Bitcoin miner Gryphon skyrockets 350% on merger with Trump sons’ company

Quotes on Gryphon Digital Mining, a small-cap company that brands itself as a carbon-neutral bitcoin miner, soared more than 300% after it announced a merger agreement with American Bitcoin, a platform cofounded by U.S. President Donald Trump’s sons. The deal could help Gryphon to avoid a potential delisting and bring American Bitcoin to the public market.

Before the opening bell today, May 12, Gryphon skyrocketed 350% to $2.34 per share, even trading above $4.90 per share at one point — nearly 9.5 times the previous closing price. The rally extended into the regular session: The stock jumped more than 320% in the first minutes before giving back some of the gains, with shares up around 250% as of this writing.

This was driven by Gryphon’s announcement of a merger with American Bitcoin. According to the New York Times, the platform was founded in 2025 by the crypto company Hut 8 Corp and American Data Centers, an entity backed by the U.S. President’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

The currently private American Bitcoin intends to go public through this merger. The combined company will operate under the American Bitcoin brand and be led by its leadership team. It will trade under the new ticker symbol ABTC on the Nasdaq. Under the terms of the deal, current Gryphon shareholders will own about 2% of the combined company, with the remaining 98% going to American Bitcoin shareholders.

The merger, still subject to Gryphon shareholder approval, is expected to close in the third quarter.

Gryphon brands itself as a carbon-neutral bitcoin miner that uses renewable energy. At the end of last year, it unveiled plans to enter a new market — AI — through a deal to acquire energy assets from the Canada-based company Erikson National Energy (though that agreement was later terminated). According to the company, the idea was to use low-cost energy sources to gain a competitive advantage in bitcoin mining and supply electricity to tech giants that need it to advance AI technologies. Gryphon also announced an agreement to purchase a Captus Energy industrial site in Canada, which has access to natural gas supply, among other things. 

In April, Gryphon revealed it had failed to meet the Nasdaq’s $1 per share minimum requirement, which put it at risk of delisting.

American Bitcoin aims to become the world’s largest and most efficient pure-play bitcoin miner and build a strategic bitcoin reserve, according to the press release. The New York Times notes that this marks the third major crypto venture that the Trump family has started over the past year. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump and his sons launched World Liberty Financial, which offers two types of digital currencies. Then, on the eve of his inauguration, Trump and his wife introduced their own memecoins.