Eric Trump says he moved to crypto after family business became ‘most canceled company’
Eric Trump says his family was “the most canceled company, probably on Earth.”
That was then.
With his dad, President Donald Trump, back in the White House, he sees a new money-making opportunity.
“It actually is what drove us toward cryptocurrency,” the president’s middle son told CNBC, referring to the Trump family’s latest business endeavors. “You realize that cryptocurrency was a lot faster, it was a lot more pragmatic, it was a lot more transparent, it was exponentially cheaper.”
In 2022, about two years after the end of President Trump’s first term, two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization were convicted by a jury in New York of multiple crimes, including tax fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy. The guilty verdicts on all 17 charged counts came three weeks after Trump declared his 2024 candidacy.
Last month, the Trump Organization sued Capital One in Florida over allegedly “unjustifiably” closing more than 300 of the company’s bank accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The lawsuit claimed Capitol One was acting on “unsubstantiated, ‘woke’ beliefs that it needed to distance itself from President Trump and his conservative political views.”
Prior to Trump’s return to the White House, the Trump Organization unveiled a new ethics plan that said it would limit the president’s involvement in management decisions and other aspects of the business while he’s in office.
President Donald Trump (2R), flanked by US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick (L), US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent (2L) and White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks (R), attends a the White House Crypto Summit in Washington, DC, March 7, 2025.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images
But crypto is another matter. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump launched meme coins just before the new term, adding billions of dollars of paper wealth to the family’s net worth.
Eric Trump and older brother Donald Trump Jr. are going even bigger. They recently announced plans to launch a U.S. dollar–backed stablecoin through their new venture, World Liberty Financial, and a new bitcoin mining company called American Bitcoin, co-founded with Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot.
Eric Trump described his entry into crypto not as a financial bet, but as a form of resistance, and said the move began during what he calls the “war on the industry.” Banks were closing accounts, the SEC was cracking down on exchanges, and crypto users were being “debanked” for simply holding coins, he said.
“They were going after people,” he said. “They were suing everybody. Banks were closing down people that just wanted to own bitcoin.”
That’s when Eric Trump said he started associating with like-minded people in and around crypto.
“At this point, I know almost everybody in the industry in some way, shape or form,” he said. “I fell in love with the industry, you know, a few years ago, and really dove head in.”
At World Liberty Financial, the Trump brothers are backing a stablecoin play aimed at competing with players like Tether. Eric Trump didn’t have a specific answer when asked how the project would stand out in a crowded field, saying only, “We’re gonna do it better, cheaper, faster, and we’re gonna do it with a lot of passion.”
Meawhile, he’s working with Genoot to stand up American Bitcoin, a new mining venture that aims to scale quickly, and possibly go public.
Genoot told CNBC he connected with the Trump kids through mutual friends and began trading stories about their paths into crypto, leading to a business alliance.
Genoot said the company is being separated from Hut 8’s broader energy and artificial intelligence infrastructure platform.
“We’re actually carving out the majority of our assets,” Genoot said. “We’re putting them into American Bitcoin.”
Eric Trump, who is co-founder and chief strategy officer of American Bitcoin, said “every single sophisticated country is using their excess power to mine bitcoin.”
Though his family is closely linked to the current administration’s pro-crypto stance, Eric Trump said he has no role in policy and no contact with the White House. His dad’s presidency was heavily funded by the crypto industry and, since returning to the White House, President Trump has rewarded his backers, signing an executive order to create a strategic bitcoin reserve, and pardoning Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht as well as the three co-founders of the BitMEX crypto exchange.
“I don’t have anything to do with government, and frankly, I don’t want anything to do with government,” Eric Trump said.
But he made clear that the U.S. needs a regulatory framework that allows crypto to thrive.
“You better believe that China is running very hard at this. The entire Middle East is running very hard,” he said. “We won the space race. We better win the crypto race.”
WATCH: Eric Trump, Hut 8 CEO outline partnership to launch new bitcoin mining company
The first electric Range Rover is expected to hit showrooms in the next few months. With its official debut just around the corner, Range Rover’s first EV was spotted testing in Sweden. Here’s a sneak peek of the luxury electric SUV.
Range Rover’s first EV put through the paces in Sweden
Range Rover is finally gearing up to introduce its first EV later this year. Earlier this year, JLR confirmed that the Range Rover Electric already has 57,000 buyers on the waiting list.
The company claims the new model “redefines” the electric luxury SUV with an “unrivalled driving experience.” To prove it, Range Rover is putting its first EV through the paces in sub-zero conditions in Sweden.
Range Rover’s electric SUV has been through 45,000 miles of testing across frozen lakes and land tracks. The latest round allowed engineers to test their new thermal management system.
The company’s new ThermAssist thermal management system reduces heat energy consumption by up to 40% and is designed to warm the propulsion system or cabin in temperatures as low as ‑10°C (14°F).
Range Rover said it also helps optimize driving range while minimizing the impact of extreme temperatures on charging performance.
Combined with an 800V battery, the first one built in-house by JLR, the company promises the best possible performance, with optimized energy density, range, and charging times. The Range Rover’s first EV will be powered by a 117 kWh battery, consisting of 344 prismatic cells.
Built for both on- and off-road performance, the electric SUV features new additions like single-pedal driving and a switchable twin-chamber air suspension system.
Range Rover tested the single-pedal capabilities on both 28-degree and 17-degree split-mu inclines at its Arctic test facility.
Matt Becker, Vehicle Engineering Director at JLR, explained that the electric SUV maintains the brand’s signature driving experience “by marrying all the essential Range Rover elements with new and advanced technologies.”
Following its second season in Sweden, Range Rover will continue testing prototypes ahead of the official launch later this year.
After its first EV, Range Rover is already preparing another smaller electric SUV, which is expected to be the Sport model. In 2026, the company is expected to release a mid-sized electric SUV, likely the Velar.
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Volvo is launching a nearly $2 billion (SEK 18 billion) restructuring plan to drive growth and mitigate the impact of Trump’s tariffs. With the new EX30 and ES90 EVs rolling out, Volvo is taking drastic action to drive growth.
Volvo launches restructuring plan due to Trump’s tariffs
After its operating income fell by nearly 60% to SEK 1.9 billion in the first quarter, Volvo launched a cost and cash action plan.
The restructuring is worth SEK 18 billion, with most of it being realized in 2026. Volvo’s new strategy includes SEK 3 billion in variable cost actions and SEK 5 billion in indirect spend efficiencies. The additional SEK 10 billion will be added in cash actions to reduce working capital and capital expenditures this year and in 2026.
Volvo Cars CEO Håkan Samuelsson said, “The automotive industry is in the middle of a very difficult period with challenges not seen before.”
With “turbulence in the market,” Samuelsson added that the company needs to “further improve our cash flow generation and lower our costs.”
To do so, Volvo is focusing on three areas: profitability, electrification, and regionalisation. Volvo is already leading the premium segment, with electrified vehicles accounting for 43% of sales in Q1. However, with new EVs launching, Volvo said more will need to be done to overcome the impact of Trump’s tariffs.
Volvo created a new region called Americas, which includes the US, Canada, and Latin America, to streamline its global operations.
In the US, the company is looking to sharpen its product line-up and plans to boost production at its Charleston, South Carolina, plant.
Earlier this month, Volvo started production of the EX30 at its Ghent plant, which will help it ramp up deliveries in the second half of 2025.
Since it will be imported into the US, Volvo is bracing to take a hit from tariffs. Even the EX90, which is made in Charleston, is heavily impacted, as most components still come from Europe.
Volvo also revealed the new ES90 last month, its new electric sedan and second EV built on the Volvo Cars Superset Tech Stack. It’s Volvo’s sixth fully electric vehicle following the EX90, EM90, EX40, EX40, and EX30.
In China, Volvo plans to adapt to the changing market with its first extended-range PHEV model, which will launch later this year.
Volvo said it remains “firm on becoming a fully electric car company.” Despite a weaker overall market, almost a fifth of the vehicles it sold in the first quarter were electric.
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In a warming world with increasingly extreme weather events, homeowners are turning to backup batteries for relief and peace of mind. But the backup only lasts only so long, and there’s a bigger problem at play: aging power grids.
Enter the virtual power plant, managed through a cloud-based system. It’s a fertile market for a number of companies as consumers look for more reliability, especially in areas prone to extreme temperatures and storms.
Base Power, headquartered in Austin, Texas, is a virtual power plant and hardware company that provides battery backup to homeowners. The startup manages the batteries, and virtually controls the power that’s going in and out.
“We install our batteries on our customers’ homes. When the grid is up and running, we use those batteries to support the power grid,” said Base CEO Zach Dell. “When the grid goes out, our customers get those batteries to back up their home. We’re also able to save our customers on the order of 10 to 20% a month on their electricity bills.”
Unlike Tesla and Enphase, Base doesn’t sell home backup batteries. Rather, it rents the batteries to homeowners, providing the hardware, software, installation, operations and electricity. Essentially, it’s a battery-based energy company.
“We own and operate it,” Dell said. “We handle all the maintenance. We take care of the system like it’s ours.”
That control allows Base to manipulate how the battery is used, specifically accessing cheaper power and passing that savings on to the consumer. Base charges the battery from the grid when demand is low, typically during overnight hours. When demand is at its peak — summer evenings and winter mornings — Base sells power, discharging the battery to support the grid.
For an upfront fee of $595 and then about $19 a month, homeowners get access to reliable power, provided by Base. That power is generated by several sources, including wind, solar, natural gas and coal. About half of Base’s customers have solar, according to the company, which lowers their costs even more and allows them to sell that power back to Base.
A company spokesperson said Base compensates customers for the power they sell back, calculated as the real-time wholesale energy price plus an additional 3 cents per kilowatt hour. Buyback rates may vary depending on market conditions and other factors.
Base is now serving one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, Lennar, which is also an investor. Base installs batteries during the construction process in roughly 20 Lennar outage-prone communities in Texas.
Stuart Miller, Chairman and co-CEO of Lennar, said it’s not just about making money.
“It’s, are we going to be able to improve the overall stature of the home building business, as it seeks to address the markets that are stressed and having problems?” he said. “Utilities and electricity is a part of that.”
Base has raised a total of $268 million from investors including Lennar, Thrive Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Andreesen Horowitz.
Base recently announced its first utility partnership near San Antonio. Dell said the company hopes to soon expand outside of Texas. However, the batteries are made in China, and Dell said he expects to see an impact from tariffs.
— CNBC producer Lisa Rizzolo contributed to this piece.
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