FX168 Financial News Agency (North America) Donald Trump recently stated that he will not sell his stocks in the Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT). However, starting from this Thursday, he has the option - an option that has been unavailable since the social media company went public in March.

"I absolutely have no intention of selling," the former president told reporters at a press conference last week, "I like this platform. I use it to spread my voice."

Following his statement, DJT's stocks rose by double digits, although the stocks have recently fallen, dropping more than 10% in the past 6 days, closing below $14.50 on Thursday - close to the low end of its 52-week range, well below the historical high of over $79.

Shareholders, including Trump, must go through a six-month lock-up period before selling or transferring stocks. Although the lock-up period expired on Thursday, Trump was still able to obtain some cash when the stocks reached a milestone at the end of April, ensuring an additional $1.2 billion for him.

As detailed by Ben Werschkul of Yahoo Finance, the purpose of the lock-up period is to protect the interests of newly listed companies and to maintain the stability of the company until the founders can cash out.

"If I sell, it won't be the same, I can understand that," Trump said, adding that he knows his stake has been 'whittled down' over the past few months.

Trump holds approximately 60% of the shares in DJT. At current levels, the market cap of Trump Media is about $3.3 billion, making the former president's stake worth around $2 billion. Shortly after the company went public, Trump's stake was just over $4.5 billion.

Trump Media in late March withAccording to the terms of the company's initial public offering (the lock-up agreement), Trump and others who received stocks before the company went public are prohibited from selling any stocks for approximately 180 days.After the acquisition and merger, the digital world went public on the Nasdaq. However, since then, the stock has experienced fluctuations, fluctuating between highs and lows, usually in response to a volatile news cycle.

In June, after the current President Joe Biden performed poorly in the first presidential debate for the 2024 election against Trump, the stock rose (and then fell). A month later, Biden withdrew from the presidential race.

Since Biden's announcement, the stock has been under continuous pressure as Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris leads Trump in the latest polls. Recently, after the debate last week, with increased betting on Harris's presidency, the stock plummeted to a new low.

In May, Trump was convicted of 34 counts of forging business records during the 2016 presidential campaign, which caused the stock to drop 5% the day after the conviction. His sentencing has recently been postponed to November 26.

Since the company went public at the end of March, the stock price has fallen about 60%.

After being banned from using several major social media platforms (such as Facebook and what is now called X Twitter) following the January 6th Capitol riot, Trump launched Truth Social. Since then, Trump has been reinstated on these platforms. After about a year of suspension, he officially returned to X in mid-August.

However, as Truth Social tries to compete with social media giants, the company's fundamentals have been questioned in the long run.

Last month, DJT announced a net loss of $16.4 million in the second quarter financial report, with about half of it related to the company's SPAC trading expenses. The company also reported quarterly revenue of slightly less than $0.837 million as of June 30, a 30% decrease year-on-year.SPACThe trading-related expenses related to SPAC.