Trump NFT Mania gets a very short period as the sales all but disappear
by James · January 9, 2023
It’s been less than a month since Donald Trump’s official NFT exchange card started to a largely confused responseeven from his supporters, and the ensuing hype was significant, but short-lived. Now the NFT trading card project has sunk to new lows as trading demand continues to fade.
Secondary market trading volume for the Trump Digital Trading Cards project hit a new daily low of just over $21,000 on Sunday, according to data from CryptoSlam. The biggest single day tally for the project so far in 2023 is just $33,000 on January 5th.
Sunday’s tally marks a drop of more than 99% in daily volume from the peak day on December 17, when more than $3.5 million worth of NFTs were traded shortly after the initial primary sale. There were more than 2,000 unique buyers on that date last month, and over 3,300 unique buyers on December 16 when prices started to climb.
But on Sunday, when sales volume hit a new daily low, CryptoSlam reported just 28 unique buyers across 98 total transactions. Likewise, prices have fallen sharply since the peak. The floor price, or the cost of the cheapest listed NFT on a marketplace, has fallen a high of about 0.84 ETH ($995) on December 17 to only 0.16 ETH ($215) Today.
That’s still more than double the original coin price of $99, representing a potential profit for users who bought one of the digital cards during the primary sale. However, owners who bought on the secondary market at or near the peak of the hype may find declining demand for resale for the disgraced former president’s digital collectibles.
The NFT collection spans over 45,000 digital cards featuring the one-time leader in amazing cosplay, dressed as an astronaut, cowboy or superhero. The collectibles were stamped on Polygonone Ethereum side chainand offered introductory buyers a chance to win benefits such as dinner or a meet-and-greet opportunity with Trump.
The project sold out 44,000 of the NFTs within 24 hours, generating more than $4 million from its primary sales, with the other 1,000 collectibles held back by its creators. Since then, the Trump NFTs have generated more than $10 million in secondary market trades, with the Utah-based company behind the collection taking a 10% cut from sales on marketplaces that enforce royalties for resale.
The NFTs were widely mocked across social media and on late night TV shows, included on “Saturday Night Live” and rapidly increased in value and trading activity.
But as the latest sales data shows, the initial surge has quickly given way to apathy among traders who might have it purchased “for the lulz” just a few weeks ago. Even Crypto Twitter barely pays attention to them anymore and moves on to Solana‘s The dog-themed BONK token and other so-called “dough” plays.
To be fair, it is very common for a prominent NFT collection to increase in value and trading demand soon after launch, and then see the momentum fall off a cliff. It happened with Art Gobblers, for example – one controversial Ethereum project which debuted at the end of October and quickly increased. On Sunday, it received less sales volume than Trump’s project, per CryptoSlam, with just over $16,000 worth over five transactions.
It is much rarer that an NFT project sustains hype over a long period of time or peaks long after the initial start-up, as we have seen with industry leaders Bored Ape Yacht Club, for example. So far, Trump’s NFT collection doesn’t seem to be bucking the trend: it’s only the 96th best-selling project in the last 24 hours, according to CryptoSlam’s ranking.
