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  • 🇺🇸 The Trump Crypto Empire: CRO Treasuries & Prediction Markets

🇺🇸 The Trump Crypto Empire: CRO Treasuries & Prediction Markets

PLUS: Trump Media bets $6.4B on CRO, Trump Jr. backs Polymarket, ETF filings get political, and Washington eyes defense stocks.

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Cryptopolitan News
August 27, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

🦅 The Trump crypto empire: From CRO treasuries to prediction markets

This was a big day for Cronos (CRO) holders.

Trump Media Group struck a definitive agreement with Crypto.com to acquire up to $6.42B worth of CRO tokens an amount that could give it control over nearly 19% of CRO’s circulating supply. The purchases will run through a new entity, Trump Media Group CRO Strategy, Inc., created to manage the treasury.

The structure is just as notable:

  • Yorkville Acquisition Corp. (a SPAC) will help facilitate the treasury vehicle.

  • An affiliate will line up a $5B credit facility with YA II PN, Ltd., tied to equity.

  • The goal: pair a crypto treasury with a public listing. Yorkville’s Class A shares will seek to trade on Nasdaq under ticker “MCGA” (Make Cronos Great Again).

  • Founders and partners agreed to a lockup of at least one year, followed by a three-year gradual sale schedule.

For CRO holders, the market reaction was immediate:

  • CRO jumped to a 12-month peak above $0.20, a level last seen in December 2024.

  • 24h trading volumes spiked to $300M, near a three-month high.

  • CRO open interest surged from $10M to $105M, while shorts got squeezed with $458K in liquidations.

Why it matters: until now, corporate treasuries have mostly competed for BTC, ETH, SOL, and BNB. Trump Media is the first major U.S. media company to commit billions to a mid-cap token and integrate it into its core business. CRO isn’t just going into a vault, it will be embedded into Truth Social’s payments and engagement system. That gives the token both political visibility and real-world utility.

Trump Jr. backs Polymarket

At the same time, Donald Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital invested “double-digit millions” into Polymarket, the world’s largest blockchain-based prediction platform.

The move comes with influence: Trump Jr. will join Polymarket’s board as an advisor, positioning the platform for regulatory acceptance in the U.S.

  • Polymarket has around $138M in open interest across active markets.

  • It recently cleared regulatory hurdles by acquiring QCX and securing a U.S. betting license.

  • Valuation now stands close to $1B, backed by Founders Fund and other major VCs.

  • Despite dips in monthly users (down to ~179K in July), volumes on breaking-news markets remain strong.

Polymarket has been controversial banned in Australia, hit by a $40M arbitrage exploit but it’s also become a cultural force. With Trump Jr.’s investment and advisory role, it now has a clearer shot at mainstream U.S. legitimacy.

👉 Takeaway: For all the noise around memecoins and celebrity launches, this is different. The Trump family is building a crypto-financial complex that ties politics, media, and markets together with billions in real assets on the line.

📚 Quick explainers

  • What’s CRO? Cronos is Crypto.com’s native token. Holders can stake it to run validator nodes, earn rewards, and access payments/trading features. Trump Media’s move makes CRO a politically branded asset tied to Truth Social.

  • What’s Polymarket? A prediction market where users bet on real-world events like elections, sports, policy outcomes. Think of it as a stock market for opinions, powered by crypto.

  • Why Nasdaq? By pairing CRO with a listed SPAC, Trump Media is experimenting with a hybrid model bridging crypto assets and Wall Street equity under one corporate umbrella.

👉 Takeaway: The “flippening” isn’t here yet, but this $2.5B shift shows ETH is firmly in the conversation as whales reprice risk and hunt yield.

🧠 Signal vs Noise

Canary Capital just filed with the SEC to launch a Trump Coin ETF, days after also filing for a “Made in America” crypto ETF. The new product would track tokens with U.S. roots like XRP, SOL, LINK, and even $TRUMP itself.

Here’s the context:

ETF issuers are flooding the SEC with applications:

  • Spot Bitcoin & ETH ETFs opened the door.

  • Now we’re seeing thematic filings like “American-made,” “memecoins,” and political brands.

  • ETF analyst Eric Balchunas says “get ready for ETFs to try every combo imaginable,” even predicting a memecoin-only ETF by 2026.

But there are caveats:

  • SEC delays are piling up with XRP, Solana, and Truth Social ETFs all kicked down to October.

  • Canary’s $TRUMP ETF likely won’t see daylight until 2026.

  • And critics argue these filings are more about branding than investor demand.

📢 Signal: The ETF boom isn’t slowing. Expect to see increasingly creative filings as issuers fight for shelf space.
💭 Noise: A “$TRUMP ETF” may generate headlines, but approval is years away and it’s more marketing gimmick than market shift.

📈 Chart our analyst is watching

Trump’s new playbook: Government as shareholder

The Trump administration isn’t just rewriting crypto rules. It’s rethinking capitalism itself. After the U.S. government bought 10% of Intel for $9B, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hinted that defense giants like Lockheed Martin, Palantir, and Boeing could be next.

The numbers to watch:

  • Lockheed Martin (LMT): ~75% of revenue tied to U.S. federal contracts.

  • Boeing (BA): ~$90B in annual revenue, with a third from defense.

  • RTX (formerly Raytheon): ~$69B revenue, majority defense contracts.

  • Northrop Grumman (NOC): ~$36B defense revenue.

Why it matters

  • From Pentagon checks to equity stakes: Instead of just writing contracts, Trump’s White House wants the government to own pieces of the firms themselves.

  • Intel precedent: The $9B stake was framed as “securing U.S. semiconductors,” but critics warn it sets a precedent for politicizing corporate governance.

  • Free market tension: Libertarians and conservatives call it a step toward “government socialism.” Rand Paul: “Wouldn’t the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism?”

📚 Quick Explainer

  • Defense Prime Contractors: The “Big 5” — Lockheed, Boeing, RTX, Northrop, and General Dynamics dominate U.S. military spending. Together, they pull in over $180B annually from Pentagon contracts.

  • Why markets care: If the government becomes a shareholder, these companies’ incentives may shift from efficiency to politics reshaping valuations.

  • Spillover risk: If defense is fair game, who’s next? Energy, tech, even AI firms like Palantir could see similar moves.

👉 Takeaway: This chart isn’t about stock prices alone, it’s about a structural shift. For decades, Washington funded defense. Now, it may own defense. And that raises the question: are U.S. markets sliding into a new era of “state capitalism”?

Top narrative shapers to follow on X

Here are Cryptopolitan’s top picks:

@punk6529 – The philosopher-king of crypto. Known for epic threads on open metaverse, digital property rights, and the cultural meaning of NFTs. Think long-term vision, not charts.

@CroissantETH – OG explainer. Breaks down complex DeFi and token flows into simple story-driven threads. A narrative builder for the everyday reader.

@RaoulGMI – Macro meets crypto. Raoul Pal frames crypto in the bigger story of global debt cycles, currency debasement, and institutional adoption.

@balajis – Big vision thinker. Ties crypto into the future of states, networks, and digital society. His threads feel like mini-manifestos on where the world is heading.

Mid-week headline wrap

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