Eric Trump went after Forbes on
Eric said: “Forbes has become a political weapon and an embarrassment to the press. This amounts to politically motivated propaganda. Friends – educate yourselves regarding the source of your information – in this case, China!”
Eric also said that US bitcoin has only been around for a little over a year, but now has over 7,000 bitcoins. He said the company is the 16th largest publicly traded Bitcoin company in the world, with nearly 90,000 miners, 28 exahashes of capacity, and US power behind its operations.
He also said that the company increased its Bitcoin balance by 58% in the fourth quarter, mined Bitcoin at a 53% discount to the market price, and recorded revenue of $78.3 million in the fourth quarter, up 22% from the previous quarter.
Forbes magazine describes the US Bitcoin as a money laundering scheme with a strange twist
Forbes said Eric She joined a February earnings call and showcased US Bitcoin as a fast-rising name in the cryptocurrency space. “We are quickly becoming a leader in the Bitcoin world, and I truly believe we have the greatest brand ever,” he said. He also thanked Mike Ho, Asher Guinot, Matt Prusak, and “everyone at American Bitcoin.”
The magazine then referred to a filing stating that the US Bitcoin company had only two full-time employees one month after that call. These two people are likely to be Mike, the CEO, and Matt, the President. Mike also works at Hut 8 (HUT) as Chief Strategy Officer.
The former investor relations worker at one of Mike’s other companies now lists herself as chief of staff at American Bitcoin. Another worker says she became a social media manager in January. Asher is CEO and sits on a five-person board of directors with Mike and three independent directors.
When US Bitcoin reached public trading on September 3, investors valued it at $13.2 billion, even though they owned about $270 million worth of Bitcoin. Since then, its diluted stock has fallen 92% from the peak. Forbes estimated that Eric’s wealth rose from $190 million to $280 million, while individual investors lost about $500 million.
The company was started after the 2024 election. Two weeks after Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris, the company that came to be called American Bitcoin was founded in Delaware. At first it looked like a plan for an AI-powered data center.
Hussain Sajwani, a Dubai developer linked to the Trump family through a golf venture, came to Mar-a-Lago and announced a $20 billion plan to create American data centers. Soon after, Eric and Don Trump Jr. backed US data centers, which Eric described as “critical to the development of AI infrastructure in the United States.”
After one month, the plan changed. Eric and Don Jr. reached out to Asher and Mike, who already had Hut 8, a data center and Bitcoin mining business. Bitcoin rewards have been reduced by 50%, making mining more difficult to profit from.
Asher and Mike gave the Trump family a 20% stake in the mining equipment, while Hut 8 retained the sites, daily operations, back-office work and some executives, Forbes said. Eric later told CoinDesk that the name needed two words, “America” and “Bitcoin,” before the final name became American Bitcoin.
Eric also said that banking pressure pushed him into DeFi. “I’ve been canceled by every bank in the country. Every one of the big banks, they’ve started canceling my subscription,” he said.
Capital One (COF) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) closed some of Trump’s accounts in 2021, but lenders are still working with the family, Forbes said. From January 2021 to mid-2022, Trump, Eric and Don Jr. refinanced nearly $700 million in debt.
About 70% of US Bitcoin cryptocurrencies came from selling stocks and buying Bitcoin, not from mining, Forbes said. In the first 27 days after listing, the company sold 11 million shares for $90 million, paid about $2 million in expenses, and bought approximately 725 bitcoins.
From early October until mid-November 2025, it sold 7 million shares for $44 million, and in late November it sold 47 million shares for about $106 million.
From January 1 to March 25, US Bitcoin sold 84 million shares for $111 million and bought about 1,430 bitcoins, according to Forbes estimates, with total cryptocurrency purchases worth $525 million, which are now worth about $390 million, leaving a gap of $135 million. The mining cost was around $47,000 per bitcoin before full costs, while the all-in cost was closer to $90,000.
