President Donald Trump stirred up a meme coin frenzy last week. Now his social media company is diving into crypto.
Trump Media and Technology Group said on Wednesday that it's launching a financial services division called Truth.Fi in a bid to offer financial products to its millions of users. The firm said it has partnered with Schwab to "broadly advise" on investments and strategy.
Truth.Fi will offer financial products including customized separately managed accounts, customized exchange-traded funds, and bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies or crypto-related securities.
Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes said the financial services offering is for "American patriots" who can "can protect themselves from the ever-present threat of cancellation, censorship, debanking, and privacy violations committed by Big Tech and woke corporations."
The move comes less than two weeks after President Trump launched his own crypto coin, $Trump, which generated billions of dollars of paper gains for the president. The token was followed by a crypto launch from the first lady, $Melania.
It also comes just a few days after Trump criticized Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan for de-banking conservatives.
"I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America," Trump said during a remote appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.
Bank of America said in response that it welcomes conservatives and that it "would never close accounts for political reasons."
To jump-start the initiative, Truth Social has committed $250 million of its $700 million cash pile to be custodied by Schwab, which could then be used to fund various investments and financial products like ETFs and SMAs funds.
Truth Social said its investments would be concentrated in American growth, manufacturing, and energy companies "as well as investments that strengthen the Patriot Economy."
Shares of Truth Social surged as much as 13% on Wednesday, while shares of Schwab jumped about 1%.
President Trump indirectly owns about 60% of Truth Social shares, which are held in a revocable trust.
Read the original article on Business Insider