By Rocky Swift and Anton Bridge
TOKYO (Reuters) -Eric Trump is expected to attend a shareholder meeting of Japanese bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet in Tokyo on Monday, as the U.S. president’s family expands its crypto ventures internationally.
Eric Trump, the second son of President Donald Trump, was named in March as an adviser to Metaplanet, which holds more than $2 billion in bitcoin, and his attendance would follow an appearance last week at the Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong.
American Bitcoin, a miner of the cryptocurrency founded by Eric Trump and his brother Donald Trump Jr., is aiming to list on the Nasdaq this month. Asher Genoot, CEO of the company that presently holds 80% of American Bitcoin, said Eric Trump would attend the Metaplanet event, which was previously reported by Bloomberg.
Donald Trump has promised to be the “crypto president”, saying he backs the asset class because it can improve the banking system and increase the dominance of the U.S. dollar.
Some of Trump’s businesses in areas such as crypto, which have added substantially to his wealth, benefit from U.S. policy shifts under him and have invited criticism.
Metaplanet stockholders are due to vote on a plan that would sell up to 550 million new shares overseas for 130.3 billion yen ($884.41 million), with the bulk of the proceeds to be spent on buying more bitcoin.
Metaplanet declined to comment on Eric Trump’s involvement in the meeting. A representative for him did not respond to a request for comment.
Previously a hotel operator, Metaplanet’s pivot into crypto has paid off handsomely. Its shares have surged nearly 760% in the past 12 months, compared with a 14% advance in the Topix.
Metaplanet appointed Eric Trump earlier this year to a newly formed board of advisers, calling him a “leading voice and advocate of digital asset adoption worldwide”.
The company, which trades on the Standard section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, was previously known as Red Planet Japan and focused on hotel operations. Before that, it was a wholesaler of music CDs.
The company’s subsidiary, Red Planet Hotels Japan, filed for bankruptcy in May 2024.
($1 = 147.3300 yen)
(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Comments