Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), a company owned by US President-elect Donald Trump, is in "advanced negotiations" to acquire cryptocurrency exchange Bakkt, the Financial Times reported, speaking to people involved in the process. TMTG currently owns social media platform Truth Social.
According to information from the Financial Times, the deal would involve a complete absorption of Bakkt by TMTG, which would then control all of the exchange's share capital. The brokerage currently has a market capitalization valued at around US$150 million (R$865 million, at the current price).
Donald Trump's company is valued at US$6 billion, with shares traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The company's shares appreciated significantly after the politician and businessman's victory in this year's presidential election, in which he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris.
Bakkt is a cryptocurrency exchange launched by Intercontinental Exchange, a company specializing in launching and managing asset trading platforms, especially derivatives. Initially, the exchange's proposal was to allow Starbucks customers to buy coffee using bitcoin.
One of the points of connection between the exchange and Trump is former Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler. A supporter of the billionaire, she was the brokerage's first CEO. Over time, Bakkt abandoned its operations with Starbucks and focused on buying and selling crypto assets.
In February of this year, the exchange announced that it did not have enough funds to maintain its operations for the next 12 months. The possibility of a purchase by Trump's company was enough to make the company's shares jump 160% last Monday, the 18th.
The acquisition would be another chapter in Donald Trump's intense rapprochement with the cryptocurrency market. Throughout 2024, the politician made several signals to the sector and promised to implement measures favorable to the crypto market in the US to make it the "crypto capital of the world".
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It will be a luxury guys if that happens.