Trump Media & Technology Group reported a $238 million loss for the second quarter, marking a sharp widening from the roughly $20 million loss recorded during the same period a year earlier.
A major portion of the quarterly hit stemmed from unrealized paper losses tied to drops in the value of the company’s cryptocurrency holdings, including Bitcoin and Cronos tokens.
Following the earnings release, new CEO Kevin McGurn announced that the company is largely abandoning a yearlong push to expand into non-media sectors such as online betting and crypto to refocus its resources entirely on its core social media platform, Truth Social.
As reported by the Guardian, the company is placing heavy emphasis on Truth API, a commercial data service charging Wall Street high-frequency trading firms $60,000 to $100,000 a month for early, real-time access to major posts on the platform including those from Donald Trump.
Additionally, the API service has drawn sharp criticism from good-government watchdogs and congressional Democrats over potential conflicts of interest.
Trump Media executives have defended the service, noting that selling licensed, real-time data feeds via commercial APIs is a standard practice across the tech and financial sectors.
