The Trump family enters the mining industry and establishes a joint venture, American Bitcoin, aiming to go public and become the world's largest Bitcoin mining company

Author: Weilin, PANews

On March 31, a seemingly ordinary official announcement of a mining company restructuring was brewing the latest evolution of the North American Bitcoin mining landscape.

Hut 8, a North American mining giant, announced that it will cooperate with Trump's second son Eric Trump to establish a new company, American Bitcoin, with the goal of becoming the world's largest and most efficient Bitcoin mining company. This is not only a strategic transformation of Hut 8's business structure, but also marks another intersection of capital, Trump family influence and the crypto world.

In a subsequent conference call, the new company American Bitcoin proposed a four-stage development roadmap, planning to achieve a total computing power of more than 50 EH/s, an overall energy efficiency of less than 15 J/TH, and eventually complete the listing.

Restructuring: Hut 8 Bitcoin mining business "spun off and started again"

The core of this transaction is Hut 8's important reorganization of its mining business structure. As a company that started out as a mining company, Hut 8 chose to transfer all of its self-operated mining machine assets (including ASIC mining machines with a computing power of more than 10 EH/s) to its subsidiary American Data Centers, which was renamed American Bitcoin. At the same time, Hut 8 retains 80% of the controlling stake in the new company, while Trump's two sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., as well as other original shareholders of American Data Centers, hold 20% of the shares.

It is worth noting that American Bitcoin will operate as an independent mining company in the future. It plans to expand computing power through the capital market and gain profits from the rise of Bitcoin. Hut 8 itself will transform into a "digital infrastructure" company, focusing on electricity, data center hosting and operation management services. Its source of income will no longer rely on Bitcoin output, but from stable legal currency income - electricity and hosting service fees.

In terms of leadership structure, Trump's second son Eric Trump will serve as American Bitcoin's chief strategy officer, responsible for driving and defining the company's long-term strategic direction. His responsibilities will cover capital raising, company development, and market docking. Eric will establish strategic partnerships in finance and operations to align the growth trajectory with the changing market and capital dynamics.

Other executives include executive chairman Mike Ho (Hut 8 chief strategy officer), board members Asher Genoot (Hut 8 CEO), CEO Matt Prusak, and two board members Justin Mateen (Tinder co-founder) and Michael Broukhim (co-founder of e-commerce startup FabFitFun).

Taking advantage of the capital market expansion , we vow to build the best Bitcoin mining company

Officials said that private placement financing will be conducted before listing, and they firmly believe that the company has the ability to continue financing through private placement and public markets. The core logic of this transaction has been brewing for a long time, and it was not until I met Eric's team that it was truly implemented - Hut8 will become an electricity infrastructure and hosting service provider with stable cash flow, and the US Bitcoin company will carry the profit opportunities brought by Bitcoin volatility.

As the chief strategy officer of American Bitcoin, Eric Trump’s speech at the launch ceremony was quite personal and also revealed the value motivation behind this cross-border cooperation.

"I've been dealing with physical assets all my life - we built the best hotels, golf courses, real estate projects, commercial and residential buildings." Eric recalled: "It wasn't until I plunged into the crazy world of politics that I really realized the power of cryptocurrency and I really had an understanding and love for cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin. I saw banks blocking personal accounts for no reason, and I saw the weaponization of the financial system. Some people have been working with banks for 20 years, but they have to wait for 6 months to get a basic mortgage. None of this makes sense."

In his view, Bitcoin is a kind of "digital gold" that is available around the clock, globally, and instantly. It does not conflict with physical assets such as real estate and golf courses, but rather complements them. He emphasized that through American Bitcoin, he hopes to "bridge the gap between traditional finance and digital finance" and achieve this goal by building the world's largest and best Bitcoin mining company.

In terms of hardware supply, according to executives, MicroBit has set up a factory in the United States to produce ASIC mining machines, and Bitmain is also following suit. Through decentralized procurement and localized production, American Bitcoin hopes to create a global hardware layout with risk resistance. The advantage of the contract with Bitmain is that it can flexibly choose to purchase mining machines in full or in batches. As the site goes into production, the procurement rhythm will be dynamically adjusted according to the computing power price and machine cost.

American Bitcoin said that it maintains cooperation with leading manufacturers such as Bitmain and Microbit, and has set up a research and development center in Southeast Asia to test the equipment of various manufacturers. Currently, Microbit has set up a factory in the United States, and Bitmain is also following suit. It is maintaining supply chain security dialogue with all suppliers to reduce risks through diversified cooperation.

Cooperation details: four phases and three key agreements

The development path of American Bitcoin is carefully broken down into four phases, each with clear target computing power and energy efficiency indicators, and relying on the coordination with Hut 8's existing resources:

In the first phase, American Bitcoin took over the 10 EH/s mining machines (average efficiency of about 21.2 J/TH) transferred from Hut 8. This part of computing power became the cornerstone of the company's expansion.

In the second phase , Hut 8 plans to activate a super-large site, execute a signed purchase option, deploy 15 EH/s U3S21EXPH devices at the site, and sell these ASICs to American Bitcoin. These devices run on Hut 8's self-developed liquid cooling architecture, which will increase the total computing power to about 25 EH/s and reduce the efficiency to about 16.3 J/TH.

In the third phase , American Bitcoin will further acquire and activate another site that has obtained exclusive rights in the Hut 8 pipeline, and deploy an additional 10+ EH/s U3S21EXPH mining machines, bringing the total computing power to 35+ EH/s and the efficiency to below 16 J/TH.

In the fourth phase , this model will be replicated at another site where exclusive rights are already held, adding a Bitmain U3S21EXPH mining machine with 15+ EH/s to achieve the ultimate goal: 50+ EH/s, with an overall efficiency of less than 15 J/TH. Officials said that American Bitcoin's preliminary roadmap shows a replicable, capital-efficient growth strategy with clear investment, orderly execution, and each round of deployment can bring compound learning and optimization.

To ensure operational synergy and cost advantages, Hut 8 and American Bitcoin signed three key agreements:

1. Colocation Agreement

The Colocation Agreement gives Hut 8 the exclusive right to host American Bitcoin’s ASIC mining machines on its premises. The agreement will bring ongoing fiat currency revenue to Hut 8’s “Digital Infrastructure” segment while giving American Bitcoin access to high-density, cost-competitive infrastructure without capital expenditures.

2. Managed Services Agreement

Under the agreement, Hut 8 will operate all of American Bitcoin’s mining operations at the hosting site. This provides Hut 8 with a second ongoing fiat revenue stream for its “electricity” segment, while enabling American Bitcoin to leverage Hut 8’s mature mining operations platform.

3. Shared Services Agreement

Hut 8 will manage American Bitcoin’s core business functions, including finance, human resources and compliance. The agreement is designed to reduce the burden on American Bitcoin’s in-house management team, allowing it to expand with a lean and efficient cost structure.

The merger of the three protocols enables American Bitcoin to achieve a cost structure similar to that of vertically integrated miners while avoiding the asset burden of building its own infrastructure and management team. As a result, almost all of American Bitcoin’s capital can be used to increase computing power and accumulate Bitcoin.