Trump Media moves to launch Bitcoin, Ether and Cronos crypto ETFs in partnership with Crypto.com
Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind the Truth Social platform, has submitted filings to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission seeking approval for two new cryptocurrency-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to Bitcoin, Ether and Cronos.
The products, introduced through the firm’s Truth Social Funds division, are named the Truth Social Bitcoin & Ether ETF and the Truth Social Cronos Yield Maximizer ETF. Both funds are still under regulatory review and will only be able to launch if the SEC gives the green light.
Steve Neamtz, president of Yorkville America Equities – the investment adviser slated to manage both ETFs – said the goal is to create a broad gateway into digital assets. According to him, the platform is designed to give investors exposure to multiple segments of the crypto market, combining potential capital growth with income-generating strategies.
To build and operate the funds, Trump Media plans to work with Crypto.com. Under the proposed structure, the exchange would provide custody for the underlying crypto assets, ensure market liquidity and handle staking operations. Access to the ETFs would be offered through Foris Capital US LLC, Crypto.com’s broker-dealer entity. Both funds are expected to carry an annual management fee of 0.95%.
How the new ETFs are structured
The Truth Social Bitcoin & Ether ETF is intended to track the combined performance of the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization: Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). In addition to reflecting price movements of both assets, the fund is structured to capture staking rewards generated by Ether, adding a yield component on top of price exposure.
The second product, the Truth Social Cronos (CRO) Yield Maximizer ETF, is focused on the CRO token, the native asset of Crypto.com’s Cronos blockchain ecosystem. This ETF is designed to mirror the performance of CRO while also incorporating staking income. In practice, this means investors would gain exposure not only to the token’s price swings but also to the rewards earned when CRO is delegated in staking programs.
Both concepts reflect a broader industry trend: integrating yield mechanisms such as staking into traditional-style investment wrappers. For investors who are not comfortable managing private keys, navigating on-chain protocols or engaging directly with exchanges, ETF structures can offer a more familiar, regulated way to participate in crypto markets.
Trump Media’s growing crypto ambitions
While Trump Media is primarily known for running the Truth Social network, the company has been steadily expanding its footprint in digital assets. In April of last year, the group announced a broader partnership with Crypto.com and Yorkville America Digital aimed at developing a suite of “Made in America” ETFs. Those products were envisioned as hybrid vehicles combining exposure to digital assets with traditional financial instruments tied to sectors like energy.
The relationship with Crypto.com deepened in September, when Trump Media agreed to form a joint treasury initiative focused on building a strategic position in CRO. That arrangement started with an initial acquisition of roughly 684.4 million CRO, valued at around 105 million dollars at the time, funded via a mix of company stock and cash. The new ETF filings are a logical extension of this strategy, shifting from holding CRO on the balance sheet to creating marketable products based on it.
This continued push into crypto suggests that Trump Media sees digital assets as a core pillar of its broader business model, rather than a side project. By anchoring its products around household-name cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether, while also promoting the Cronos ecosystem, the company is positioning itself at the intersection of mainstream and platform-specific crypto exposure.
Launching crypto ETFs in a challenging market
The timing of the filings is notable because US spot Bitcoin ETFs have recently been experiencing sustained pressure. Data for recent weeks shows four consecutive weeks of net outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs, with roughly 360 million dollars withdrawn in the most recent week alone.
Flows have been volatile and skewed to the negative side since late January and early February. Some days saw especially heavy redemptions, including withdrawals of about 817.87 million dollars on January 29, 509.70 million dollars on January 30 and 544.94 million dollars on February 4. Although there were several sessions with inflows – such as 561.89 million dollars on February 2, 371.15 million dollars on February 6, 166.56 million dollars on February 10 and 145.00 million dollars on February 9 – the aggregate pattern has remained net-negative, with just 15.20 million dollars of inflows recorded on a recent Friday.
Against that backdrop, Trump Media’s move could be seen as contrarian. While some existing products struggle to retain capital, the company is seeking approval for new vehicles that not only track spot crypto prices but also incorporate staking returns. This approach suggests a belief that investors will continue to look for differentiated ways to access crypto, especially products that blend passive ownership with yield.
What makes these ETFs different from existing products
Most of the high-profile spot Bitcoin ETFs that have launched in the US offer straightforward exposure to BTC’s price movements and little else. The Truth Social Bitcoin & Ether ETF introduces two key variations: multi-asset exposure and integrated staking.
First, by holding both Bitcoin and Ether, the ETF attempts to diversify within the crypto space. Bitcoin tends to be seen as a “digital gold” store of value, while Ether is increasingly viewed as a core asset powering smart contracts, decentralized finance, nonfungible tokens and other blockchain-based applications. Combining both could appeal to investors who want broad crypto market coverage without having to pick a single winner.
Second, incorporating Ether staking within the fund structure aims to capture additional yield that on-chain users already access directly. Once Ether moved to a proof-of-stake consensus model, staking became a central part of its ecosystem. Packaging that yield inside an ETF could attract income-focused investors who do not want to manage validator relationships or custodial risk on their own.
The Cronos Yield Maximizer ETF pushes this yield-centric design even further by centering the product around CRO and explicitly framing the strategy around staking income. For investors bullish on the growth of the Cronos blockchain and its surrounding ecosystem, this ETF could offer a relatively simple way to gain both price and yield exposure through a familiar brokerage account.
Potential appeal and target audience
These new ETFs are likely aimed at several overlapping investor groups. Traditional retail investors who are curious about crypto but hesitant to open specialized exchange accounts may see an ETF as a lower-friction entry point. Financial advisers and wealth managers, who operate largely within regulated brokerage channels, may also find ETF wrappers easier to integrate into portfolios than direct crypto holdings.
Income-oriented investors could be particularly interested in the staking-focused design. In a world where bond yields and dividend-paying stocks compete for investors’ attention, a crypto ETF that offers both growth potential and staking rewards might stand out, especially if volatility is managed across multiple assets.
Institutional investors may be more cautious, but some could view ETFs as operationally simpler than holding crypto directly on balance sheet. Custody and compliance responsibilities would largely sit with the ETF issuer and its partners, rather than with the institution itself, which may ease internal risk and regulatory concerns.
Regulatory hurdles and risk factors
Despite the growing acceptance of spot Bitcoin ETFs, approval is not guaranteed for every new crypto product. The SEC has historically scrutinized crypto-linked funds closely, focusing on market manipulation risks, liquidity, custody arrangements and investor protection.
In the case of these proposed ETFs, the inclusion of staking may draw additional regulatory attention. Staking has raised questions around how yield is generated, whether it could be interpreted as a securities offering in its own right, and how investor protections are maintained when rewards depend on validator performance and underlying blockchain security.
There is also the broader issue of volatility. Both Bitcoin and Ether have experienced sharp price swings over relatively short periods, and CRO, as a smaller-cap token, can be even more volatile. Investors considering exposure via these ETFs would still be exposed to substantial market risk, even if they are transacting through a regulated investment vehicle.
Strategic implications for Crypto.com and Cronos
For Crypto.com, the partnership offers more than just another business line. Having its native token CRO at the center of a yield-focused ETF can deepen the token’s integration with traditional financial markets. Greater visibility and accessibility through brokerage accounts could help solidify CRO’s role in the Cronos ecosystem and potentially expand its holder base beyond core crypto users.
In addition, by handling custody, liquidity management and staking operations for the funds, Crypto.com could reinforce its position as a full-service infrastructure provider in the institutional and ETF space. This is increasingly important as exchanges look to diversify beyond retail trading revenue and move into higher-margin, longer-term institutional partnerships.
For the Cronos blockchain itself, a yield-maximizing ETF may bolster demand for staking and help highlight the chain’s capabilities to a broader audience. If the ETF gathers significant assets under management, it could become a signal of confidence in both the technology and the broader ecosystem being built around it.
How investors might evaluate these products
Prospective investors will likely weigh several factors before considering these ETFs:
– Risk–reward profile: Combining Bitcoin and Ether may reduce single-asset risk but does not eliminate crypto volatility. CRO-based strategies carry additional platform and ecosystem risk.
– Staking mechanics: Understanding how staking rewards are generated, how often they are distributed and what share goes to investors after fees will be critical.
– Fees versus benefits: A 0.95% management fee is on the higher side compared with some low-cost equity ETFs and even some crypto funds. Investors will need to decide whether the convenience, staking integration and multi-asset exposure justify the cost.
– Correlation with existing holdings: For investors who already hold crypto directly or through other vehicles, these funds may add redundancy rather than diversification.
– Regulatory and counterparty exposure: Confidence in the ETF’s governance, its custodial partners and its compliance framework will be essential, especially for institutional participants.
What this move signals about the evolution of crypto investing
Trump Media’s ETF filings illustrate how quickly the boundary between traditional finance and crypto-native strategies is blurring. Early crypto products focused mainly on tracking prices; newer iterations are starting to integrate on-chain mechanics such as staking and yield farming into regulated investment vehicles.
If the SEC approves these products, it could open the door to more complex ETF structures that blend multiple digital assets, integrate various yield sources and potentially include tokenized versions of real-world assets. At the same time, regulators will be under pressure to ensure that innovation does not come at the expense of transparency and investor safety.
For now, the two Truth Social Funds proposals underscore a key trend: the race to design crypto investment products that go beyond simple price exposure, aiming instead to capture both the upside of growth and the ongoing income that blockchain networks can generate. Whether investors will embrace that combination in the current climate of ETF outflows remains to be seen, but the filings confirm that competition to define the next generation of crypto ETFs is only intensifying.