Trump Media & Technology Group reported a net loss of more than $238 million for its fiscal second quarter, a figure that dwarfed the roughly $20 million it lost in the same period a year earlier and reflected the company’s deepening exposure to volatile cryptocurrency markets.
The loss, disclosed Monday, was primarily driven by declines in non-cash assets. The company said in a press release that more than $190 million in losses came from what it described as digital assets, digital assets pledged, and equity securities. Revenue for the quarter stood at $1.7 million, an 89% increase from the year-ago quarter, mostly generated through advertising services on Truth Social, the company’s flagship platform used by President Donald Trump.
The scale of the loss matters. Trump Media has yet to turn a profit. The company closed the second quarter with total assets of about $2 billion and financial assets of roughly $1.9 billion, which includes cash, short-term investments, and digital currencies. Markus Thielen, an analyst at 10x Research, told the BBC that Trump Media is effectively a crypto holdings firm wrapped around a media company, and that the bulk of its losses have stemmed from that strategy.
Operating expenses surge as digital asset prices swing
Quarterly operating expenses exceeded $165 million, roughly 275% higher year over year. Chief Financial Officer Phillip Juhan, speaking during the company’s first-ever earnings call, said operating expenses are largely impacted by the price volatility of digital assets. The company has been diversifying beyond its crypto business into areas such as social media, though those ventures have yet to generate significant revenue, Thielen said.
The New York Times reported earlier Monday that Truth Social’s traffic, which already paled in comparison to similar platforms such as Elon Musk’s X, fell sharply this summer.
Truth API targets high-frequency trading firms
In July, Trump Media announced a plan to give Wall Street traders faster access to posts on Truth Social, where Trump frequently makes announcements. The service, called Truth API, has been viewed as a way to give subscribers an edge in trading stocks and other heavily traded assets. The company said it has signed more than 10 customer agreements to date, adding that those clients are primarily high-frequency trading firms paying rates of $60,000 to $100,000 a month.
The move has prompted legal and ethical questions. Critics have raised concerns about whether it is appropriate for a company, of which the president’s family remains the majority shareholder, to potentially profit from his own public statements. The new service is expected to provide the company with a new revenue stream, Trump Media said in its earnings statement.
Interim CEO Kevin McGurn said he was encouraged by the momentum. Shareholders should expect more frequent communication from the company on its progress each quarter as it enters this next chapter, McGurn said in Monday’s earnings call. He told Axios on Friday that the company is pulling back from two agreements it struck with Crypto.com as it focuses on its media business and a pending merger with TAE, a fusion energy firm. McGurn called the combination with TAE the single most important driver of long-term value for the company.
Trump Media & Technology was created after Trump was temporarily suspended from social media platforms in the wake of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. It went public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company and began trading on the Nasdaq in 2024 under the ticker DJT, matching the president’s initials. Truth Social was the company’s first product, but it later expanded into a variety of other industries, including crypto, financial services, and fusion power. There are currently no commercial plants producing electricity using fusion technology. TMTG stock, now worth a fraction of what it fetched when it first started trading, closed down 8% on Monday.