Based to a filing by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, former president Donald Trump has earned between $100,000 and $1,000,000 from the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) bearing his name. The first organization to report on the filings was Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
The 45,000 digital collectibles featuring the image of the 45th president were released in December and sold out within 24 hours. In recent weeks, the price of the collection has increased due to the news of the former president’s arraignment in New York.
According to documents filed on Friday, Trump holds the positions of “manager, president, secretary, and treasurer” at CIC Digital LLC and CIC Ventures LLC. CIC Digital LLC licensed NFT INT LLC, the company behind the NFT initiative, to use Trump’s name, image, and visage for a fee, according to the official website for Trump Trading Cards.
The filing reveals that CIC Digital LLC earned between $100,001 and $1,000,000 in “NFTs” The report also indicates that CIC Ventures LLC earned more than $5 million from speaking engagements.
Since its inception, the project has generated sales in excess of $19 million, according to on-chain data collected by the NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam. In contrast, the number of active accounts holding Trump NFTs has decreased by 13% in the past week to 208.
Regardless of OpenSea data, 65% of collectors retain a single NFT, while 23% hold between two and three. Multiple wallets store more than 100 NFTs. In addition, 1,000 NFTs were not made available to the public and are currently being held in a Gnosis Safe Wallet, which is a multi-signature smart contract wallet that requires approval from multiple users prior to any asset movement.
Following the document trail
It is not entirely clear that Trump can earn up to $1 million from sales of the NFT collection. While the official website states that none of the funds raised go directly to Trump’s reelection campaign, the filings indicate that Trump was still able to pocket a significant component of the earnings.
OpenSea shows a 10% creator royalty fee applies to secondary transactions of NFTs. The current highest bid for a Trump NFT is 10 ETH, or roughly $20,000 USD. The preponderance of offers appear to be around 0.3 ETH (approximately $630).
Twitter users and crypto enthusiasts have been eager to connect the financial dots since the project’s launch, uncovering evidence of stolen artwork and dubious wallet addresses. Despite being incorporated in Wyoming, NFT INT LLC has a registered office at a UPS Store in Park City, Utah.
Journalist Kurt Eichenwald conducted investigation and discovered that the LLC has an address at a building in Cheyenne, Wyoming that has allegedly been associated in the past with shell companies and international scandals.
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