Trump Media skids to new low on the first day the former president can sell his shares

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group slumped to their lowest level ever Friday, the first trading day that its biggest shareholder, former President Donald Trump, is free to sell his stake in the company behind the Truth Social platform.

Shares of Trump Media, commonly called TMTG, tumbled almost 8% to close at $13.55, putting the value of the company at less than $3 billion. Trump owns more than half of it.

Trump and other insiders in the company have been unable to cash in on the highly volatile stock due standard lock-up agreements that prevent big stakeholders from selling stakes for a set period after a company becomes publicly traded. TMTG began trading publicly in March.

Trump owns nearly 115 million shares of the company, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Based on TMTG's share price early Friday, Trump's holdings are worth, at least on paper, about $1.6 billion. It's usually not in the best interest of big stakeholders to even attempt to sell large tranches of their stock because it could risk a broader sell-off.