Crypto Currents: Trump Media, Crypto.com form largest CRO public treasury

A definitive agreement between Trump Media & Technology Group, Crypto.com, and a special purpose acquisition company is set to launch a new publicly traded digital asset treasury. The venture is aimed at creating the most significant publicly traded treasury for the CRO token. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with “Crypto Currents,” daily from The Fly. Join us 2 PM daily for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio. Also, subscribe to our YouTube channel for the Crypto Fly By weekly recap.

TRUMP MEDIA, CRYPTO.COM ANNOUNCE WIDER PARTNERSHIP, PUBLIC TREASURY: A multi-faceted alliance has been announced between Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), Crypto.com, and the SPAC Yorkville Acquisition Corp. (YORK). The collaboration includes the formation of a new public company, Trump Media Group CRO Strategy, which will operate as a digital asset treasury dedicated to acquiring the Cronos token (CRO-USD). According to a press release, this new entity will be capitalized with $1B in CRO, $200M in cash, $220M in warrants, and has access to a $5B equity line of credit. The three founding partners will be majority owners and are subject to a one-year lock-up on their holdings. The new company will seek to list on Nasdaq with the ticker “MCGA”

As part of a separate strategic agreement, Trump Media will integrate Crypto.com’s wallet infrastructure and the CRO token into its Truth Social and Truth+ platforms to create a new rewards system. The partnership also features a mutual investment, with Trump Media purchasing approximately $105M in CRO for its balance sheet and Crypto.com acquiring $50M in Trump Media common stock, with both deals subject to a lock-up period

GEMINI MOVES TOWARD IPO WITH MASTERCARD PARTNERSHIP: In a competitive move, Gemini has teamed up with Ripple and Mastercard (MA) to introduce a new credit card that provides rewards in XRP (XRP-USD). Following the news, Gemini’s app briefly climbed higher than that of its rival Coinbase (COIN) in the U.S. Apple App Store’s finance rankings, according to data from Sensor Tower. The product launch comes as Gemini formally prepares to go public, having filed with the SEC for an initial public offering on the Nasdaq under the symbol “GEMI”. The offering will be managed by a syndicate of top investment banks, including Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), and Citigroup (C). To support its public debut, Ripple has provided Gemini with a credit facility of $75M, which has the potential to increase to $150M.

REGULATORY HEADWINDS EMERGE FOR ASSET TOKENIZATION: The push to tokenize traditional assets is facing significant scrutiny from global regulators. Crypto exchange Kraken recently met with a special SEC task force to discuss a tokenized trading system, a memorandum filed on Monday revealed. However, a report from Reuters indicates that international bodies, including the European Securities and Markets Authority, the International Organization of Securities Commissions, and the World Federation of Exchanges, are urging the SEC to apply stricter oversight. These organizations argue that tokenized stocks, while mimicking equities, do not offer the same level of investor protection found in traditional markets

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin (BTC-USD) was trading at $109,656.96, while ethereum (ETH-USD) was trading at $4,514.56.