In order to become a trusted financial partner of the world's most powerful family, it helps to buy low. That partly explains how a tiny onetime biotech firm with nearly a quarter-billion in accumulated losses transformed into something of an in-house investment bank for the Trump family's business empire, handling everything from crypto to manufacturing deals.

In order to become a trusted financial partner of the world's most powerful family, it helps to buy low.

That partly explains how a tiny onetime biotech firm with nearly a quarter-billion in accumulated losses transformed into something of an in-house investment bank for the Trump family's business empire, handling everything from crypto to manufacturing deals.

The unusual ascent of the firm now known as Dominari Holdings began in 2021. Donald Trump's approval ratings had tanked following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that year. Democratic lawmakers and prosecutors were probing Trump and his company over what would become a slew of criminal and civil charges. Virtually no one on Wall Street was betting on Trump.

Around the same time, Dominari Chief Executive Anthony Hayes was pondering a jump from the hit-or-miss work of drug development to the rough-and-tumble world of finance. He brought pal and Wall Street veteran Kyle Wool onto his board, and together they soon sought out bigger office space for their operation.

They could have gone anywhere, but decided on a then-infamous piece of Manhattan real estate. “If we're going to do something and we're going to build it from scratch, what about we grab a little space in Trump Tower?” Hayes said in a recent interview.

The choice was made with a larger plan in mind. Trump's unlikely political comeback fueled an explosion of new business for his family, renewing criticisms that they are profiting off America's highest office and the connections that come with it. The burst of activity has created opportunities for a host of advisers like Dominari who for the most part weren't blue-chip names on Wall Street.

Cantor Fitzgerald, now led in part by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's sons, has advised Trump Media on a plan to buy billions in bitcoin. New Jersey-based Yorkville Advisors was retained to help manage Trump-branded exchange-traded funds. After acting as a sounding board for Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. on their own investments, Dominari has become a go-to dealmaker for the scions. It was a key player in the creation of a Trump-backed bitcoin-mining firm as well as an ongoing attempt to take a U.S. manufacturer public.

The firm's move into the inner circle didn't happen overnight. Hayes and Wool began bumping into the sons soon after setting up shop in Trump Tower. Charity golf tournaments and meals with mutual friends helped solidify the relationship.

An avid golfer, Wool has previously hit the links with hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, who is credited with advising players to skate where the puck is going, not where it has been. Dominari's executives frequently cite that cliché in describing their focus on emerging technologies like crypto and AI. But on Wall Street, where relationships translate to money and power, the concept also applies to making the right friends at the right time.

“Do they dictate to us what we do? Absolutely not,” said Hayes, 57 years old. “Do Eric and Don have relationships that we are able to kind of help leverage to make our deals better? Yes.”

With brokers working the phones just a few stories beneath the president's sons, Dominari in recent years expanded to a second floor in Trump Tower where Wool, a member of Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla., has an office overlooking Central Park.

“It was a very good price [compared] to what it is today,” the 48-year-old said. Propped a few feet from his desk, a framed photo shows Wool, Hayes and others at a Dominari charity event at Trump's Bedminster, N.J., golf club, grinning alongside the president.

Kyle Wool, president of Dominari Holdings, is reflected through an old photo with President Trump.

Dominari launched 58 years and two name changes ago. First known as Spherix, it more recently did business as AIkido Pharma, a publicly traded firm that researched everything from pancreatic cancer drugs to ketamine's potential for treating Alzheimer's.

As biotech stocks soared during the pandemic, the money-losing AIkido issued equity that helped it amass a cash pile reaching $66 million by the end of 2021. Hayes turned to financial markets—and Wool—in search of growth.

Wool boasted a deep Rolodex from years of banking at Morgan Stanley and elsewhere. Organizing special-purpose vehicles that allowed wealthy clients to pool money for exclusive deals, he helped AIkido begin betting on private companies such as Elon Musk's SpaceX, defense-technology firm Anduril and Fortnite developer Epic Games.

“It's not the easiest thing in the world to access those,” Wool said. “We made people a lot of money.”

The strategy took shape around the time AIkido signed its first Trump Tower lease. “I often saw their team at work in Trump Tower, always focused on something innovative and exciting,” Eric Trump said.

AIkido bought a registered broker-dealer firm, expanded its Trump Tower footprint and rebranded as Dominari. The Latin term means “to be the master of.” Wool became Dominari's president. Soo Yu, his wife, also joined the board.

The new firm initially struggled, pulling in $2 million of revenue in 2023 en route to a nearly $23 million net loss, according to securities filings. But it nurtured early clients, hosting charity events in recent years at Trump clubs. Revenue jumped in 2024 through deals with mostly small businesses, including an initial public offering for the Don Jr.-backed drone manufacturer Unusual Machines.

Still, Dominari's cash pile had dwindled. Its accumulated deficit—losses that piled up on its books over decades—reached $223 million in December. Shares ended last year below $1 apiece.

Dominari Holdings' office inside Trump Tower in New York.

The Trumps gave Dominari a shot in the arm. Weeks after the president's inauguration, Eric and Don Jr. each purchased $1 million of Dominari stock in a $13.5 million financing round, according to securities filings. The pair got additional stock upon being named advisers, sending Dominari shares skyrocketing as high as 1200% above where they started the year.

With 6.7% ownership stakes valued above $6 million apiece, the Trump sons are the firm's largest shareholders outside of Hayes, Wool and Yu, according to FactSet. Three other Trump Organization officials now round out Dominari's advisory board.

In February, as President Trump's crypto business ventures and pro-crypto policy agenda took shape, Dominari began funneling money into bitcoin exchange-traded funds, amassing $2 million in holdings by the end of March, according to securities filings. The firm also invested with the Trumps in a data-center startup that became part of American Bitcoin, a crypto-mining venture set to go public in the coming weeks.

“Do Eric and Don influence me, or do I influence them?” Wool said. “I think we're just like-minded.”

Dominari has helped American Bitcoin raise $220 million, according to a securities filing. The fee for its part in that equity sale: $4.8 million.

Wool said the Trump brothers have also been involved in some of Dominari's other investments, which have recently included SPVs betting on tech companies such as Musk's xAI and SpaceX. “Sometimes they are just a passive investor,” he said, “and sometimes they want to lean into something.”

The latest instance of that came this month with the creation of a special-purpose acquisition company, a vehicle used to take businesses public while avoiding some of the red tape of a traditional public offering.

Advised by Eric, Don Jr. and Wool, the SPAC aims to raise $300 million to buy a U.S. manufacturer. Eric and Don Jr.'s combined 5 million shares in that blank-check firm could be worth millions of dollars or more. Securities filings show Dominari, the offering's lead underwriter, will be awarded 1.1 million shares upon the deal's closing.

Even on deals in which their new advisers aren't publicly involved, Hayes and Wool have benefited from the Trumps' networks.

In June, the bank helped crypto project Tron merge with a listed toy maker called SRM. The deal revolved around Tron founder Justin Sun, who faced market-manipulation charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission in a case that was recently paused.

Sun invested $75 million in World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by the Trump family, and amassed more than $20 million of the president's memecoin to earn VIP treatment at a gala dinner for coinholders.

Wool said he met Sun through a mutual friend whose last name wasn't Trump. “Did [Sun] ask Eric if I'm a good person? Yes, he did,” Wool said. “That was Eric's involvement.”

Hayes and Wool think Sun is a generational talent who will outlast crypto's notorious boom-and-bust cycles. Before the Tron deal was announced, an SPV organized by Yu in May threw $5 million into SRM, securities filings show. The investment in stock and warrants, which earned Dominari a $300,000 commission, would be worth more than $120 million based on Tron's current share price.

It was the type of exclusive deal that Wool said hedge funds and executives are increasingly calling to get in on.

“Now you wanna be my buddy?” said Wool, who rang the Nasdaq opening bell last week. “I don't need it.”

Write to David Uberti at david.uberti@wsj.com

Source: HindustanTimes
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