Updates shares in paragraph 5

By Ateev Bhandari

May 12 (Reuters) - American Bitcoin, a new bitcoin miner backed by U.S. President Donald Trump's two eldest sons, said on Monday it will list on the Nasdaq via an all-stock merger with Gryphon Digital Mining GRYP.O.

Existing shareholders of American Bitcoin, including co-founder Eric Trump, his brother Donald Trump Jr. and crypto miner Hut 8 HUT.O, will retain 98% ownership of the newly formed entity.

The move is the latest in a series of crypto ventures by the Trump family, including a meme coin launched in January and World Liberty Financial, a crypto company partly owned by the president.

President Trump has pledged to make the U.S. a global leader in the crypto space, and has promised a lighter regulatory touch. However, he has drawn criticism from government ethics experts and political opponents over potential conflicts of interest.

Gryphon shares rose more than three-fold to $2.19, while Hut 8 shares gained over 11% to reach $15.45. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025.

American Bitcoin, which launched in March, will retain Eric Trump as its chief strategy officer.

"Our vision for American Bitcoin is to create the most investable Bitcoin accumulation platform in the market," he said in a statement.

Over the past few weeks, several corporations have launched new ventures or struck deals to become entities that accumulate bitcoin on their balance sheets.

These ventures let investors gain exposure to the crypto token without directly owning it, an approach pioneered by Strategy MSTR.O in 2020, and have soared in popularity among retail traders.

"Buying a stock is a very familiar investment to way more people than buying crypto on a platform," Allan Marshall, CEO of e-commerce platform Upexi UPXI.O, said in an interview last week.

Since unveiling its plan last month to hold Solana as a treasury asset, Upexi's shares have climbed more than four-fold.

(Reporting by Ateev Bhandari and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

((Ateev.Bhandari@thomsonreuters.com;))