Trump NFT sales tops again with historic indictment
March is on track to be the worst month on record for Trump NFT trading card sales volume, but a late-month surge linked to former US President Donald Trump’s indictment by a New York grand jury has boosted prices and trading activity around the collection.
The floor price – or the price of the cheapest listed NFT in the collection – jumped 24% in the past 24 hours to a current price of $1,023, per NFT Price Floor data. On Thursday night, shortly after the news of Trump’s indictment hit, the floor price fell short of surpassing the all-time high of $1,079 from February.
On top of that, sales have increased since last night, with CryptoSlam reporting a 404% increase in secondary trading volume over the past 24 hours compared to the previous span. The site reports $184,000 in Trump NFT sales in the past 24 hours.
According to media reports, Trump has been indicted on more than 30 counts related to fraudulent business. The indictment is currently sealed, but the charge is expected to be made public in the coming days. Trump is the first former or current US president to face criminal charges.
Like its celebrity politician and entrepreneur namesake, the short life of Trump NFTs has been a roller-coaster ride.
Originally minted for $99 each, the Trump NFTs depict Trump in various costumes and come with various benefits, such as a video chat with the former president. The 45,000 NFTs were minted on Polygon, an Ethereum scaling network.
The initial response from the crypto community was largely disbelief, but the project’s viability was harder to dismiss when it briefly topped the sales charts — whether people bought them out of love for Trump or ironically.
Even Trump didn’t seem to take the project seriously, saying he went along with it because the art was “kind of cute.”
The initial surge didn’t last long, with critics calling out technical flaws and questionable fine print, and the price of Trump NFTs quickly collapsed. A mocking mention on Saturday Night Live came along with the initial peak of the hype.
As 2022 drew to a close, it was mostly bad news, with Trump NFT’s daily trading volume falling 70 percent, then 98 percent from its peak. Post-mortem analyzes declared the Trump NFT craze a short-term fad, and some of the included perks – like the Zoom call with Trump – were sold by their holders.
Then the tide turned – slowly.
As the new year began, daily sales of Trump NFTs increased and continued to rise over the next few weeks, as traders appeared to bet on Trump’s return to mainstream visibility. Amidst the newly revealed indictment, it may prove to have been a worthwhile effort for some buyers.
Since its launch, monthly sales of Trump NFTs have been drastically uneven: nearly $10 million in December, crashing to $2.6 million in January, jumping to $4 million in February, and falling to $2 million so far in March when this is written. Trump NFT’s total trading volume has exceeded $18.6 million, according to CryptoSlam.
