Speaking to a packed auditorium at Consensus 2025, Eric Trump said the quiet part out loud: “Everybody in the world is trying to hoard Bitcoin right now. Everybody. I hear it from sovereign wealth funds. I hear it from the wealthiest families. I hear it from the biggest companies. I mean the adoption of it is incredible. ”
Trump also explained the FOMO he’s currently experiencing: “And so every single day, guys, I’m telling you, people who were kind of staunchly against it, people who didn’t understand it, people who were closed-minded, people who are kind of rhinos to traditional finance are coming around in a massive way. And I think the kind of spike in Bitcoin is going to be significant and therefore it really is kind of a race to the top right now. There’s a lot of people who are running very very hard at this mission.”
The speed motif also dominated Trump’s merger. “The speed at which the reverse merger happened—and the speed at which we’re going to get to market—is going to be pretty unparalleled for any public company,” he said, describing a round-the-clock internal chat with Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot and Gryphon executives that “literally goes back and forth all day, every day, Saturday, Sunday.” Minutes later he distilled the branding rationale: “American Bitcoin, to me, is everything… it has to have the word American and it has to have the word Bitcoin.”
Market data suggest investors are rewarding that urgency. When Hut 8 and Gryphon unveiled their stock-for-stock deal on May 12, Gryphon shares rocketed more than 200% in pre-market trade and Hut 8 gained 12%. The combined company will keep the American Bitcoin name, list on Nasdaq under the ticker ABTC and is scheduled to close in the third quarter, with Hut 8 retaining majority control.
The political subtext was never far away. Trump credited “political weaponization” against the family for pushing him toward crypto allies and argued that a liquid, censorship-resistant asset is an antidote to the hurdles faced by hard assets. Yet he kept the tone promotional, not partisan. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited about a project.”
At press time, BTC traded at $103,889.
