Hut 8’s subsidiary American Bitcoin is gearing up for a public listing on the Nasdaq.
American Bitcoin, which lists President Trump’s son, Eric Trump, as cofounder and chief strategy officer, has entered into an agreement to merge with publicly traded bitcoin miner Gryphon Digital. The stock-for-stock reverse merger is expected to close in Q3 2025 and will see the combined company move forward under the American Bitcoin name, trading under the ticker ABTC.
Once the merger finalizes, American Bitcoin stock holders will own 98% of the combined company, while Gryphon Digital holders will own 2%.
“Our vision for American Bitcoin is to create the most investable Bitcoin accumulation platform in the market. Today’s announcement marks an important milestone in that journey, bringing us closer to offering every investor access to a purpose-built platform engineered for scale and long-term value creation in what we believe is one of the most important asset classes of our time,” Eric Trump said in a press release.
Gryphon Digital shares surged as high as 400% following the news, while Hut 8 moved 32%.
Gryphon Digital shares popped on news of the American Bitcoin merger
Colin Harper via Google Stock Viewer
What is America Bitcoin, the Trump Family-Affiliated Bitcoin Mining Company?
Materializing almost overnight, American Bitcoin seized the attention of the bitcoin mining world when Hut 8 announced the partnership on March 31, 2025.
American Bitcoin was established as a Hut 8 subsidiary, and in return for an 80% stake in the company, Hut 8 transferred nearly all of its self-mining operations to American Bitcoin (10 EH/s, or 1.2% of the Bitcoin network’s computing power at the time). Matt Prusak took the helm of American Bitcoin as CEO, while Co-Founder Eric Trump was appointed as Chief Strategy Officer.
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Before jumping into bitcoin mining and rebranding, American Bitcoin was established in February 2025 as American Data Centers by Dominari Holdings in partnership with Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who invested in Dominari and joined its advisory board. President Trump made AI and datacenter development a priority from the outset of his second term with the Stargate Project, a $500 billion initiative that courted investments from OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and other tech titans to develop AI infrastructure in the United States.
Under the terms of the partnership, American Bitcoin will tap Hut 8 for infrastructure and operating services. It will pay Hut 8 for the hosting space and management, but it has the option to park its ASIC miners elsewhere if a more favorable opportunity arises. In addition to the self-mining business that Hut 8 bestowed on American Bitcoin, the company provides hosting and managed services for other bitcoin mining companies and operates 665 MW of capacity, according to its March 2025 production update.
Some observers were puzzled by news of the partnership. Why would Hut 8 relinquish 100% control over its self-mining operations to American Bitcoin in exchange for an 80% stake in the company?
The “Trump factor” could answer the question. As VanEck’s Head of Digital Asset Research Matthew Sigel put it, the partnership could open up new pools of capital for Hut 8 and lower their financing costs. Put another way, with a Trump on board, Hut 8 might be able to tap new investors and financing options that would have otherwise been out of reach, especially considering that its bitcoin mining business – perceived as risky by some investors – is now the responsibility of another company.
In the eyes of Hut 8, the partnership allows for either company to strategically narrow its focus. Hut 8 will specialize in energy, infrastructure, and services, while American Bitcoin will focus on bitcoin mining.
“On the Hut 8 side, you’ve got a focused mining vehicle that will be created. Hut 8 has this material stake … and also gets to build out its infrastructure prowess as a whole,” American Bitcoin CEO Matt Prusak said in an interview.
Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot noted that the business bifurcation would simplify its pitch to investors, keeping both sides of the aisle – those who want to invest in bitcoin mining and those who want to invest in infrastructure and AI – happy:
I have investors who are invested in the company and love our bitcoin mining business … and then I have other investors who are investing because of the AI data center opportunity. And so when I go in and say, “I’m gonna go and buy more machines and go and invest in bitcoin,” half of our shareholder base is like, “I love that. Do it.” The other half of the base is like, “Why aren’t you investing in AI and data centers? And so we’ve been thinking about this strategy for a long time.
Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald cited by Sigel commented that the move de-risks Hut 8’s business by offloading its bitcoin mining segment onto American Bitcoin while also securing hosting revenue from the new company. This should make financing easier to secure for Hut 8’s energy and infrastructure business, the investment bank’s analysts commented:
Ultimately, we view this as a net positive for HUT, as the company will now be able to separate its Bitcoin mining business from its power and infrastructure business, which should in turn make its data center development projects more financeable down the road and also allow the Bitcoin mining business to execute on expansion projects without distractions. Further, the American Bitcoin partnership will provide HUT with stable revenues and cash flows, making the company less reliant on the price of Bitcoin to drive revenues in the near-to-medium-term.
American Bitcoin and the Trump Family’s Expanding Crypto Empire
American Bitcoin will mark the first of the Trump family’s crypto ventures to hit public markets – but it’s far from their first foray into the sprawling crypto-sphere.
President Trump launched eponymous memecoins for himself and First Lady Melania Trump on inauguration day, drawing adulation and condemnation alike from onlookers within and without the crypto industry. TRUMP peaked at a $9 billion market cap in the days after he was sworn into office, and it’s currently down 70% from its all-time high.
Prior to Trump’s memification in token form, he unveiled World Liberty Financial, a DeFi platform that includes its own token, WLFI. And never to let a sales opportunity go to waste, before the memecoins and World Liberty Financial, Trump rolled out two NFT collections, first on Ethereum and then on Bitcoin.
While not directly linked to President Trump, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. both hold a stake in American Bitcoin, and the venture arguably marks the most legitimate foray of the Trump family into the wide world of crypto yet.