Donald Trump has publicly stated he owns stock in MARA Holdings, a company that mines Bitcoin and builds AI infrastructure (previously known as Marathon Digital). This is the first time a current U.S. president has reported owning shares in a publicly traded company focused on Bitcoin mining.
Recent financial disclosures, filed for the first quarter of 2026, reveal that MARA participated in roughly $220 to $750 million worth of trades. These trades included purchases of Coinbase and Robinhood, and appear to also include investments in MicroStrategy. The information came to light through OGE Form 278-T filings.
Previously, Trump’s involvement with crypto mainly involved earning money through licenses and royalties. Now, he’s directly owning part of a crypto mining company – a business that requires a lot of hands-on work and significant investment – which is a much riskier venture.
The important question isn’t *that* Trump invested in bitcoin mining, but whether owning part of the mining process itself creates a conflict of interest, given his power to regulate the cryptocurrency industry.
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Donald Trump first became publicly linked to cryptocurrency through his Trump Digital Trading Cards – a collection of NFTs launched on the Polygon network. By mid-2023, these digital collectibles had earned at least $4.9 million in licensing fees.
The money largely came in the form of Ethereum and Wrapped Ethereum, meaning Trump had crypto assets on his financial records without needing to understand how the crypto industry actually works.
This model isn’t just a neutral component; it’s designed to be separate from the network’s operations. Payments for using it don’t depend on things like computing power, mining complexity, or electricity costs. Instead, the creator earns money based on how much cultural interest the model generates, rather than on how much work it performs.
During that period, the crypto world didn’t face significant legal challenges from government agencies that could fundamentally change how it operates. While the NFT market did have legal disagreements about trademarks and resale royalties, these issues were primarily commercial and weren’t impacted by broader regulations like environmental rules or tax laws.
Source: OGE
By 2024, Donald Trump had moved from being unsure about U.S. mining to actively supporting it, eventually declaring his desire for all Bitcoin mining to happen within America.
The MARA investment demonstrates a fundamental change in strategy. It’s not just adding another investment; it represents a transition from simply earning fees to actually owning a share in the infrastructure the company has long supported.
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MARA Holdings Equity Stake: How Direct Ownership Changes the Exposure Profile
Here’s how it works: owning a share in a bitcoin mining company directly links your profits to the constantly changing factors that affect mining operations – things that traditional royalty payments don’t consider.
MARA’s income comes from the Bitcoin it mines. How much Bitcoin they mine depends on a few things: how much of the total mining power (hashrate) they control, how hard it is to mine Bitcoin at that time (network difficulty), and the price of Bitcoin when they sell it.
When Bitcoin’s price dropped 1.76% recently, Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) stock fell much further, closing down 6.40% that same day. Their first quarter 2024 results clearly show this connection: a $1.0 billion loss in the value of their Bitcoin holdings led to a $1.26 billion net loss for the quarter, despite revenue of $174.61 million – which was also down from $213.88 million the previous year.
Source: Finsee.ai
Documents show that Donald Trump’s trust made two relatively small purchases of MARA stock as part of a larger investment strategy focused on companies related to cryptocurrency. While the exact number of shares and percentage of ownership aren’t detailed, the filings confirm that the trust has invested in this area.
MARA currently has more than 26,000 Bitcoin on hand, has established energy partnerships in Texas and other locations, and is planning to buy Long Ridge Energy & Power for $1.5 billion. This 505 MW facility will be a key part of MARA’s strategy to focus on AI computing and powerful infrastructure.
MARA is focusing on a new strategy that combines bitcoin mining with building data centers for artificial intelligence, and Donald Trump has recently invested in the company.
A new trend is emerging where institutions and political figures are investing in the infrastructure that supports mining cryptocurrencies, rather than directly buying cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. This represents a different approach to crypto investing.
Owning Bitcoin directly is a belief in its potential as a currency, while investing in Bitcoin mining companies is a bet on things like energy costs, efficient operations, and whether regulations will allow them to thrive. These are distinct investments with different risks, and that becomes particularly important when the person making the investment also helps create government rules.
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2026-05-18 14:07