Trump Media Reports 89% Revenue Jump in Q2 as Bitcoin Losses and TAE Merger Take Center Stage
Trump Media & Technology Group held its first conference call with investors on Monday afternoon, pairing an 89% jump in quarterly revenue with steep paper losses on its digital-asset holdings and fresh detail on its planned merger with fusion company TAE Technologies.
TMTG, which operates Truth Social and Truth+, said second-quarter revenue rose to roughly $1.7 million, a 92% increase from the first quarter and up 89% from a year earlier. The top line was helped by barter advertising on Truth Social, subscriptions to the Patriot Package during a beta period for Truth+, and management fees from its Truth.Fi ETF offerings. The number remains small, but it was one of the few bright spots in a quarter otherwise dominated by the price of bitcoin.
Bitcoin writedowns shape the quarter
Bitcoin fell about 13% during the three-month period, from roughly $67,800 at the end of March to $58,800 at the end of June. That decline drove a $116.6 million loss on digital assets, according to the company, and helped push total operating expenses to $165.2 million. A separate $71.8 million investment loss came largely from a 13% decline in shares of IBIT, the iShares Bitcoin Trust. The resulting net loss was $238 million. While that was 41% narrower than the first quarter, it was more than 10 times the loss reported in last year’s second quarter, when the company was only beginning to build its bitcoin-related securities positions.
TMTG ended the quarter with roughly $1.9 billion in gross financial assets. That included $215 million in cash, $31 million in restricted cash, $209 million in short-term investments, and $1.2 billion in bitcoin and bitcoin-related assets. After accounting for debt, financial assets stood at roughly $893 million. Management said the balance sheet is strong enough to handle nearly $1 billion in convertible notes as they come due. It also noted that more than $400 million of cash and short-term investments is fully liquid and unencumbered, with another $1.2 billion in bitcoin-related assets available as a potential source of funds if needed.
A big bet on fusion
The call doubled down on the proposed merger with TAE Technologies, a private fusion company that has spent more than 28 years working to commercialize advanced fusion energy. Interim Chief Executive Kevin McGurn said work is underway on TAE’s audited financials and the required regulatory filings, with the first draft registration statement on Form S-4 expected to serve as the next clear milestone. He declined to commit to a specific date but reaffirmed the company’s target to close by the end of 2026, subject to the SEC process.
McGurn framed the deal as a long-term strategic bet rather than a financial diversification play. With AI infrastructure, data centers and computer power driving electricity demand higher, he said, energy security is becoming as important as digital infrastructure. That argument ties the merger back to the “uncancelable” philosophy TMTG has used to describe its media platforms. Once combined, he said, the business would operate as a conglomerate with fusion as its largest weighting, alongside bitcoin and media, and TMTG would keep the option to monetize or separate each part of the portfolio if that creates more value.
Paring back the Crypto.com relationship
TMTG also confirmed it has walked away from parts of its previously announced Crypto.com arrangement. The company, along with Crypto.com and Yorkville Acquisition Corp., agreed to terminate the proposed business combination that would have created Trump Media CRO Strategy Inc. and its related digital-asset treasury structure. A separate service partnership covering certain digital-asset projects was dropped as well. The changes do not affect Yorkville America’s America First ETFs, including the Truth Social Funds.
In the prediction-market area, TMTG is shifting from building a direct technical integration on Truth Social to a marketing agreement in which Crypto.com’s prediction-market experience will be promoted to Truth Social’s audience. McGurn said the decision reflects the company’s effort to focus capital and time on higher-priority initiatives, and he acknowledged prediction markets are already crowded with established players.
Truth+ expansion and Truth API
On the media side, TMTG said Truth+ is moving out of beta and into broad commercial availability, backed by subscriber-acquisition marketing for the first time. Truth Social is rolling out vertical video, a broader content strategy and premium programming deals intended to boost engagement and lifetime customer value. McGurn argued the platform’s future depends on content. “Content begets audience, and audience begets advertisers,” he said.
The other attention-getter is Truth API, a data-feed product launched Aug. 1 that gives customers licensed, low-latency access to public posts from selected top Truth Social accounts. The company said it has signed more than 10 agreements, mostly with high-frequency trading firms at rates between $60,000 and $100,000 per month, and is in talks with hyperscalers, major news organizations and AI model developers. Asked about concerns that early access could give traders an unfair advantage, McGurn called the criticism “misinformed” and said the product only makes public posts available fractionally faster under a standard commercial licensing model.
Legal costs and cash flow
TMTG also said legal expenses related to legacy litigation from its 2024 SPAC merger should ease after a July settlement. The company recorded the bulk of those costs through June 30, though management warned some additional expenses will show up in third-quarter results. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was a loss of $223.5 million, still an improvement from the first quarter. Cash used in operations for the first half was $13.7 million, up from $7.4 million a year earlier, reflecting a pause in the company’s digital-asset yield strategy while it moves to third-party institutional treasury management.
What’s ahead
Management said it plans to keep investors updated more frequently and intends to file the S-4 “as soon as possible” using second-quarter figures. It will also continue exploring partnerships with other prediction markets and expects to expand Truth API access to retail traders and broader distribution channels such as financial data terminals.
For now, the company remains a work in progress: revenue is growing from a tiny base, the balance sheet is large but tied to bitcoin, and the centerpiece of management’s long-term story still depends on completing a complicated, capital-intensive fusion deal. The call made clear that TMTG sees the path forward as one of discipline, but the market is likely to keep watching for the S-4 filing as the next sign of whether that plan is actually moving.