Trump NFTs crater with daily sales down 98% from peak

Former US President Donald Trump’s official NFT trading cards were talk about the crypto industry—not to mention a lot of Twitter and even late night TV— when they launched a couple of weeks ago, but the hype has since faded considerably.

Secondary market sales of Trump Digital Trading Cards, which are embossed on Ethereum scaling network Polygoncollected just over $59,300 in total as of Wednesday, per data from CryptoSlam. That’s a 98% drop from the peak sales day of over $3.5 million on December 17th – continuing the steady decline in momentum and value for the NFTs.

However, Trump’s collection is hardly dead. As of this writing, the former president’s NFTs are the 69th best-selling project in the last 24 hours, according to CryptoSlam, with just over $44,000 in sales during that time. In contrast, the top project Bored Ape Yacht Club has had over 2 million dollars in sales in the last 24 hours.

The secondary market premium on Trump NFTs is also fading fast. The NFTs originally sold for $99 apiece during the primary sale, and amid the hype surrounding the project in the days following its initial launch, even an NFT with “regular” artwork and traits commanded a significant multiple of that. The floor price, or the price of the cheapest listed Trump NFT on a marketplace, peaked at 0.84 ETH (about $990) on December 17.

Now, however, the floor price on the top marketplace OpenSea is only 0.15 ETH, or around $180. Some of the NFTs have sold for as little as $131 apiece in the market today.

Trump’s NFTs launched on December 15, with 44,000 of the polygon NFTs offered to the public depicting the disgraced ex-president as a cowboy, astronaut and more. Another 1,000 of the NFTs were held by the project’s creators. Each $99 collectible served as a contest entry to win prizes and benefits, such as dinner or a meet-and-greet with Trump.

The NFTs were much derided as a money move, and even criticized by some of Trump’s own supporters. Some of the art elements were apparently stolen from online clothing photos, plus Trump’s team allegedly kept a disproportionate amount of the rare NFTs in the collection. Some initial buyers also complained about technical problems.

Still, the buzz drove demand from the secondary market for a few days afterward, which some NFT “dough” traders saw an opportunity to profit from flipping the controversial assets. But the hype has been short-lived, with prices and trading volume crashes just days after launch. And as sales data shows, the market isn’t getting any hungrier for Trump’s digital cards.

Trump, who was previously unlike cryptocurrencies, said in a recent interview that the NFT artwork was “kinda cute” and that he “didn’t see it as an investment.”

Trump’s first NFT sale raised over $4 million and sold out within 24 hours. All told, the project has so far generated about $9.8 million in secondary trading volume, with Trump’s team taking a 10% cut of sales via marketplaces that glory creates royalties.