Selling posts, buying bitcoins, and merging nuclear fusion companies, Trump's media is becoming one of the “Four Dissimilar”
By KarenZ, Foresight News
Original title: What kind of company is Trump Media becoming?
One company only earned $1.67 million in revenue in the second quarter, but recorded a net loss of $238 million; it just cut off a CRO treasury company's listing plan and swapped about $160 million in Bitcoin-related equity securities for spot BTC; its latest business was to sell public posts from leading accounts to Wall Street using a low-latency data interface. Finally, management told investors that the company's most important future value driver is a nuclear fusion enterprise.
These businesses, which don't seem to be on the same track, are now all concentrated on Trump Media & Technology Group (Trump Media & Technology Group).
On the face of it, Trump Media's revenue for the second quarter increased 89% year over year, and it seems that it has finally found growth. However, if you unpack the financial reports, you'll find that Truth Social's original advertising revenue is actually declining. The huge losses are mainly due to fluctuations in crypto asset prices. The $1.9 billion “financial assets” promoted by the company are not equivalent to freely usable cash; only about 425 million US dollars is cash and short-term investments. At the same time, it is experimenting with a more specific new business: selling public posts from leading accounts, including Trump, to Wall Street trading institutions with lower delays.
Therefore, what is really worth watching about this financial report is that Trump Media is redefining what it actually makes money from.
Behind $1.67 million in revenue, Truth Social ads are actually declining
Trump Media achieved revenue of US$16.697 million in the second quarter, an increase of about 89% year over year; net loss increased from US$20 million in the same period last year to US$238.1 million. The main factor causing the huge loss was not server, staff, or content costs, but changes in asset prices.
The loss of digital assets and pledged digital assets for the quarter was US$116.7 million, and investment losses were US$71.76 million. The combined loss of the two was approximately US$190.4 million.
However, in turn, the media business cannot be assumed to be close to break-even because losses mainly come from book fluctuations. After excluding the digital asset losses of US$116.7 million for the quarter according to the operating profit scale, the remaining business and corporate expenses still corresponded to an operating loss of approximately US$46.82 million; of these, general and administrative expenses reached US$35.94 million, and legal expenses alone were US$25.62 million. The company says the costs are mainly due to legacy lawsuits prior to the DWAC merger and are expected to decline as the case is resolved.
What is more likely to be overlooked is revenue composition. Second-quarter ad revenue was $1,43.48 million, Truth+ subscription revenue was $17.95 million, and Truth.Fi management fees were only $554 million. The 10-Q document clearly stated that Trump Media's revenue growth was mainly due to a barter advertising agreement, Truth+'s Patriot Package subscription, and ETF management fees, while Truth Social's own advertising revenue declined.
In other words, “89% increase in revenue” is true, but that doesn't mean Truth Social's original advertising business grew 89%. A significant portion of the increase comes from new business and non-traditional advertising arrangements, which is more reflective of the current state of the business than reporting a separate doubling of revenue.
$1.9 billion in “financial assets”, not $1.9 billion in cash
Trump Media highlighted in a press release that the company had total assets of approximately US$2,019 billion at the end of the second quarter, of which approximately US$1,863 billion was classified as “financial assets.” This number seems quite plentiful, but when taken apart, its meaning changes.
As of June 30, the company's cash and cash equivalents were $215.5 million, short-term investments were $209.2 million, and $30.74 million in restricted cash. The rest mainly includes $480.5 million in equity securities, $200 million in convertible notes and interest receivable from TAE, and approximately $719.8 million in digital assets and pledged digital assets. At the same time, the company's debt was approximately $9703 million.
Most notable is the $1 billion convertible senior guarantee note. The notes are nominally due until May 2028, but the holder is entitled to require Trump Media to repurchase the principal amount plus accrued interest in cash on November 30, 2026. The company also acknowledged in 10-Q that it may be necessary to refinance the notes if the investor exercises this right.
Cash flow also requires attention to caliber. The operating cash flow listed in the second quarter 10-Q was a cumulative outflow of $13.68 million for the first half of the year, while the 10-Q for the first quarter showed operating cash inflow of $17.89 million for the quarter. By subtracting the two statements, it can be estimated that the operating cash flow for the second quarter in a single quarter was approximately US$31.57 million.
Cutting the CRO treasury doesn't equal Trump Media's complete exit from the crypto market
By the end of the second quarter, Trump Media held 9477.16 unpledged bitcoins at a cost of about US$1,006 million and a fair value of US$557 million at the end of the period; it also held about 756 million CRO, which cost about US$113.9 million, with a closing value of about US$40.58 million. The company also used 2077.34 bitcoins for the options strategy's pledge arrangement.
On August 7, according to Axios, Trump Media, Crypto.com, and Yorkville terminated their plan to establish a CRO listed treasury company and reduced the plan to directly build a prediction market within Truth Social to a marketing partnership. The reason given by new CEO Kevin McGurn was market competition and strategic focus rather than leaving the digital asset space altogether. Kevin McGurn also pointed out that the market for digital asset finance companies has been saturated over the past year.
More accurately, Trump Media is shrinking external cooperation projects such as CRO treasury companies and forecasting markets within the platform, and has not cut its Bitcoin exposure. 10-Q disclosed that in July, the company sold Bitcoin-related equity securities worth approximately $159.6 million at the time and used the proceeds to buy spot Bitcoin. As of July 31, the company's holdings of bitcoins increased to about 14,139, including the pledged portion. At the time, the fair value was about $890.5 million.
As a result, this round of adjustments is more like a refocusing of cryptographic strategies: reducing complex structures, new projects that rely on partners, and shifting resources to Bitcoin assets that the company can directly hold and manage.
The real new business is to sell the “time difference” of Trump's posts to Wall Street
The monetization method the new management found for Truth Social was not payment for regular users, nor was it entirely advertising, but data timeliness.
Launched on August 1, the Truth API provides institutional customers with a low-latency data interface for public posts on some of the top Truth Social accounts. It does not sell non-public information, but rather the ability to obtain public content faster and more stably than ordinary web pages and apps. For trading institutions that need to process tariff, war, or regulatory messages at the millisecond level, speed itself can be a product.
It should be emphasized that Truth API was only launched after the end of the second quarter, so this business was not included in the $1.67 million revenue in this financial report. The company says it has now signed more than 10 customer agreements. According to the Associated Press, Kevin McGurn said during the performance call that early customers were mainly high-frequency trading companies, with monthly fees of about $60,000 to $100,000 each. If all existing customers continue to pay at this price, the corresponding annualized revenue would be about $7.2 million to $12 million, which could be two to three times Trump Media's revenue for the full year of 2025. However, this is still an early contract and annualized estimate disclosed by management, and is not equal to confirmed revenue.
Who is TAE? A cross-border merger
If Truth API is Trump Media's new attempt to find short-term revenue, TAE Technologies undertakes a longer, and more aggressive, growth narrative.
TAE, founded in 1998, is an American nuclear fusion technology company that also extends its business to energy storage, power management, and cancer treatment. The company says it has built and operated 5 experimental fusion reactors, and has raised more than $1.3 billion, with investors including Google, Chevron and NEA. However, TAE is currently still in the commercialization stage of nuclear fusion, and the planned power generation project has yet to generate stable revenue.
In December 2025, Trump Media signed a merger agreement with TAE. The deal was completed entirely in shares, and the valuation was over $6 billion at the time of publication. After the merger is completed, the original shareholders of both parties are expected to hold approximately 50% of the fully diluted shares in the new company; TAE will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trump Media, and Truth Social, Truth+, Truth.Fi, and TAE's fusion, power, and life science businesses will all be placed under the same listed company.
The parties currently aim to complete the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2026 or earlier, but they still need to obtain approval from shareholders and regulators and meet other delivery conditions. Trump Media also abandoned the previous plan to consider splitting and listing media assets such as Truth Social, which means that at least at this stage, the media and nuclear fusion business will remain within the same listed company.
Prior to the completion of the deal, Trump Media had provided TAE with $200 million in capital and obtained corresponding convertible notes. As of the end of the second quarter, the company's balance sheet showed $200 million in convertible note receivables and $7.4411 million in interest receivables. 10-Q also disclosed that if the deal meets the agreed conditions and is finally completed, M&A advisor Yorkville Securities can receive 6 million DJT shares as an advisory fee; as of June 30, this fee has not been triggered.
Judging from this, Trump Media is forming a very special structure: Truth Social provides information distribution capabilities for Trump and his political network; Truth API attempts to convert this influence into data subscription revenue; Bitcoin is responsible for financial exposure on the balance sheet; and TAE is responsible for long-term growth stories.
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