The Nasdaq stock exchange halted trading of American Bitcoin (ABTC) shares five times on Wednesday as volatility spiked on the stock’s relisting debut.
Shares of ABTC, a Bitcoin (BTC) mining company co-founded by Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., climbed by nearly 85%, hitting a high of $14 per share during intraday trading, following American Bitcoin’s stock merger with Gryphon Digital Mining, another crypto mining company.
ABTC trading was first halted at 3:09:35 UTC for 10 minutes and again at 3:20:11 UTC, with two additional halts at 3:30:54 and 3:40:12.
The most recent trading halt occurred at 3:47:58 UTC; however, trading has since resumed, according to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and shares of ABTC are currently swapping hands at about $9.80.
American Bitcoin’s debut to a trading frenzy reflects Wall Street’s growing appetite for digital asset firms and mining companies, as the crypto industry matures and courts institutional investment.
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Crypto firms eye mergers to go public
American Bitcoin went public through an all-stock merger with Gryphon. The deal, disclosed in late August, gave Trump’s family company a faster pathway to US markets.
Crypto companies are increasingly turning to mergers to reach American investors, particularly through special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) — vehicles that allow private companies to go public by combining with existing publicly traded “blank check” companies.
These SPACs are not operating businesses and only exist to find a suitable private company to merge with, offering an avenue to go public without having to go through the lengthy and costly initial public offering (IPO) process.
In August, Parataxis, a digital asset investment firm, announced plans to go public via a SPAC merger with SilverBox Corp IV. Once the deal closes, the new company will be listed as Parataxis Holdings (PRTX).
Investor Chamath Palihapitiya filed for a SPAC called “American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp A,” a $250 million blank check company focused on decentralized finance (DeFi), artificial intelligence, and energy.
Trump Media and Technology Group, a tech company co-founded by US President Donald Trump, announced a $6.4 billion SPAC deal with Crypto.com to set up a Cronos (CRO) treasury company in August.
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