The Trump family is deepening its involvement in cryptocurrency with a major move into bitcoin (BTC) mining, according to a Hut 8 press release.

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are merging their firm, American Data Centers, with a new mining venture called American Bitcoin, taking a 20% stake in the company. The remaining 80% will be owned by Hut 8, a publicly traded crypto infrastructure firm, which is contributing nearly 61,000 mining machines to the new entity. According to the release, no cash changed hands in the deal.

Eric Trump, who will serve as American Bitcoin’s chief strategy officer, describes the initiative as aligned with the family’s focus on hard assets, likening digital currencies to real estate. He emphasized plans to build a “bitcoin reserve” and potentially take the company public.

Although American Bitcoin is separate from the Trump Organization, it may eventually collaborate with World Liberty Financial—the DeFi project launched by the Trump brothers.

Hut 8 will host the mining operations in its 11 U.S. data centers. CEO Asher Genoot said low energy costs and scalable infrastructure will give American Bitcoin a competitive edge.

The board of directors will include Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen and FabFitFun co-founder Michael Broukhim. Despite criticism over bitcoin mining’s environmental impact, Eric Trump believes lower U.S. energy costs will help American miners outpace global competitors.

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

UPDATE (March 31, 12:50 UTC): Updates story with Hut 8's confirmation.

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