More than 10 financial firms have signed up for a Trump Media service that charges as much as $100,000 a month for faster access to potentially market-moving posts on Truth Social, according to a new report.
The service, known as Truth API, launched at the beginning of August and is designed to give paying customers quicker access to posts from some of the social media platform's most influential accounts, including President Donald Trump's, whose remarks there can trigger rapid moves across stocks, currencies and other assets.
According to BBC News, Trump Media and Technology Group interim CEO Kevin McGurn said during an earnings call Monday that the service's earliest customers are primarily high-frequency trading firms. They are paying between $60,000 and $100,000 per month for access.
High-frequency traders use sophisticated computer systems and algorithms to execute transactions at extremely high speeds, meaning getting access to a potentially consequential statement seconds or even fractions of a second before competitors could influence trading decisions.
Trump Media first announced plans for the service in July, pitching it to Wall Street firms and institutional investors seeking faster access to Truth Social content. Trump regularly uses the platform to make policy announcements.
But the business has also raised legal and ethical questions because Trump's family remains the majority shareholder of Trump Media. Critics have questioned whether a company financially connected to the president's family should be able to profit from giving investors accelerated access to his public statements.
Trump Media said Truth API is "expected to provide the company with a new revenue stream." McGurn said executives believe the business could eventually become a "meaningful" and "durable" source of revenue alongside advertising and the company's expanding digital asset operations.
The company is also exploring opportunities to sell the service to technology companies, news organizations and betting markets, according to McGurn. The new revenue push comes as Trump Media continues to report substantial losses.
The company lost $238 million between April and June, more than 10 times the loss it reported during the same period last year. Revenue totaled just $1.7 million during the quarter, although that represented an 89% increase from a year earlier.
Trump Media said much of its overall loss was related to declines in cryptocurrencies. The company ended the second quarter with approximately $2 billion in total assets, including about $1.9 billion in financial assets made up of cash, short-term investments and digital currencies.
Those holdings reflect Trump Media's transformation from a business centered primarily around Truth Social into a company with significant exposure to cryptocurrency and other investments. It has also expanded into clean-energy investments as executives search for additional sources of growth.
Markus Thielen, an analyst at 10x Research, told the BBC that Trump Media increasingly resembles a crypto holdings company "wrapped around" a media business, with much of its losses stemming from that strategy.
The company, which has yet to turn a profit, is now signaling that social media will again become a greater priority even as it continues diversifying its operations. Earlier this month, Trump Media abandoned plans for a partnership with Crypto.com that would have introduced prediction-market features on Truth Social.
