Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, lost $238 million in the second quarter as the value of its cryptocurrency holdings declined.
The company said the loss, between April and June, was more than 10 times the loss it reported for the same period a year earlier.
Trump Media posted quarterly revenue of $1.7 million, an 89% increase from the prior-year period, even as losses widened sharply.
The company said the overall loss was due to a decrease in the value of its digital properties. It said it ended the quarter with approximately $2 billion in total assets, including approximately $1.9 billion in financial assets that include cash, short-term investments and digital currencies.
Trump Media has expanded its business recently beyond its core social media operations, building up a sizeable stake in cryptocurrency and exploring investments in areas including clean energy.
The company’s financial results reflect a strategy that has been heavily focused on cryptocurrency holdings along with its media operations, said Markus Thielen, an analyst at 10x Research. “The bulk of its losses have come from that strategy,” Thielen told the BBC.
The company has yet to turn an annual profit as it tries to develop new sources of revenue.
Enter financial information
Trump Media is also trying to expand Truth Social’s reach into financial markets.
In July, the company announced a service that would let subscribers get posts from influential Truth Social users more quickly. The move aims to give market participants faster access to information that could influence trading decisions.
Trump regularly uses Truth Social to make political and policy announcements, raising questions about the service’s market impact.
The effort has also raised legal and ethical questions because Trump’s family remains a large shareholder in Trump Media, which raises questions about whether the company will profit from access to information posted by the president.
The service will likely be another revenue stream, Trump Media said in its earnings statement.
Interim Chief Executive Kevin McGurn said more than 10 customers had signed up for the service and added the company planned to give shareholders more regular progress updates.
But for now, the company’s financial performance is mostly a function of the value of its cryptocurrency and other financial assets, not the revenues it generates from its media operations.
