Trump Media, Crypto.com to Build $6.4B CRO Treasury Firm, CRO Jumps 25%

Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT) said it agreed to form a joint venture with Crypto.com that will invest in the exchange's CRO token as a treasury asset and go public by combining with a special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC).

As part of the agreement, Trump Media will buy about $105 million worth of CRO, roughly 2% of the token’s total market cap, while Crypto.com will buy $50 million in Trump Media stock. CRO surged after the announcement, taking its 24-hour gain to 25%, according to CoinDesk data. It was recently 22% higher at 19.60 cents. DJT shares rose 3.5% to $17.82.

The venture will be called Trump Media Group CRO Strategy Inc. and plans to merge with Yorkville Acquisition Corp (YORK). It will trade under the ticker MCGA, which stands for “Make CRO Great Again,” Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said on X. The company will become the world’s largest holder of CRO with around 6.3 billion tokens, valued at roughly $1 billion at the time of announcement.

The move comes as publicly traded companies worldwide are jumping into crypto, buying assets including bitcoin BTC$90,301.29 and ether ETH$3,113.55 as core investments and restyling themselves as crypto treasury companies even as their day-to-day operations still rely on industries as varied as such as pharmaceuticals, software development and online casino gaming.

The trend was kicked off in 2020 by Strategy (MSTR), which now owns $69 billion worth of BTC. More than 3.6 million BTC valued at $396 billion is held in treasuries across 174 public companies and 60 private companies, according to bitcointreasuries.net.

Several companies are also buying altcoins, with billions of dollars being spent acquiring tokens like solana SOL$132.79 and ether ETH).

Marszalek described the initiative as “a historic day for CRO,” pointing to an initial $200 million in cash earmarked for further token purchases, plus additional commitments that could bring total available funds to around $420 million, alongside a $5 billion credit line.

“This presents a differentiated opportunity for investors in the digital asset treasury space,” he said, adding that the mission of Trump Media Group CRO Strategy is to maximize what he called a “flywheel effect,” which involves raising funds to acquire more CRO.

The deal includes the creation of a new rewards system that will allow users to convert platform “gems” into CRO tokens, with further plans to enable subscription payments and discounted services using CRO.

Trump Media said it will custody and stake its CRO holdings with Crypto.com for additional revenue.

Despite a wider market sell-off over the past week, CRO performed well in the lead up to the news being released, rising from to 16 cents from 14 cents. Trading volume rose by 700% in the past 24 hours to $310 million, according to CoinMarketCap.

UPDATE (AUG. 26, 14:10 UTC): Adds joint venture company in first paragraph, background on crypto treasury companies starting in fourth and CRO price action leading up to announcement.
UPDATE (Aug. 26, 15:45 UTC): Changes lead photo.