Donald Trump’s NFT prices rise after indictment

• Donald Trump’s digital trading card has seen a surge in price following news that a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict him on Thursday.
• The cards were originally priced at $99, but the resale price on his NFTS has risen to around $974 as of April 1st.
• Trump has denied any wrongdoing and denied ever having an affair with Stormy Daniels.

The price of former President Donald Trump’s digital trading cards has risen in recent days following news that a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict him on Thursday.

The floor price for Trump’s non-fungible token (NFT) trading card was 0.41 Ethereum (ETH) – about $748 – as of March 29, according to data from nftpricefloor.com, but had risen to 0.534 ETH by April 1, equivalent to about $974.

The former president reportedly plans to fly from his Florida home to New York on Tuesday to stand trial on charges related to the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into Trump’s alleged role in hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016.

The exact charges Trump faces have yet to be revealed, but he has denied any wrongdoing, denied ever having an affair with Daniels, and has harshly criticized the investigation.

Trump’s digital trading cards also saw a price increase earlier this month, amid speculation that he would be indicted in New York. The former president had predicted his own arrest and called for protests on March 18 and the resale price of his NFTS then experienced a sharp increase.

However, the price fell back when Trump was not arrested on March 21st as he had predicted and fluctuated over the following days before falling to 0.41 ETH on March 29th.

On March 30, a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Trump and the NFT’s price on the resale market began to rise again, reaching 0.49 ETH – around $893 – before falling to 0.459 ($873) on March 31.

The price has since risen again, but the former president will not benefit financially from the increase, as all 45,000 of his digital trading cards sold out within the first 12 hours of their release in December. They were originally priced at $99 and about 14,000 people bought them.

Trump was widely mocked over the digital trading cards, which depict him in superhero, cowboy and astronaut guises after he teased a “big announcement”.

It had led to considerable speculation about what Trump would announce and later led to criticism, including from Trump’s former White House adviser, Steve Bannon, who said that whoever had advised Trump on the venture “should be fired today”.

Speaking to conservative network OAN in December, Trump said the digital trading card collection was about “art” and not money.

“You know, it’s kind of cartoon art when you think about it, but they showed me the art and I said, wow, I’ve always wanted to have a 30-inch waist,” the former president said.

“I look at these things and say ‘Wow, that’s kind of cute, that can sell, that can sell.’ They thought it would sell in six months, it sold in six hours, Trump said.

Newsweek has reached out to former President Trump’s office via email for comment.