Eric Trump, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of American Bitcoin Corp. (NASDAQ:ABTC), said Thursday that the company’s core long-term strategy is to increase Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) on its balance sheet.

‘We Believe In Bitcoin In The Long Term’

During American Bitcoin’s fourth-quarter earnings call, Trump was asked about the company’s capital allocation between its mining segment and purchasing Bitcoin on the open market.

“We believe in Bitcoin in the long term, and when there are right and opportunistic moments where we believe that we can get a strong return on mining, we will do so,” he responded.

Trump said that the company will prioritize mining when it can secure a lucrative deal on machines, expand its operations, and sustain low energy costs.

American Bitcoin Not Chasing Hashrates, Says Trump

He contrasted this approach with other Bitcoin miners, who, in his view,  are fixated on hashrate and mining statistics, at the expense of “underlying economics.”

“Our growth metric is simple: increase Bitcoin and increase Bitcoin for sure over the long term,” Trump said.

“When there are buying opportunities [in mining], we will look at those opportunities as a way to increase Bitcoin on the balance sheet faster than just buying Bitcoin itself. When those opportunities don't exist, we'll just keep on accumulating Bitcoin day by day,” Trump emphasized.

Trump ‘Incredibly Proud’ After ABTC’s Earnings

American Bitcoin increased its BTC holdings by 58% quarter over quarter and mined BTC at a 53% discount to prevailing market prices, according to its latest earnings report.

The firm currently holds 6,039 BTC, worth $409 million, according to Bitcointreasuries.net. Unlike high-profile peers such as Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR), American Bitcoin also produces fresh BTC via in-house mining.

American Bitcoin also posted 159% year-over-year revenue growth. Trump said he was “incredibly proud” of the team, describing the company’s growth trajectory as “an amazing story.”

Will The Stock Recover?

American Bitcoin, a majority-owned subsidiary of Hut 8 Corp. (NASDAQ:HUT), started trading on the Nasdaq Exchange in September of last year. However, the stock has tumbled 87% since then.

Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was exchanging hands at $67,778.96, down 0.69% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

American Bitcoin shares fell 0.99% in after-hours trading after closing 2.86% higher at $1.080 during Thursday’s regular trading session.

Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings highlight a weaker price trend for the stock across short-, medium-, and long-term.

Photo courtesy: Maxim Elramsisy / Shutterstock.com