American Bitcoin Shares Plunge Over 50% on Lockup End

American Bitcoin Corp., a Bitcoin mining and treasury company led by Eric Trump, saw its shares plunge more than 50 percent on Tuesday, closing at 1.75 per share despite a rally in Bitcoin's price above 91,000. The sharp decline occurred on the Nasdaq exchange and marked the stock's worst single-day drop since its public debut in September, driven by heavy selling after the expiration of a lockup period for certain premerger investors.

Trading volume surged to 55 million shares, about 18 times the company's average daily volume of 3 million shares. This activity reflected a rush by early backers to sell holdings that had been restricted since the company's reverse merger with Gryphon Digital Mining. The stock, which debuted at highs around 14 during the merger process and peaked at 9.31 shortly after listing, has now lost approximately 78 percent from that high.

Eric Trump, executive chairman of the company, attributed the volatility to the unlocking of premerger private placement shares. In a statement on social media, he wrote, "Today our premerger private placement shares unlocked. These early investors are freely available to cash in on their profits for the first time which...