More than 10 customers have signed up for a controversial Trump Media service that gives Wall Street traders faster access to posts from influential accounts on Truth Social.
The service, known as Truth API, launched at the beginning of August. It gives financial firms early access to posts that could move markets, including those published by President Donald Trump.
Interim chief executive Kevin McGurn said the earliest customers are mostly high-frequency trading firms. They are paying between $60,000 and $100,000 (£44,000-£74,000) a month for the service.
His comments came after Trump Media and Technology Group reported a $238m loss between April and June.
The quarterly loss was more than 10 times the loss recorded during the same period a year earlier, according to the company.
Trump Media has yet to make a profit and has expanded into areas beyond social media, including cryptocurrency and clean-energy investments.
The company announced in July that it would offer Wall Street firms and institutional investors faster access to posts on Truth Social.
Trump frequently uses the platform to make political and policy announcements, making early access potentially valuable to traders seeking to respond before the wider market.
The service has raised legal and ethical questions because Trump Media is partly owned by the Trump family, creating concerns over whether the company could profit from the president’s public statements.
The new service is “expected to provide the company with a new revenue stream,” Trump Media said in its earnings statement on Monday.
McGurn said the company expects Truth API to become a “meaningful” and “durable” source of revenue alongside its wider media strategy, which includes advertising and digital assets.
He added that the company is also exploring opportunities involving technology firms, news organisations and betting markets.
The BBC has contacted Trump Media and Technology Group for further comment.
Trump Media reported $1.7m in revenue for the quarter, an 89% increase from the same period a year earlier.
However, the company recorded an overall loss linked largely to a decline in the value of its cryptocurrency holdings.
It said it ended the second quarter with total assets of $2bn, including about $1.9bn in financial assets such as cash, short-term investments and digital currencies.
The company has increasingly moved into cryptocurrency holdings and clean-energy investments as it seeks to diversify its business.
Markus Thielen, an analyst at 10x Research, told the BBC that Trump Media is more of a crypto holdings firm “wrapped around” a media company.
He said most of the company’s losses had come from its cryptocurrency strategy.
Thielen added that the company is expanding beyond crypto into areas such as social media, although those businesses have yet to generate significant revenue.
Earlier this month, Trump Media abandoned plans to work with Crypto.com on prediction market features for Truth Social.
Faridah
