In August, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq to celebrate a crypto deal. Less than a year later, the company behind it is warning that it may not survive.
How The Deal Worked
Let's break down what happened. Back in August 2025, a small company called Alt5 Sigma agreed to take on $1.5 billion in crypto tokens.
The tokens came from World Liberty Financial. That is a crypto firm co-founded in 2024 by Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and others.
The tokens are called WLFI. Alt5 turned itself into an easy way to bet on them.
So investors could buy a stock instead of the coin. It copied a model made famous by Michael Saylor, who packs bitcoin inside a public company.
World Liberty also runs a stablecoin called USD1, a coin built to hold a steady $1 value. The Trump family, though, came out ahead on the token deal.
They were entitled to about $500 million from the sale. That payout aged well for them and badly for everyone else.
Working out which hyped-up deals are real and which leave investors holding the bag is the kind of thing we break down daily in Market Briefs, and you get a free investing masterclass when you sign up.
Why The Stock Collapsed
The tokens did not hold their value. WLFI was picked up at 20 cents each, but by June 8 it had dropped to about 5.7 cents.
That is a fall of roughly 72%. It gutted the company, now renamed AI Financial Corp.
The company told investors that its debts are bigger than what it owns. It even said there is "substantial doubt" it can stay in business.
The stock tells the same story. It closed at $8.97 right before the deal, and by June 8 it was worth 66 cents.
Two big hedge funds got caught up in it too. Point72 bought about $36.5 million of the stock and later sold out.
Another fund was down about $14 million on paper by the end of March. Smaller investors had a much harder time getting out.
A Ticking Delisting Clock
Now there is a deadline. The Nasdaq makes its companies trade above $1 a share.
Sit below that for too long, and a company can get kicked off. That would push the stock into a smaller, riskier market.
June 8 marked the 15th trading day in a row that the company closed under $1. Getting dropped from the Nasdaq is like getting cut from the big leagues.
The strangest part is the gap. Investors value the whole company at about $89 million.
But its pile of crypto is worth around $412 million. In plain terms, the market thinks the stock is riskier to hold than the coin behind it.
The company can still fight back. It could do a reverse split, a move that lifts the share price by shrinking the number of shares.
Worth Noting
The Trump family says Eric and Don Jr. have no role in the company and never did. A spokeswoman added that neither has been on the board or helped run it.
What is left is a clean split. The insiders got paid up front, and the investors who bought in were left holding the losses.
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