Former biotech raising $1.5 billion to hoard Trump-tied token

The Alt5 Sigma deal also echoes a June arrangement where an obscure publicly traded toymaker said it would begin stockpiling Tron, a cryptocurrency created by World Liberty Financial adviser Justin Sun

A biotech-turned-financial firm is seeking to raise up to $1.5 billion, in a deal that would transform it into a stockpiler of a Trump-tied crypto token, offering new ballast to a project that financially benefits the president’s family.

Alt5 Sigma Corp., a Las Vegas-based company that swerved from chronic pain treatment into crypto payments, said in a statement Monday that it was selling shares to raise money to buy World Liberty Financial tokens, a virtual asset tied to the family of President Donald Trump.

The private placement’s lead investor is World Liberty Financial itself, and others including crypto venture capital firms participated, according to the statement.

Bloomberg News reported last week that investors were being pitched on a plan for a public company to hold World Liberty Financial tokens. Eric Trump, who co-founded World Liberty Financial, will join the board of Alt5 Sigma, and Zach Witkoff, a fellow co-founder and son of presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, and will become chairman. The deal is expected to close Tuesday.

The arrangement fits a pattern in Trump’s second term. The Trump family and its allies have signed on to a tangle of crypto projects, and embedded digital assets into small, publicly traded companies at a swift clip. The Alt5 Sigma deal would bolster World Liberty Financial, which is not currently listed on cryptocurrency exchanges, by effectively putting a stockpile of the token inside of a publicly traded company, whose shares are easy to buy and sell. The approach is akin to how Strategy, formerly called MicroStrategy Inc., developed a more than $75 billion stash of Bitcoin —  a blueprint followed by other public companies.

A firm tied to President Trump and his family owns 40% of World Liberty Financial’s parent company, and billions of its tokens, according to its website. Other co-founders include Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump, and Witkoff’s son Alex Witkoff. President Trump and Steve Witkoff are each labeled “co-founder emeritus.”

Crypto ventures, including World Liberty Financial and a Trump memecoin announced on his inauguration weekend, added at least $620 million to Donald Trump’s fortune in months, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. And the Trumps are linked to an increasing number of companies entwining cryptocurrencies with public markets. Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., the parent company of Truth Social, is working on a plan to sell Bitcoin ETFs. Eric Trump co-founded a new Bitcoin mining venture, in partnership with Hut 8 Corp., that will spin off into a separate public company in coming weeks — his stake could be worth $367 million, Bloomberg News reported last month.

The Alt5 Sigma deal also echoes a June arrangement where an obscure publicly traded toymaker said it would begin stockpiling Tron, a cryptocurrency created by World Liberty Financial adviser Justin Sun.

Congressional Democrats have decried World Liberty Financial, saying the project “blurred the line between presidential power and private profit.” Some Senate Republicans have also expressed reservations about aspects of the Trump family’s crypto projects, including a dinner hosted for top holders of the Trump memecoin.

Last year Alt5 Sigma announced it would pivot its focus from biotech into fintech, and changed its name from JanOne Inc.

Shares of Alt5 Sigma fell about 3.6% to $8.70 as of 10:39 a.m. in New York. The stock is up more than 75% so far this year.