Donald Trump’s media companies were hit by a new sell-off on Wednesday, wiping out the gains their shares have enjoyed this year as his political standing has risen.
The stock fell more than 6% to less than $17, below its value at the start of 2024.
The stock price peaked in April during the former president’s criminal trial but has since fallen more than 70%.
The company, which runs the social media platform Truth Social, still boasts a market capitalization of more than $3.3 billion — a huge sum for a small company with shrinking revenues and widening losses.
Interest in Trump Media increased earlier this year after Trump won the Republican primary in January.
The buyers bought up shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded shell company created to buy Trump Media and viewed by Wall Street as a proxy for Trump Media.
Demand soared further from around March when the merger was officially completed.
Prices have fluctuated wildly in the months since then.
The most recent high was in July, after Trump survived an assassination attempt and before President-elect Joe Biden dropped out of the race, but stocks have fallen in recent weeks.
The drop in stock prices comes as the day approaches when President Trump and other early investors will be free to start selling their shares.
Trump’s holdings are now worth about $2 billion, down from more than $6 billion a few months ago.
Analysts had described the stock as a “meme stock” that is driven by emotions rather than financial characteristics and warned investors to expect big fluctuations in its price.