Shares of the former president’s social media company surged on Tuesday before it was briefly halted.
Shares of former President Donald Trump’s social media and technology company jumped about 50 percent on Tuesday in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq before it was briefly halted for volatility.
After making its debut, shares for the Trump Media & Technology Group stock, called “DJT,” spiked 50 percent. But it was briefly halted because of the sharp rise before it had resumed trading at around 9:40 a.m. ET.
It’s not uncommon for the trading of highly-watched stocks to be suspended when the price increases or plunges too quickly.
Reports indicated that more than 6.5 million shares of the Trump stock were bought and sold by around 9:50 a.m. ET. And a report from Reuters found that the company is now worth about $10 billion after the surge on the Nasdaq.
At over $70 on Monday, the company’s market capitalization was $9.84 billion on an undiluted basis. The former president’s majority stake in TMTG was last valued at $5.72 billion, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.
As of 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday, DJT was up about 38 percentage points.
TMTG, which owns social media platform Truth Social, officially merged with blank-check company Digital World Acquisition Corp. on Monday after a shareholder vote was held last Friday. After the vote, shares dropped almost 14 percent, but Monday they rebounded strongly with a gain of 35 percent—a day before it was traded on Nasdaq.
With the development, President Trump entered the world’s 500 wealthiest people list on Tuesday, as compiled by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth increased by $4 billion on Monday, giving him an estimated $6.5 billion fortune.
Devin Nunes, the CEO of the new company, said in a news release Monday that the business will move to “reclaim the Internet from Big Tech censors,“ adding: “We will continue to fulfill our commitment to Americans to serve as a safe harbor for free expression and to stand up to the ever-growing army of speech suppressors.” Mr. Nunes is a former Republican California congressman who left office to head the Truth Social social media platform that President Trump near-exclusively uses.
