Tiny Company With China Ties Announces Big Purchase of Trump Cryptocurrency

[highplainsdem]

Source: NYT

A struggling technology company that has ties to China and relies on TikTok made an unusual announcement this week. It had secured funding to buy as much as $300 million of $TRUMP, the so-called memecoin marketed by President Trump.

GD Culture Group, a publicly traded firm with a Chinese subsidiary, has only eight employees, its public filings show, and recorded zero revenue last year from an e-commerce business it operates on TikTok, the Chinese-owned video-sharing app.

But on Monday, GD Culture Group became the latest business with foreign ties to seize on Mr. Trump’s crypto venture, which channels profits directly to the Trump family and has generated conflicts of interest that have alarmed ethics experts. (Memecoins like $TRUMP are a type of cryptocurrency based on an online joke or celebrity mascot and have traditionally not had any utility beyond speculation.)

In its statement, GD Culture Group, which is traded on the Nasdaq, said it would spend $300 million on a stockpile of Bitcoin and $TRUMP, using proceeds from a stock sale to an unnamed entity in the British Virgin Islands, a popular tax haven. It confirmed that investment plan in a securities filing late Tuesday.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/us/politics/trump-crypto-purchase.html

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This would be the first known example of a firm linked to China buying $TRUMP.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. If only this country had some sort of commission that oversaw securities traded on exchanges.

Like that would ever happen.

[IronLionZion]

3. Does SEC regulate crypto?

Grifters like crypto because it's not well regulated.

[Eugene]

9. SEC finally started implementing rules under Biden. Trump is undoing all of that.

Most cryptocurrencies were unregistered securities, while Bitcoin was a commodity. Now the Trump administration is explicitly de-prioritizing prosecution of white collar crime and granting clemency crypto scammers prosecuted under Biden.

As long as the Trump family gets a piece of the action, it's all good.

[Scrivener7]

2. Huh. And then the felon lowered the tariffs. How coincidental.

[Bluetus]

4. Amazing what can happen when you combine

* A lifelong grifter/mobster
* A bought-and-paid for Supreme Court declaring the President can't be prosecuted for anything ever
* A party that will never, under any circumstances convict, in an impeachment.

What could possibly go wrong?

EVERYBODY in the power structure is at fault, some more than others. From Republicans, we have had 15 years of see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil. From Democrats, we have had 15 years of "Oh pshaw, our system will take care of itself." And from the Supreme Court, the cumulative effect of years of bribery.

Congratulations, we Americans now have the most corrupt government anywhere on the planet. At least others try to hide it.

[Strelnikov_]

5. All in plain sight

[BadgerKid]

6. Obviously a bribe...er... I mean "tip". Nt

L

[hay rick]

7. Another day, another bribe.

[LudwigPastorius]

8. _

[orangecrush]

10. Of course

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Don't worry - according to Republican jurisprudence, it's only a bribe if the quid pro quo is in plain sight

and since we don't know what the "entity" that's funding this via the British Virgin Islands tax haven is, then there can't possibly be anything in it for the "entity" - which is obviously just giving away $300m to Trump from pure adoration and worship, without expectation of anything in return.

And we may never know - because Trump does so many unhinged things that benefit companies, individuals or, say, Gulf authoritarian monarchies or nuclear-armed Eurasian petrostate dictatorships, seemingly at random, you can't look at his actions and say "he must have been bribed to do that". It's always possible that he does something because he admires the way they murder their opposition, for instance.

[republianmushroom]

12. It is magic how money ties to trump get his attention.