Original Article Title: "From Tenant to Broker, the Crypto Business Inside Trump Tower"

Original Article Author: David, Deep Tide TechFlow

In January 2025, Trump returned to the White House. One particularly eye-catching item in the executive orders he signed was the allowance for 401(k) retirement funds to invest in cryptocurrency.

One month after the policy announcement, a company named American Bitcoin went public on the Nasdaq. This company, claiming to be the "world's largest Bitcoin mining enterprise," had key shareholders including Trump's two sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

Connecting these events was a company that few had heard of before: Dominari Holdings.

Following its involvement with the Trump family and the crypto narrative, its stock price rose from $1.09 at the beginning of the year to $6.09, a surge of over 450%.

The company's transformation was so drastic that many forgot that just four years prior, it was a perennially losing pharmaceutical firm.

This is a story of how $750,000 in annual rent leveraged a multimillion-dollar business. The protagonist is not a crypto tycoon or a Wall Street titan, but two savvy middle-aged individuals: legal expert Anthony Hayes and Wall Street veteran Kyle Wool.

Their simple formula for success was: move into Trump Tower and become neighbors with the Trump sons.

An Expensive Decision

In 2021, Anthony Hayes was facing a mess.

When he took over, the company was not yet Dominari Holdings but AIkido Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company. Like many of its kind, it had consumed years of funding in drug development without any products on the market. According to SEC filings, by the end of 2023, the company had accumulated debts exceeding $223 million. The stock price had long lingered around $1.

(Image Source: NasdaqCM:DOMH Earnings and Revenue History August 12th 2024)

Hayes is not a pharmaceutical expert; he is a lawyer who was once a partner at a top U.S. law firm before founding a company specializing in intellectual property transactions. After taking over AIkido, he made two decisions:

to abandon the pharmaceutical business and to move the company into the Trump Tower.

For this, he brought in Kyle Wool. Wool has spent over 20 years on Wall Street, with a shining resume: former Executive Director at Morgan Stanley, Managing Director at Oppenheimer, and responsible for the Asian wealth management business. He also frequently appears on Fox Business programs and is a regular guest on Maria Bartiromo's morning show.

What does moving into the Trump Tower signify?

According to the company's annual report, the rent expense surged from $140,000 in 2022 to $773,000 in 2023. At that time, the company had only 20 employees. By Manhattan standards, this amount of money was enough to rent an entire floor in a Class A office building.

More importantly, the company was still in the red at that time. In the first half of 2025 alone, it lost $14.8 million. Spending so much money on office rent seemed completely unreasonable.

However, Hayes and Wool were not interested in the office environment. Donald Trump's two sons, Eric and Donald Jr., had their offices upstairs. With the elevator going up and down, they could "bump into each other," and sit at the same table at dinner parties with mutual friends.

Inside the Trump Tower, they might have the opportunity to become part of the Trump business ecosystem.

Upstairs Downstairs Business

Nurturing relationships takes time and skill.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, after moving into the Trump Tower, Hayes and Wool embarked on a long journey of "social investing." Golf matches, charity galas, private gatherings – they didn't miss any occasions where they could "naturally" encounter the Trump sons.

This investment bore fruit in February 2025. Dominari announced that Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump had joined the company's advisory board. Three executives from the Trump Organization also joined simultaneously.

The joining of the two brothers was not merely symbolic. Through private placement, they each invested $1 million to purchase approximately 216,000 shares and also received 750,000 shares as compensation for their advisory roles. Upon this news, Dominari's stock price soared from $1.09 to $13, a peak increase of over 1200%.

Despite a later pullback, the investment of the two brothers has multiplied several times. According to Bloomberg data, Eric Trump currently holds about 6.3% of the shares, worth over $5 million.

But that's just the beginning. On March 31, Dominari announced a partnership with the Canadian publicly traded company Hut 8 to establish American Bitcoin. The positioning of this company is quite interesting: not only to mine Bitcoin but also to emphasize "Made in America," in line with Trump's "America First" policy.

In this transaction, Hut 8 contributed mining equipment worth $115 million, taking 80% of the shares. Dominari only took 3%. This percentage may seem small, but by the end of June, this 3% was already worth $32 million, becoming one of Dominari's most important assets.

More importantly, through this platform, the Trump family has officially entered the Bitcoin mining industry. Personally, Eric Trump also holds an additional 9% stake in American Bitcoin.

On August 27, Dominari established a cryptocurrency advisory board, hiring two heavyweight figures:

Former BitPay executive Sonny Singh, who helped BitPay obtain a cryptocurrency license in New York and launch the first batch of crypto debit cards; and DeFi developer Tristan Chaudhry, an early investor in Litecoin and Dogecoin.

"Digital assets are no longer on the financial fringe; they are entering the mainstream," CEO Hayes said when announcing the board.

This statement may have inadvertently revealed the truth: in the era of Trump, cryptocurrency has indeed moved from the fringe to the mainstream, and those who positioned themselves early are reaping huge rewards.

Dancer in the Gray Area

In Wall Street, connections often speak louder than financial statements. Dominari's shareholder list and network of relationships paint a picture of navigating the gray area.

In March 2025, an investor named Peter Benz became Dominari's 5.7% major shareholder through Blue Finn Group. Interestingly, Benz has served as a director for multiple companies, including IDI, Inc. This company's executives, Michael Brauser and Philip Frost, were later accused by the SEC of involvement in a $27 million stock fraud scheme.

While Benz himself has never been accused of any wrongdoing, this ambiguous association showcases the ecosystem in which Dominari operates: full of opportunities, yet also teetering on the edge of regulation.

Even more nuanced is Kyle Wool's background.

During his time at Morgan Stanley, his team worked on business related to Devon Archer, who was none other than Hunter Biden's former business partner. Transitioning from serving the Democratic circle to now steering the Trump family, Wool has witnessed and been involved in both ends of the U.S. power game.

But the real issue lies not in these relationships but in the company's financial logic.

According to Bloomberg, in the second quarter of 2025, Dominari had revenue of $34 million, a 452% year-on-year increase; however, during the same period, their operating expenses were $53.5 million. Among these, stock options for CEO Hayes and President Wool were valued at $26.1 million.

In other words, every penny the company earns is insufficient to cover its operating costs, let alone generate a profit. Its biggest asset is a 3% stake in American Bitcoin, a newly established Bitcoin mining company whose profitability remains unknown.

Yet investors are unfazed.

What they are buying into is not current earnings but a concept: the Trump family's agent in the crypto world. This might very well be Dominari's true business model, converting political capital into market valuation.

Official Broker

Dominari's ambitions extend far beyond its own investments. Its real value lies in serving as a "super connector" between the Trump family and the crypto world. The Wall Street Journal once described it as the Trump family's "go-to dealmaker."

Three cases best illustrate this point.

The first is the intricate entanglement of World Liberty Financial (WLFI) with Justin Sun.

In September 2025, when the WLFI token began trading, entities controlled by the Trump family held 22.5 billion tokens, translating to a roughly $5 billion increase in book wealth at the time.

But this project almost failed. According to a Bloomberg report, WLFI's initial sale was dismal, with a completion rate of only 7%, failing to even reach the minimum threshold to trigger payment to Trump. At a critical moment, Sun personally invested $30 million, allowing the project to cross the threshold.

Subsequently, Sun's investment increased to $75 million, making him the project's largest investor.

On the other side, Dominari Securities played a more crucial role in facilitating Tron's Nasdaq listing through a reverse merger. On June 16, 2025, SRM Entertainment announced an agreement with Tron; on July 24, the rebranded Tron Inc. rang the bell at Nasdaq, completing the listing. In this deal, Sun's Tron acquired a toy manufacturer supplying Disney and Universal Studios.

Dominari simultaneously served the Trump family and Sun, acting as a bridge between the two parties' interests. When Sun needed access to the U.S. capital markets, Dominari provided it; when the Trump family's project needed a lifeline of money, Sun appeared.

The second case is that Dominari directly orchestrated the recent merger of the U.S. stock-listed companies Safety Shot and BONK.

On August 11, 2025, Nasdaq-listed Safety Shot announced a $35 million equity swap to acquire $25 million worth of BONK tokens. The exclusive financial advisor for this transaction was Dominari Securities.

Dominari led the entire transaction structure: Safety Shot received a 10% revenue share from the BONK.fun platform, changed its stock ticker symbol to BNKK, and the BONK team received 50% of the board seats.

Dominari Holdings President Kyle Wool later publicly praised the advisory board, especially Eric Trump, for helping facilitate the collaboration. This expression actually acknowledges the Trump family's key role in these transactions.

Thirdly, it is the Trump family's involvement in data centers and Bitcoin mining as mentioned earlier.

In the establishment of American Bitcoin, Eric Trump holds approximately 7.5% of the shares, becoming the largest individual investor. Dominari Holdings holds about 3% of the American Bitcoin shares. Both Trump sons also serve as advisors to Dominari, each holding approximately 6-7% of the company.

Behind every significant transaction, there is the presence of Dominari. Sometimes it is the front-facing financial advisor, sometimes the behind-the-scenes coordinator, but always the orchestrator, architect, and executor of the Trump family's crypto empire.

The New Order of the Trump Tower

According to Dominari's official website, the company is headquartered on the 22nd floor of the Trump Tower. Wool's office overlooks Central Park. They now pay a monthly rent of $62,242.

In this building, Trump's sons wield political resources and the family brand upstairs; downstairs, Dominari provides Wall Street expertise and execution power; and transactions brew and conclude between the elevator floors.

Each successful transaction perhaps further solidifies this symbiotic relationship.

While traditional investment banks were still seeking projects through formal channels, Dominari had found a more direct path: living beneath the seat of power, allowing the elevator of wealth to directly reach their office.

On August 14, as Kyle Wool rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq, he said:

“This has been an exhilarating journey. In the words of our President Trump, the best is yet to come.”

Perhaps this statement holds true. As Trump rolls out more crypto-friendly policies, as more traditional companies seek to enter Web3, Dominari's brokerage business will only become more prosperous.

Moving into the Trump Tower at a rent several times market price now seems to be Wool and Hayes' most astute investment in their careers.

The exorbitant annual rent has brought not just a ticket into the Trump family's business circle, but also physical proximity, social integration, and commercial entanglement.

From a pharmaceutical company on the brink of bankruptcy to an investment firm worth nearly a billion; from a low-profile tenant to the Trump family's crypto broker, Dominari's transformation is, to some extent, a microcosm of American capitalism in the Trump era.

In this era, the line between politics and business has never been so blurred. This company acts like an invisible conductor, converting political capital into business opportunities and turning power relationships into hard cash.

In the age of Trump's America, the best business is not to do business itself, but to become the connector of all businesses.

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