Former U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he intends to release a fourth collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs)—despite mixed results from his previous Polygon blockchain-based digital collectibles.
"We had one year to sell it out, and it sold out in one day," Trump said during an interview with Bloomberg on his initial NFT launch. "The whole thing sold out: 45,000 of the cards. I did it three times [and] I’m going to do another one because the people want me to do another one."
While an assassination attempt against the former president during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday has reinvigorated interest, the performance of Trump's NFTs has been marked by initial enthusiasm followed by steep declines in value.
On December 15, 2022, Trump launched his first NFT collection featuring 45,000 digital trading cards priced at $99 each. The release saw a surge in interest, with the collection selling out quickly and prices on secondary markets rising sharply the following day.
By April 2023, it became apparent that the market for Trump's NFTs was not as robust as initially perceived. The supply more than doubled as prices tanked.
Sales slowed, and prices dropped soon after the second set launch, indicating that many buyers were motivated more by novelty than serious investment potential.
A third collection, dubbed "Trump Digital Trading Cards: MugShot Edition," dropped in December last year, featuring 100,000 NFTs.
Released after Trump's legal troubles in Georgia, the collection proudly displayed his mugshot taken four months prior at the Fulton County Jail.
Despite the buzz and an initial spike in trading volume and floor price, it didn't quite hit the mark and fell short of selling out.
While reception has been mixed, multiple releases of Trump NFTs represent a "milestone" for mainstream adoption, Oscar Franklin Tan, chief legal officer of Atlas Development Services, a core contributor to the Enjin blockchain, told Decrypt.
"Each of these is a key NFT use case, and no less than Trump demonstrating all of them together proves NFTs’ value," Tan said.
Trump has recently warmed to crypto, saying he is "good" with the asset class during a Mar-a-Lago event for holders of his NFT collection in May. Last month, Trump also voiced his support for Bitcoin miners.
"The thing I really noticed was everything was paid in—I would say almost all of it was paid in crypto, in this new currency," Trump said of his NFTs during the interview. "It opened my eyes."
Edited by Stacy Elliott.