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Former US President Donald Trump saw his wealth potentially explode on Tuesday after his social media company’s stellar market debut took his stake to around $4.6 billion on paper.
Trump Media & Technology Shares (NASDAQ:DJT) advanced by more than 16% to end at $57.99 on their Nasdaq debut.
According to regulatory filings, Trump holds 78.75 million shares in the company, meaning his stake is now valued at around $4.57 billion. Trump’s nearly 60% ownership makes him the company’s largest shareholder.
Trump’s shares are subject to a six-month lock-up agreement, and up to $1.6 billion of his holding’s paper assets depend on Trump Media (DJT) shares meeting performance requirements.
Trump Media’s (DJT) flagship product, Truth Social, had approximately 8.9 million signups in February. The social media platform is a relatively minor player compared to other products such as Facebook and Instagram from Meta Platforms (META) and Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter).
Truth Social owes much of its popularity to Trump, who has among the highest followers on the platform. Trump generally generates great interest on social media, with 34 million followers on Facebook, 24.2 million on Instagram and 87.4 million on X.
The potential funds from Trump Media’s (DJT) market debut come at a crucial time for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who is shelling out millions of dollars a month to fund his legal battles.
Trump already faced a deadline Monday to pay a $464 million bail fine following civil fraud charges brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. However, an appeals court reduced the payment to $175 million. Trump also faces other legal challenges, such as paying $83.3 million in a defamation lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
Trump wasn’t the only one to gain big from Trump Media’s (DJT) market debut on Tuesday. Devin Nunes, the company’s top boss, holds 115,000 shares now valued at $6.7 million. Nunes was a former U.S. Representative who served in Congress from 2003 to 2022. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2021 for his investigation of the Obama-Biden administration during the 2016 election.