The entire collection of former President Donald Trump's digital trading cards reportedly sold out within 12 hours of launching — raising millions in the process.
Trump teased a "major announcement" earlier this week on his social media platform Truth Social. While some people thought he could be announcing a running mate for the 2024 presidential election, the news that he was releasing a digital trading card or nonfungible token (NFT) collection was criticized by both supporters and detractors.
"Hello, everyone. This is Donald Trump, hopefully your favorite president of all time — better than Lincoln, better than Washington — with an important announcement to make," Trump said in a promotional video for the trading cards. "I'm doing my first official Donald Trump NFT collection."
According to OpenSea data, the 45,000 Trump digital trading cards were priced at $99 each, meaning that $4.45 million was raised from their sale.
CNET reported that the collection’s creators also receive 10% of every sale on secondary markets, with traders thus far having spent $406,000 (320 ether) buying and selling the NFTs on OpenSea.
It was not immediately clear who receives the money and how it will be used.
NFT INT, which created the digital cards, said that money from their sale will not be used to fund Trump’s 2024 bid for the presidency, which he announced last month.
"These Digital Trading Cards are not political and have nothing to do with any political campaign," the company said on the cards’ website. "NFT INT LLC is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization, CIC Digital LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates. NFT INT LLC uses Donald J. Trump's name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Digital LLC, which license may be terminated."
According to the Washington Examiner, the 45th president called the NFTs "incredible artwork pertaining to my life and my career." One of the images shows Trump as a superhero, shooting lasers out of his eyes, while another shows him playing golf.
Buyers of the NFTs were entered into a sweepstakes for a chance to meet the former president.
On the same day of the release, Trump also laid out a number of policy proposals to ensure that freedom of speech is protected in the United States, saying, "If we don’t have free speech, then we just don’t have a free country."
The release of the trading card collection comes amid a downturn in the crypto markets, which employs similar blockchain technology as NFTs, and as polling shows Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis performing strongly in a hypothetical Republican primary battle against Trump.
DeSantis has not declared a 2024 run.
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