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Donald Trump’s social media company is in advanced talks to buy Bakkt, a cryptocurrency trading platform owned by Intercontinental Exchange, as it pushes to expand beyond online conversations.

The US president’s Trump Media and Technology Group, in which he has pledged to retain his 53 percent stake, is nearing an outright purchase of Bakkt, two people with knowledge of the talks said. The valuation at stake was not immediately clear, but Bakkt’s market capitalization was just over $150 million on Monday.

TMTG, the operator of Truth Social, has become one of the most actively traded US stocks since Trump’s election victory as retail investors look to take advantage of the often volatile trading moves. Although it has reported only $2.6 million in revenue this year, TMTG has a stock valuation of $6 billion, giving management valuable currency with which to buy other companies.

Bakkt shares rose 162 percent after the FT reported the talks. TMTG shares rose about 16.7 percent.

A successful deal would deepen Trump’s move into the cryptocurrency market after he began promoting a new crypto venture set up by longtime business partners, World Liberty Financial, from which he could earn significant fees. Crypto markets have also soared following his election victory, with bitcoin surging more than 30 percent on speculation that his government would enact favorable legislation for the sector.

Bakkt, which has struggled for profitability since its launch, was founded by ICE, and the owner of the New York Stock Exchange still has a 55 percent economic stake in it.

Bakkt’s first CEO was Kelly Loeffler, a former head of marketing at ICE and a Republican ex-senator for Georgia during Trump’s first presidency. She is co-chair of the committee organizing his inauguration in January. She is also married to Jeff Sprecher, the founder, chairman and CEO of ICE.

ICE and Bakkt declined to comment. TMTG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bakkt has previously said that its crypto custody business, which is legally licensed by New York authorities, will likely be wound down. People familiar with the TMTG talks said they will not be included in the deal.

The crypto business was set up to hold digital assets such as bitcoin and ether on behalf of clients, but failed to gain traction, making operating losses of $27,000 on revenues of $328,000 in the three months to September 30. Bakkt plans to build a trading platform. platform for institutional investors.

Bakkt faced a delisting from the NYSE due to its low share price until it implemented a 1-for-25 reverse stock split in April. Last week the share price rose by 15 percent.

Truth Social remains small in reach, with an average of 646,000 daily visits to its website this month, according to SimilarWeb, compared to 155 million per day for Elon Musk’s X platform. Yet the president-elect’s stake now represents more than half of his $5.7 billion fortune, as calculated by Bloomberg.

Additional reporting by James Fontanella-Khan