It’s worth remembering that after the news broke that former President of the United States, Donald Trump, would launch a unique collection of token (NFT) trading cards, it wasn’t always that obvious.
Why have Trump’s views on crypto changed?
Donald Trump’s collection of 45,000 NFTs printed on the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain was met with excitement after announcing its launch on social media platform Truth Social on Dec. 15 and quickly sold out at its original price of $99.
Trump NFT holders are also given the chance to win a dinner with the former president, play golf with him at the golf club, make Zoom calls, have a live meeting with Trump, and receive hand-signed mementos by Trump himself.
Trump wasn’t always a fan
However, Trump began with a very skeptical attitude about the new asset class, stating in July 2019 that while he was still in the White House, he was not a fan of virtual assets with “highly volatile” value:
I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2019
Two years later, the former president referred to Bitcoin (BTC) as a ‘scam’ and stated that he didn’t like it because it was “another currency competing with the dollar” that he wanted to be “the currency of the world.” As he explains:
“And I don’t think we should have all the Bitcoins in the world. I think they should regulate them very, very highly. It diminishes the importance and importance of the dollar.”
Criticism on NFT launch
As for the latest NFT adventure, not all Trump’s supporters agree. Keith and Kevin Hodge, stand-up comedians and vocal Trump fans, tweeted that “Whoever told Trump to do this needs to be fired.”
In another post they said:
“Dude, this is pushing people away while all the Patriots are looking for hope for the future of our country and Trump tricks everyone with the ‘BIG ANNOUNCEMENT’ and then releases a low quality NFT pickup video as the ‘announcement’…”
Meanwhile, the resale of Trump Digital Trading Cards, exceeding 7,092 ETH, continues on the NFT trading platform OpenSea, and is currently worth about $6.63 million considering the Ethereum price at the time of publication.
Volume and price of Trump Digital Trading Cards. Source: Offshore
Interestingly, not all proceeds from the sales will be diverted to Trump’s 2024 campaign, but will instead go to the former president as part of a licensing deal, with some of his aides raising concerns about Michael C. Bender and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times reportedly.
Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered as investment advice. Investment is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.
