Trump made up to $1 million on NFT sales: Filings
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A filing by the US Office of Government Ethics shows that former President Donald Trump has earned anywhere from $100,001 to $1 million from the sale of Trump-branded non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The records were first reported by the ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
The 45,000 digital collectibles featuring the 45th president’s likeness were released in December and sold out within a day. The collection has increased in price in recent weeks in response to news of the former president’s trial in New York.
According to the filing, which was filed Friday, Trump holds the position of “manager, president, secretary and treasurer” of CIC Digital LLC and CIC Ventures LLC. The official Trump Trading Cards website states that CIC Digital LLC allowed NFT INT LLC, the company behind the NFT Project, to use Trump’s likeness, name and image under a paid license agreement.
The filing lists revenue from CIC Digital LLC as “NFTs” that raised between $100,001 to $1 million. It also says CIC Ventures LLC received over $5 million from speaking engagements.
According to on-chain data from NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam, the project has sold over $19 million since its inception. However, over the past week, the number of active wallets holding Trump NFTs has fallen 13% to 208.
Data from OpenSea shows that 65% of collectors have only one NFT, while a further 23% have between two and three. Several wallets hold over 100 NFTs. Additionally, 1,000 NFTs were not made available to the public and are held in a Gnosis Safe Wallet, a multi-signature smart contract wallet that requires multiple users to approve any asset move.
Follows the paper trail
It is not entirely clear how Trump was able to raise up to $1 million from the sale of the NFT collection. While the official website says none of the money earned from the fundraiser goes directly to Trump’s re-election campaign, the records indicate that Trump has still been able to personally raise a generous portion of the proceeds.
According to OpenSea, there is a 10% royalty fee on secondary sales of the NFTs. Currently, the highest bid for a Trump NFT is 10 ETH, or about $20,000. Most of the bids seem to be in the 0.3 ETH range (about $630).
Twitter users and crypto enthusiasts have been eager to connect the financial dots since the project launched, finding evidence of stolen art and shady wallet addresses. In addition, NFT INT LLC has a registered address at a UPS store in Park City, Utah, although the LLC itself is incorporated in Wyoming.
Journalist Kurt Eichenwald did some digging and found that the LLC has an address in a building in Cheyenne, Wyoming, which has reportedly been linked to shell companies and global scandals in the past.
In addition, Bill Zanker, a serial entrepreneur who co-wrote a book with Trump, has been linked to the NFT project and promised to share “a significant portion of any proceeds from sales” with the former president, according to The New York Times.
