Donald Trump’s tiny social media empire slumped to fresh lows on the stock market, hours after his primetime presidential debate with Kamala Harris.

Shares in Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of the former president’s Truth Social platform, dropped by as much as 17% as of Wednesday morning. They later pulled back, but still closed down 10.5%.

While TMTG is still valued at about $3bn on the stock market, after an extraordinary rally earlier this year, it has endured a steep fall in recent months – retreating more than 75% from its peak in March.

Trump has a majority stake in the firm but has so far been unable to sell his shares. This is about to change.

The first day that the former president can begin selling shares, if he chooses to do so, is 19 September. He owns nearly 115m shares of the company, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

TMTG runs the social media platform Truth Social, which Trump created after he was banned from Twitter, now X, and Facebook after the January 6 Capitol riot. Based in Sarasota, Florida, the company has been losing money and struggling to raise revenue. It lost nearly $58.2m last year while generating only $4.1m in revenue, according to regulatory filings.

While TMTG has not disclosed the size of its user base, the research firm Similarweb estimated that in March it had 7.7m visits – while X, formerly Twitter, had 6.1bn. That same month, however, TMTG was valued at almost $10bn on the stock market.

Shares of TMTG have been considered a meme stock by some market experts, which is a nickname given to stocks that get caught up in buzz online and shoot way beyond what traditional analysis says they’re worth.

The stock has fluctuated for the past several months, with trading largely driven by individual investors who are typically considered less sophisticated than day traders.

The Associated Press contributed reporting