Yorkville Acquisition Corp. has tapped two former Gryphon Digital Mining executives to lead its planned merger that will create a publicly traded digital asset treasury focused on accumulating the Cronos ecosystem’s native token.
The appointments come as Yorkville moves toward forming a new entity with Trump Media & Technology Group and Crypto.com to acquire and manage the Cronos token (CRO) as its core reserve asset.
Steve Gutterman will serve as CEO and Sim Salzman as chief financial officer once the merger closes, which Yorkville expects in the first quarter of 2026. The pair previously led Gryphon Digital Mining through restructuring, regulatory reporting and capital-markets transactions, and have held senior roles at E*TRADE, American Bitcoin and Marathon Digital.
The new entity, formed through a business combination with Trump Media, co-founded by US President Donald Trump, and Crypto.com, is designed to operate as a digital asset treasury dedicated to buying and managing the CRO token — the native token of the Cronos blockchain, the network built by Crypto.com.
The companies disclosed the plan in September, announcing an initial purchase of 684.4 million CRO at roughly $0.153 per token, a deal worth nearly $105 million split evenly between stock and cash.
After the merger closes, the new company intends to run a validator node on the Cronos network, allowing it to stake its CRO holdings, participate in network operations, and earn rewards to support its long-term accumulation strategy.
Crypto.com has emerged as a main crypto partner for the Trump administration. In March, it joined a small group of companies invited to the White House Crypto Summit.
Soon after, Trump Media signed a non-binding deal with the exchange to explore launching US exchange-traded funds focused on American-issued digital assets and securities.
Related: Trump’s Truth Social moves into prediction markets with Crypto.com
Digital asset treasuries are struggling
2025 has seen a wave of digital asset treasuries, public companies created to hold and manage cryptocurrency on their balance sheets. But after strong starts, many of them are under pressure as Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto market have sold off in recent weeks.
Strategy Inc. (MSTR), which kicked off the corporate Bitcoin-treasury trend in 2020, is down about 36% over the past month, while Mara Holdings (MARA), a major Bitcoin miner and the second-largest corporate holder of BTC, has declined by more than 37% during the same period, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Source: Yahoo Finance
Among Ether treasury companies, Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) has declined over 37.8% over the past month, while Sharplink Gaming (SBET) is down about 30%.
Source: Yahoo Finance
While there is no dedicated CRO-treasury company yet, the token itself was down about 8% at the time of writing and more than 30% over the past month.
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