Missed the AI transformation wave! American Bitcoin (ABTC.US) under Trump's son saw its stock price plummet by 95%, causing a $600 million fortune to evaporate.

The American Bitcoin (ABTC.US) mining enterprise and treasury company was founded on a simple idea - that merely holding and mining Bitcoin is enough to create wealth. However, this company, co-founded by Eric Trump, the son of American President Trump, is currently in a deep slump. As Bitcoin enters a bear market and the demand for artificial intelligence (AI) surges, investors are increasingly favoring mining enterprises that can transform their infrastructure for AI data centers. However, American Bitcoin has remained committed to its cryptocurrency strategy, leading to a more than 95% drop in the company's stock price from its historical peak. Calculations show that this has caused Eric Trump's stake to evaporate over $600 million in the past 10 months and has forced the company to carry out a 1:15 reverse stock split this week to maintain its Nasdaq listing qualification. On Wednesday, the company's stock price hit an all-time low. It is reported that Eric Trump currently holds about 6% of American Bitcoin's shares and serves as the company's Chief Strategic Officer. The shareholding percentage of Donald Trump, who serves as a company advisor, has not been disclosed. This reversal highlights how rapidly investors' attitude towards pure cryptocurrency concept companies has changed. Today, a company's success is no longer determined by who can produce the most Bitcoins, but by who has greater flexibility to monetize electricity, land, and computing infrastructure for higher value. For the Trump family, the dilemma of American Bitcoin also reflects the high volatility of digital asset investments. Although Trump reported in a recent financial disclosure that he made at least $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency gains last year, many retail investors have suffered significant losses as cryptocurrency tokens associated with Trump and the stock price of American Bitcoin have plummeted significantly. Ironically, American Bitcoin's predecessor company initially stated that its strategic goal was to establish a data center asset portfolio. American Data Centers Inc. was established by Eric Trump and Donald Trump with support from the Trump family and the investment bank Dominari Holdings Inc., where the Trump family serves as advisors, in February 2025. At the time, Eric Trump stated that the company was "crucial for the development of American AI infrastructure." However, just a month later, the company quickly pivoted and reached an agreement with Hut 8 (HUT.US) to exchange equity and exclusive service agreements for Bitcoin mining equipment provided by the latter. Subsequently, the renamed American Bitcoin completed its listing through a reverse merger with Gryphon Digital Mining Inc., a listed mining enterprise, and began trading on Nasdaq in early September last year. The company's stock price reached its peak on the fifth trading day after listing, closing at $139.65 on September 9. Missed the AI transformation wave In the past nine months, cryptocurrency prices have continued to plummet, and investors are rewarding data center mining enterprises that rent out computing infrastructure for AI. Riot Platforms (RIOT.US), Cipher Digital (CIFR.US), MARA Holdings (MARA.US), and TeraWulf (WULF.US) have all announced expansions in AI data center operations. So far this year, the average stock price of these companies has risen by over 60%. In contrast, American Bitcoin's stock price has plummeted by 77%. John Todaro, an analyst at Needham & Co., said, "Every company I cover is transitioning to high-performance computing." However, American Bitcoin continues to steadfastly adhere to its Bitcoin mining and hoarding strategy. And in fact, it may not have many other choices. The company's main assets are Bitcoin mining machines and Bitcoin reserves. Electricity, mining farms, hosting infrastructure, and daily mining operations are all provided by Hut 8, a major shareholder of American Bitcoin, under an exclusive service agreement. This means that the majority of the choice for AI data center operations is actually in the hands of Hut 8. In recent years, the latter has repositioned its business around power infrastructure and signed multibillion-dollar AI data center leasing contracts, vigorously advancing its AI strategy. Hut 8's stock price has more than doubled so far this year. "Stay the course" Since last year, many companies have begun to include Bitcoin in their balance sheet reserves. However, as Bitcoin prices continue to fall, their stock prices have mostly suffered. Among them, the largest publicly traded company holding Bitcoin - Michael Saylor's Strategy (MSTR.US) - even proposed last month to sell some of its Bitcoin, despite previously promising not to sell for many years. In the first quarter, American Bitcoin recorded a $118.2 million operating loss, including a $117.2 million loss recognized from the impairment of Bitcoin assets. However, Eric Trump recently stated on a podcast show that American Bitcoin has no intention of selling the Bitcoin it holds. He said he will not sell unless there is a "catastrophic, unimaginable" event. In fact, he has been buying more Bitcoin in the market this week, acquiring another 500 coins. Many investors believe that the price of Bitcoin is nearing the bottom of this cycle. If prices rise in the future, American Bitcoin's strategy of focusing on Bitcoin may eventually pay off, especially as competitors who have already shifted to AI businesses find it difficult to return to the Bitcoin mining field. Executives of American Bitcoin believe that rather than seeing Bitcoin mining as a stepping stone to enter the AI infrastructure field, it is more valuable to believe that Bitcoin itself can ultimately bring the highest returns. They also believe that the industry's overall transition to AI may enhance their competitive advantage in the long run. As more and more competitors invest more power and capital in AI data centers, the number of mining machines remaining in the Bitcoin network will decrease, reducing the overall mining difficulty and enabling companies that continue to mine to receive more Bitcoin rewards. Therefore, the AI boom may actually help American Bitcoin gain a larger share of Bitcoin production. Mike Ho, CEO of American Bitcoin, said during the company's first quarter earnings call, "We are seeing many listed mining enterprises shifting hundreds of megawatts of power resources toward AI." He noted that this trend "resulted in a decrease of about 6% in the overall network mining difficulty this quarter." Mark Palmer, an analyst at Benchmark Co., said, "From the perspective of mining machine efficiency, mining machine scale, and Bitcoin production capacity, the company is actually in a very favorable position." "Of course, the problem lies in the fact that Bitcoin prices must rise again for this business model to truly be effective." This was also the message Eric Trump conveyed in April this year. He said at the 2026 Las Vegas Bitcoin Conference, "We are in the greatest era in the history of cryptocurrency." "Just stay the course, stay the course."