,477.16 BTC, down slightly from 9,542.16 BTC at the end of the prior quarter.
What complicates the picture is that the company also uses Bitcoin in collateral and structured strategies. In addition to its direct holdings, it pledged 2,077.34 BTC as collateral for its options approach. The filing also indicated that 4,260.73 BTC of reported holdings were posted as collateral for convertible notes.
The direction changed in July. Trump Media said it sold Bitcoin-related securities worth $159.6 million and used the proceeds to purchase Bitcoin. By July 31, the company reported holding approximately 14,139 BTC, including pledged Bitcoin, valued at about $890.5 million at the time.
For readers tracking crypto treasury behavior, the sequence is important: Q2 shows modest net spot movement, while July reflects a more decisive increase in aggregate BTC exposure—likely a response to how the company wanted to position itself after the earlier quarter’s unrealized losses.
Options and yield: how Trump Media says it manages volatility
In its Q2 filing, Trump Media described an approach that blends active derivatives management with yield-oriented deployment. The company said it is already using options to help manage Bitcoin volatility and to generate premium income. It also stated that it deploys some BTC through lending and other yield-generating arrangements.
This matters because options and yield structures can change the risk profile of a “Bitcoin holdings” headline. While spot exposure can be a straightforward mark-to-market asset, options premia and collateralized arrangements can introduce additional sensitivities—such as counterparty performance, liquidity, and constraints on how quickly the company can move or liquidate its BTC.
Trump Media also highlighted that the yield/carry strategies are relatively new. That qualifier suggests the company may still be learning how these structures behave under stress conditions, which lines up with its later risk disclosures about counterparties and recoverability.
Risk disclosure: counterparty credit exposure and operational limits
Trump Media warned that its Bitcoin yield strategy creates counterparty credit risk and the possibility of losing assets. The company said it has deployed part of its Bitcoin holdings to third parties via lending, placement and other arrangements designed to earn additional income.
According to the filing, some of these counterparties may not be rated by major credit rating agencies. In that scenario, the company said the counterparties could default during market downturns, liquidity crises or other periods of financial distress.
Trump Media also cautioned that if an arrangement is unsecured, it may be unable to recover its Bitcoin if a counterparty becomes insolvent. Beyond credit risk, it noted operational constraints: when BTC is deployed, the company may have limited ability to sell or pledge it, and counterparties may be able to use the assets at their discretion.
These are the kinds of details that can significantly affect investor expectations. Even if a treasury strategy is designed to reduce volatility or generate income, counterparty failure risk can turn income strategies into loss drivers—especially if recovery terms are weak or assets are not fully secured.
What to watch next
As Trump Media moves to implement its revamped digital-asset treasury framework, investors should focus on how the company structures options, how much BTC remains unencumbered versus pledged, and whether its new approach reduces reliance on unsecured or hard-to-recover yield arrangements during stress periods. The next quarterly filing will likely be the clearest window into whether the framework stabilizes results without increasing counterparty risk.
That makes $70,000 the next area to watch, another round number with the 200-day moving average sitting nearby. Clearing it would put bitcoin above the range where buyers and sellers fought through March and April, a move Kuptsikevich said would shift sentiment meaningfully.
Traders are not there yet. The crypto sentiment index sits at 30, in what is known as the fear zone, and has stayed there since mid-July with occasional dips toward extreme fear.
Bonds and oil set the tone in broader markets. U.S. 10-year Treasury yields rose six basis points on Monday to 4.71%, dragging Australian and New Zealand government bonds down with them, with no cash Treasury trading during Asian hours because of a public holiday in Japan.
Brent crude held at $87.73 a barrel after jumping 5% on Monday, when President Donald Trump made fresh demands on Iran and dimmed hopes of a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Gold rose for a third session above $4,400 an ounce.
Higher oil feeds into the inflation figures due Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. ET, which is why the rally is weighing on assets that do better when rate rises look less likely.
Fund flows had been running the other way until this week. U.S. spot bitcoin funds took in $865 million across five sessions through Aug. 7, before a provisional outflow of $91 million on Monday.
Keel Infrastructure has shut down all of its U.S. Bitcoin mining operations as the former Bitfarms business redirects its American power portfolio toward artificial intelligence and high performance computing data centers.
Summary
- Keel ended all U.S. Bitcoin mining operations on June 29 to prepare sites for HPC.
- Q2 revenue fell 50% yearly to $30 million as mining activity and Bitcoin prices weakened.
- Keel sold 1,085 BTC for $75 million, leaving 1,861 BTC on its balance August 7.
- $819 million in liquidity includes $698 million cash and $121 million in unencumbered Bitcoin reserves.
- U.S. sites in Washington and Pennsylvania have not yet generated any HPC data center revenue.
The company disclosed the transition on Aug. 10 alongside second quarter results showing revenue fell 50% from a year earlier to $30.4 million. Net loss reached about $65 million.
The move brings an end to Bitcoin mining at Keel’s sites in Washington and Pennsylvania, but it does not represent a complete exit from mining worldwide. The Delaware based company continues to operate legacy Bitcoin mining assets in Canada while pursuing approvals to convert more Canadian capacity toward HPC and AI workloads.
Keel Infrastructure ends U.S. Bitcoin mining
Keel’s SEC filing shows that the U.S. withdrawal happened in stages. Bitcoin mining at its Washington State site ended on April 28 as the company began converting the location into an 18 MW HPC data center. Mining then ceased at Panther Creek, Scrubgrass and Sharon in Pennsylvania on June 29.
The change is particularly relevant to Keel’s U.S. operations because the company is now trying to reuse power infrastructure originally built around cryptocurrency mining. Panther Creek and Scrubgrass continued selling electricity after their miners were switched off. They had about 60 MW and 63 MW of energized capacity, respectively, that had not been contracted under an electric supply agreement as of Aug. 7. Sharon is being prepared for a planned 110 MW HPC data center.
Keel has also changed its corporate center of gravity. The former Bitfarms completed its redomiciliation from Canada to the United States on April 1. Keel became a Delaware corporation, a U.S. domestic issuer and the ultimate parent of the Bitfarms business. Its common stock trades on Nasdaq under the KEEL ticker.
Bitcoin sales give Keel more cash for the AI shift
Keel’s latest release also shows its Bitcoin treasury continuing to shrink. Between April 1 and Aug. 7, the company sold 1,085 BTC for roughly $75 million. Its remaining balance stood at 1,861 BTC, valued by the company at approximately $121 million for liquidity purposes.
Management made clear that further disposals are planned. During its earnings presentation, Keel said its “intent is to liquidate our Bitcoin position in 2026.” That remains a management plan rather than a completed transaction, meaning the timing and proceeds from the remaining BTC are still dependent on future sales.
Total liquidity reached approximately $819 million as of Aug. 7, comprising $698 million of unrestricted cash and $121 million of unencumbered Bitcoin. That compares with about $533 million of liquidity reported in May, as previously reported in earlier earnings coverage.
Keel also raised $458 million through 1.25% convertible senior notes due in 2032 during the second quarter. Management said the capital is intended in part to support additional power capacity at its Pennsylvania properties, including Panther Creek and Scrubgrass.
Q2 losses show the cost of leaving Bitcoin mining
The transition is already visible in Keel’s financial results. Revenue from continuing operations fell to $30.4 million from $60.9 million a year earlier. Bitcoin mining revenue alone declined by $29.6 million as the company dealt with lower average Bitcoin prices, higher network difficulty and reduced U.S. mining activity.
The U.S. portion of the decline was substantial. U.S. operations generated 37% of second quarter revenue, down from 51% a year earlier. Revenue from U.S. operations fell by $19.9 million compared with Q2 2025, with Keel citing the Bitcoin market, higher network difficulty and the April shutdown in Washington.
Keel recorded a $141 million operating loss, compared with operating income of about $11 million one year earlier. Net loss was $65 million, while the loss from continuing operations was $64 million. The quarter also included large noncash depreciation charges tied partly to the retirement of mining infrastructure at Panther Creek and Scrubgrass.
General and administrative expenses increased to $31.3 million from $19.4 million. Keel attributed the rise partly to stock compensation, professional costs connected with its U.S. redomiciliation and hiring staff for its expansion into data center development.
The strategy follows a broader move by listed miners to reuse power intensive Bitcoin infrastructure for AI computing. In related broader industry coverage, several miners have redirected capital and electrical capacity toward AI hosting as mining economics weakened during 2026.
What happens next for Keel’s U.S. data centers
The next test is whether Keel can convert retired mining sites into contracted AI infrastructure. As of Aug. 7, the company had not begun HPC operations or recognized HPC data center revenue at the Washington site or its Pennsylvania properties. That makes the current transition primarily a development story rather than an established new revenue stream.
Keel says commercial talks are advancing. Chief executive Ben Gagnon said there were “multiple prospective tenants negotiating for each one” of the company’s three priority sites. However, Keel has not publicly named those prospective tenants or announced a signed customer lease for the sites in its latest results. The customer negotiations therefore remain a company reported commercial process rather than booked revenue.
Permitting is also unfinished. Panther Creek and Sharon have received zoning and land development approvals, while environmental permits remain in progress. Panther Creek has 350 MW of secured utility capacity, and management said its earliest expected ready for service date remains in 2027.
Keel has not abandoned Bitcoin mining everywhere. Its Canadian mining assets remain operational while it pursues further HPC conversions, including a proposed 96 MW data center campus in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Local approval has been obtained for the power transfer, although the change to HPC and AI use remains subject to provincial review.
For Keel, the U.S. pivot has therefore moved beyond planning: the miners are now off, mining equipment has been designated for sale and capital has been raised. The remaining milestones are more difficult to measure in advance. Permits must be completed, tenants must sign contracts, construction must proceed and the former mining sites must begin producing HPC revenue before the new model can be judged on operating performance.
Eli Lilly (LLY) posted a blowout quarter, and Mad Money says the GLP-1 drugmaker’s stock story is far from over.
Jim Cramer and CNBC analyst Jeff Marks called Eli Lilly and Nvidia top momentum stocks.
Why Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 Stock Still Has Room to Run
The comment came during a viewer question about how price targets get set. Cramer raised Eli Lilly and Nvidia’s runs specifically when asking about the process.
Marks, the CNBC Investing Club’s portfolio analyst, said stocks like these need a longer time horizon than most.
“Stocks like that you also have to look out years out in advance, too. Especially in the case of Eli Lilly, where it’s more of towards the end of the decade is where it’s GLP-1 sales.”
— Jeff Marks, CNBC Investing Club portfolio analyst, on Mad Money
Eli Lilly’s second-quarter results back that framing. Revenue hit $23 billion, up 48% year over year. A 60% jump in sales volume offset a 13% drop in realized prices.
Management raised full-year revenue guidance to a range of $85 billion to $87 billion. Mounjaro sales rose 91% to $9.9 billion worldwide. Zepbound’s U.S. revenue grew 44% to $4.9 billion.
Cramer’s other 2026 stock picks lean on similarly durable, multi-year themes rather than short-term trades.
Global GLP-1 Demand Is Still Early
Eli Lilly’s international business is growing even faster than its U.S. business. Revenue outside the U.S. jumped 80% to $8.6 billion in the quarter, while volume surged 113%.
That growth came even as prices outside the U.S. fell 36%. The decline followed Mounjaro’s addition to China’s National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL), a program covering drug costs under public insurance.
Lower prices widen access for millions of new patients, even as they compress near-term margins. Morgan Stanley expects the global obesity and diabetes drug market to nearly double by 2035.
The firm projects $190 billion in sales, up from $79 billion in 2025. Oral GLP-1 pills and expanding insurance coverage are the main drivers behind that forecast.
For Marks and Cramer, runway and scale are why Eli Lilly’s momentum looks built for years, not quarters.
The post Cramer’s Analyst Says Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 Stock Rally Has Years Left to Run appeared first on BeInCrypto.
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Crypto World
U.S. SEC sets meeting to propose Reg Crypto to support certain digital assets offerings
“We view this as the first of several rulemakings the SEC will undertake to provide regulatory certainty for crypto assets after the Senate failed before the August recess to advance the Clarity Act on crypto market structure,” TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg wrote in a client note sent after the SEC’s notice.
The proposal is expected to give a path to crypto firms enabling them to raise capital for projects without triggering SEC registration requirements, and the businesses are also expected to be provided an exit path for getting clear of the agency’s jurisdiction when they’re not engaged in hands-on management of the projects anymore.
Before this, Atkins and the agency had rolled through a lengthy series of crypto policy statements meant to clarify its regulatory position on digital assets, but the staff statements have little long-term durability. A formal rulemaking would be more difficult to reverse in the future.
But the rule will likely take further months to develop and finalize. This first stage will come with a comment period — typically two or three months — and be followed by a potentially lengthy rewrite.
Reg Crypto would join some of the other significant steps the agency has taken or is still working on to foster the U.S. crypto industry. One of the major moves was a joint stance with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on a “taxonomy” to define how they view various crypto assets and which jurisdictions they belong in. The agency is also still working on its tokenized securities approach, which Atkins routinely mentions as one of the SEC’s marquee crypto maneuvers.
Arthur Hayes says a Fed plan to help Japan defend the yen will print new dollar liquidity, and he argues that liquidity will pump Bitcoin (BTC).
Hayes co-founded BitMEX and now runs the Maelstrom family office. He has built a reputation for macro calls that tie Fed and Treasury policy moves directly to crypto prices.
How A Yen Rescue Becomes Dollar Liquidity
The mechanism he describes is real, though its scale is not yet confirmed. It runs through the Foreign and International Monetary Authorities (FIMA) Repo Facility, a Fed program that lets foreign governments post US Treasuries as collateral for short-term dollar loans, instead of selling those Treasuries outright.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said Japan holds $1.143 trillion in US Treasuries. Under Hayes’ scenario, Tokyo repos part of that stockpile for dollars, sells the dollars for yen, and reinvests the yen into domestic bonds and stocks.
The Fed’s balance sheet grows to fund each loan, which is functionally similar to printing money, though the Fed frames it as a lending facility rather than quantitative easing (QE).
Hayes’ bet is that these dollars do not stay contained. BTC, in his view, is one of the most liquidity-sensitive assets in the market.
Why The Fed Balance Sheet Matters For Bitcoin
During the pandemic, the Fed’s balance sheet grew from roughly $4.2 trillion to nearly $8.9 trillion by early 2022, an increase of more than $4.6 trillion in asset purchases, according to Federal Reserve research.
Over that stretch, the Bitcoin price ran from under $10,000 to an all-time high near $69,000 in November 2021. Hayes treats that stretch as the template.
There is a second layer. The yen is the world’s cheapest major funding currency, meaning traders borrow yen cheaply to buy other assets. A sudden yen spike forces those trades to unwind fast, which dragged down stocks and crypto together in August 2024.
Hayes argues that routing the rescue through FIMA lets the unwind happen gradually. A sharp Bank of Japan (BOJ) rate hike, by contrast, risks a repeat of that 2024 shock, which he says makes FIMA the friendlier path for BTC.
The Administration Side Checks Out, So Far
Bessent asked the Fed to expand FIMA’s $60 billion lending cap. This was days after the US and Japan jointly intervened to support the yen. He called the facility an important backstop and said he wants its cap raised in the months ahead.
Not everyone agrees FIMA is the right tool. Brad Setser, a former Treasury official, has argued the facility was built to backstop lending in moments of market stress, not to fund currency intervention.
Any cap increase also needs sign-off from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh has not committed to a schedule. Hayes treats the expansion as close to certain. The Fed has not.
Hayes’ own newsletter discloses that Maelstrom is already long Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), and Ethena (ENA). These are the same assets he says this liquidity will lift.
The post Arthur Hayes Says Fed’s Japan Yen Plan Will Pump Bitcoin appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Trump Media said it plans to revamp its digital asset treasury strategy after unrealized losses on crypto and securities helped push the company to a $238 million net loss in the second quarter.
The company reported $190.4 millio n in unrealized losses across its digital assets, pledged digital assets and equity securities in its Q2 earnings release on Monday.
Trump Media said the new framework is intended to preserve its long-term digital asset exposure while managing volatility and improving the productivity of its balance sheet.
Trump Media is the publicly traded company behind Truth Social, Truth+ and financial services brand Truth.Fi. The company is tied to US President Donald Trump, who is the sole beneficiary of a trust that held about 41.1% of Trump Media’s voting power as of Feb. 25, according to its latest annual report.
Related: Trump Media sells Wall Street low-latency access to Trump posts
Its Q2 filing shows the company is already using options to manage Bitcoin volatility and generate premium income, while deploying some BTC through lending and other yield-generating arrangements.
The company also said it plans to direct more resources toward Truth Social, Truth+ and other parts of its media business as part of a broader shift in how it allocates capital.
Trump Media boosts Bitcoin holdings after Q2
Trump Media’s Bitcoin holdings were little changed during the second quarter before the company stepped up its direct Bitcoin exposure in July.
As of June 30, Trump Media held 9,477.16 Bitcoin, down from 9,542.16 BTC at the end of the previous quarter.
Separately, the company had pledged 2,077.34 BTC as collateral for its options strategy. Of its reported holdings, 4,260.73 BTC was serving as collateral for convertible notes.
Related: Strategy turns 1,690 BTC into $108.6M STRC buyback
In July, the company sold Bitcoin-related securities worth $159.6 million and used the proceeds to purchase Bitcoin.
By July 31, Trump Media reported holding approximately 14,139 BTC, including pledged Bitcoin, worth about $890.5 million at the time.
Trump Media flags risks from Bitcoin yield strategy
Trump Media also warned that its efforts to earn additional income from its Bitcoin carry counterparty credit risk and the potential loss of its assets.
The company said it has deployed a portion of its Bitcoin holdings to third parties through lending, placement and other yield-generating arrangements, which it described as relatively new strategies.
Some of those counterparties may not be rated by major credit rating agencies and could default during market downturns, liquidity crises or other financial distress.
If an arrangement is unsecured, the company said it may be unable to recover its Bitcoin if a counterparty becomes insolvent. Trump Media is also limited in its ability to sell or pledge Bitcoin while it is deployed, while counterparties may use those assets at their discretion.
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