The Trump SPAC is already looking like the ultimate meme stock.
After jumping more than 350% on Thursday, the stock price of SPAC company Digital World Acquisition Corp. leapt as much as 216% Friday morning before trading was halted multiple times. It was trading at about $90 a share as of 11 a.m. Eastern Time. This followed news this week that former President Donald Trump’s social media platform would go public via the SPAC.
Trump Media & Technology Group announced it would combine with Digital World Acquisition in a special purpose acquisition company merger, an increasingly popular alternative to an initial public offering. Trump Media would launch Truth Social, a social media platform for his followers. The beta version of Truth Social, however, has seen problems within just the first 24 hours of being up and running. Names of prominent political figures were secured by hackers, including the names donaldtrump and mikepence. Following news of the deal, valued at $875 million, Digital World Acquisition’s stock price quadrupled to close above $45 a share yesterday.
Trump has held discussions on other platforms, attempting to find a voice online following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Nearly every platform banned accounts affiliated with pro-Trump violence, including QAnon and #StoptheSteal. Reddit banned the subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump,” and the conversation moved to the site America.win. The site’s owner stopped posting following advice from his attorney. Other social media platforms took similar steps, including Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, Shopify, and Twitch, taking down or banning accounts affiliated with violence associated with the former president. Twitter banned Trump indefinitely from its platform.
Digital World Acquisition was the most actively traded stock on the Fidelity platform Thursday and continued to be the most traded on Friday. At least 11.12 million shares were traded yesterday, up from 3,800 on Wednesday.
Updated, Oct. 22, 2021: This story has been updated with information about the stock price.
More finance coverage from Fortune:
- 4 things to know about stimulus checks in 2022 and beyond
- GameStop report from SEC sheds new light on meme stock mania—conspiracies and all
- How high Goldman Sachs predicts home prices will go in 2022
- Mortgage rates may spike 30% next year, according to a new forecast
- These markets are expected to be the hottest for real estate in 2022
Subscribe to Fortune Daily to get essential business stories delivered straight to your inbox each morning.
