Trump Media plummets 10% as post-lockup selloff picks up steam

Shares of Trump Media sank Monday to their lowest price since 2021, days after majority owner Donald Trump and other company insiders got the green light to start selling their stakes in the Truth Social operator.

The stock, which appears as DJT on the Nasdaq, closed more than 10% lower in a frenzied trading session, settling at $12.15 per share and notching the company’s sixth straight day of declines.

Trump Media’s share price has fallen nearly 85% since the company surged in its public trading debut in late March.

Monday’s decline left the stock at its lowest level since before October 2021, when it was revealed that the blank-check firm Digital World Acquisition Corp. was planning to merge with then-private Trump Media.

News of that deal sent shares of DWAC soaring more than 350%. The stock declined in the intervening years, before surging again in the early 2024 in anticipation of the completion of the merger with Trump Media.

The company’s market capitalization, which crossed $10 billion in March, has now shrunk below $2.5 billion. Trump owns nearly 57% of the company’s outstanding shares, a stake that is still worth nearly $1.4 billion.

Trump and other company insiders were bound by lockup agreements that barred them from selling their shares in the initial months after Trump Media went public.

Those restrictions expired at the closing bell Thursday.

Trading volume accelerated significantly as the lockup lifted. More than 14 million shares changed hands on Thursday and nearly 22 million were exchanged Friday, far exceeding the 30-day average volume of about 8.3 million shares.

Traders swapped more than 18.3 million shares on Monday.

Asked for comment about the stock’s recent movement, a Trump Media spokesperson shared a statement defending the company’s business.

“Trump Media ended last quarter with $344 million in cash and cash equivalents and zero debt while launching an in-app streaming platform on our custom-built content delivery network,” the statement read. “With further innovations planned soon, TMTG is optimistic about our growth strategy.”

Trump, a main draw for Truth Social users and many of the company’s retail investors, said earlier in September that he will not sell his stake. The stock price briefly shot up after his remarks.

Other early investors have made no such promises. They include DWAC sponsor ARC Global and United Atlantic Ventures, an entity controlled by two former contestants on Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice.”

ARC and UAV owned nearly 11% of outstanding DJT shares, Trump Media said in a regulatory filing in early September. But ARC’s stake may have grown after a Delaware judge ruled on Sept. 16 that Trump Media breached an agreement with the sponsor and owes it more stock.