Trump Media abandons crypto and scraps CRO plans

Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, is taking a significant step back from crypto. The company is ending two collaborations with Crypto.com and is also largely dropping more extensive plans for a prediction market on Truth Social. Axios reports this based on a conversation with acting CEO Kevin McGurn.

In brief:

• Trump Media is ending a joint digital asset management project with Crypto.com and Yorkville Acquisition Corp., focused on CRO.
• Plans to integrate prediction markets directly into Truth Social have been scrapped.
• The company will now focus on its media business and a merger with energy company TAE.

Change of course under new leadership

Trump Media’s previous leadership went all-in on crypto and financial services, precisely at a time when the market for companies with digital asset reserves was at its peak. That strategy is now definitively off the table. McGurn says the company consciously chose to focus, partly because that market has since become saturated.

The collaboration with Crypto.com and Yorkville Acquisition Corp. for a CRO-based digital asset vehicle is being terminated. The associated financial products and services will also not go ahead. This fits into a broader refocusing in which Trump Media is once again concentrating on where it started: media.

Prediction market not coming to Truth Social after all

Another plan being scrapped is the direct integration of a prediction market into Truth Social. Instead, Trump Media is choosing a more indirect approach: users of the platform will be referred to Crypto.com’s prediction products, but there will be no integrated solution of its own.

McGurn cites increasing competition in the prediction market as the reason for that choice. The company wants to devote its energy to the upcoming merger with TAE, a company active in fusion energy. Trump Media has not yet announced exactly what that deal will look like or what the timeline is.