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Nunes and Trump speak in 2024
Nunes and Trump speak at the 2024 RNC (Tom Williams/Getty Images)
Bitcoin first, America...

Trump Media’s Truth.fi files trademark for bitcoin “plus” ETF

That didn’t take long.

A week after Trump Media & Technology Group launched financial services and fintech brand Truth.Fi, it’s now applied for trademarks for a slew of “America First-themed” ETFs, including one for bitcoin, the Truth.Fi Bitcoin Plus ETF.

As Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted, this is the first time a US president has launched an ETF, let alone a bitcoin one. Bitcoin’s price, however, didn’t budge much post-announcement, and has dipped to roughly $96,700 as of 12:05 p.m. ET.

In the press release, Trump Media Group CEO and Chairman Devin Nunes said:

“We aim to give investors a means to invest in American energy, manufacturing, and other firms that provide a competitive alternative to the woke funds and debanking problems that you find throughout the market. We’re exploring a range of ways to differentiate our products, including strategies related to bitcoin. We will continue to finetune our intended product suite to develop the optimal mix of offerings for investors who believe in America First principles.”

Alan Orwick, cofounder of Quai Network, told Sherwood News that while this marks a “significant step towards mainstream crypto adoption,” it also raises red flags around the integration of political influence in financial markets.

What’s more, he argued that this move might also dilute the excitement around the anticipated national bitcoin reserve, as it adds another competitor in the crypto investment space. 

“Investors need to critically assess whether these products serve their financial interests or are merely an extension of political branding,” Orwick said.


Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy is a financial journalist who’s written for Dow Jones, The Financial Times Group, and Business Insider.

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Ethereum struggles to hold market gains

After rallying from $1,830 to above $2,100 on Wednesday, ethereum struggled to hold on to its gains and dipped under $2,000, a round psychological price level, on Thursday. 

The seesaw price action helped liquidate $146 million worth of leveraged long and short positions on ethereum in the last 24 hours, data from CoinGlass shows.  

While ethereum was due for a relief rally after entering into oversold conditions as measured by its relative strength index, some are still maintaining a bearish sentiment, according to Delphi Digital analyst Simon Shockey.

With ethereum now trading under $2,000, Shockey called the rally “unconvincing.” He told Sherwood News that he doesn’t “think most crypto natives are compelled to really believe the lows are in,” adding that he could see ethereum fall further from here and make new lows in the second half of the year. 

The price action comes as cofounder Vitalik Buterin has sold $35 million worth of ethereum tokens since the start of February and the paper loss for the largest ethereum treasury firm, BitMine Immersion Technologies, has climbed to nearly $7.9 billion

On the positive side, ethereum developers introduced a new road map that involves seven hard fork upgrades by 2029 and several north stars, one of which aims to make ethereum a “post quantum” layer 1 network.

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Crypto industry sees relief bounce in midst of winter

Crypto assets and crypto-adjacent companies are catching a bid and rebounding off recent lows, with stablecoin issuer Circle soaring after reporting strong earnings before the bell. The company beat on revenue and reported that USDC in circulation has grown to $75.3 billion, up 72% year over year.

The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has increased 4.5% in the last 24 hours, and both tokens and companies close to crypto are enjoying a boost:

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

Despite the relief bounce, some are still uneasy. “The whole market still seems very heavy to me,” Glenn Rosenberg, managing partner at Persistent Trading, told Sherwood News. “Jokingly, BTC feels like it’s now 100% correlated to any asset or news that’s negative! I think we test 60,000 — that’s a big long-term channel and could push lower from there,” he said. “The whole [space] looks risky right now.”

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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.