Company that bet big on Trump-backed crypto says its fortunes have improved

AI Financial Corp., a publicly traded company that took heavy losses after making a billion-dollar bet on a cryptocurrency backed by the Trump family, said Wednesday that its outlook had improved. Its shares are down 92% since making that bet to 65 cents a share as of Wednesday's market open. The Trump family earned about $500 million in that transaction, CNBC reported. A spokeswoman for the Trump brothers said previously they have no visibility into or involvement into AI Financial. The company now says the problems that led it to warn investors about its future "have been substantially mitigated," it disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. AI Financial told investors in May it wasn't clear it would be able to continue as a going concern for another 12 months. AI Financial is listed on the Nasdaq. The exchange requires listed companies to keep their stock prices consistently above $1 a share. If AI Financial can't do that within roughly the next two weeks, it may be delisted. AI Financial was previously named Alt5 Sigma. Alt5 in August entered into a $1.5 billion deal with World Liberty Financial, a private company co-founded in 2024 by Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr, and other business partners. The publicly traded company acquired 7.3 billion in WLFI tokens, which it hoped would rise in value. Instead, the value of the Trump-backed cryptocurrency has since fallen to 70% below what Alt5 paid for its tokens as of Wednesday morning, according to Coinbase. AI Financial said in a recent securities filing that its crypto assets had lost $348 million in the first quarter. It also took an operating loss in addition to the paper loss on its balance sheet. WLFI's value has continued to fall since then. AI Financial can't current sell its WLFI holdings, but it can lend some of them out. Some 3.2 billion of its WLFI tokens are available "to use as collateral for a loan transaction" or for other similar purposes, the company said Wednesday in the filing. CEO Tony Isaac said in an accompanying press release the company has no plans to sell those tokens. They are split into multiple tranches based on how they were acquired and are covered by different lock-up agreements that prevent any sales before mid-August at the earliest. AI Financial valued its WLFI holdings at $380 million of Tuesday evening, and said $180 million was available for lending. Those holdings were initially worth $1.4 billion. AI Financial's stock rose three cents in early trading Wednesday following the announcement.