Original title: (Selling 'Trump': The Trump family has made millions through 'branded licensing' for crypto projects)
Original author: Grapefruit, ChainCatcher
On November 5, local time, the dust settled on the voting for the 60th presidential election in the United States. Whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris will ultimately enter the White House is not only a focus of global attention but also a new shift in the crypto world.
Since the beginning of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly expressed support for the development of cryptocurrencies. If he successfully returns to the White House, the strict regulatory policies on the U.S. crypto market may change, injecting new vitality into the industry's development. At the Bitcoin 2024 conference, Trump stated in his speech that if elected again, he would ensure the government retains 100% of its Bitcoin holdings and would classify Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset for the U.S.
Trump is not only a supporter of the crypto market but also a direct participant. During his campaign, he received donations from crypto whales and institutions and personally got involved in several crypto projects. The revenue from NFTs and DeFi crypto projects he participated in through OEM branding has exceeded $10 million.
According to data from the Arkham platform, as of November 5, the crypto assets held in Trump's wallet address were worth $6.15 million. During the peak period in June of this year, their value reached $25 million, with nearly 1,000 Ethereum held, valued at $2.38 million.
Trump's active participation and significant profits in the crypto market have undoubtedly brought new changes and attention to the crypto world. If Trump is elected, the impact on the crypto market will be profound.
Trump NFT series sales revenue has surpassed $22 million, and licensing fees profits exceed $8 million.
Since 2022, the Trump-branded NFT digital trading cards have released four series, with a total issuance of over 200,000 NFTs. Each card, priced at $99, has generated over $22 million in revenue solely from NFT card sales.
First, in December 2022, Trump released his first series of NFTs - the Trump Digital Trading Card NFT. This series of NFTs was created on Polygon and features Trump in various costumes, including images of Trump as a superhero, astronaut, race car driver, and western sheriff.
This is the first series themed around Trump NFTs, priced at $99 each, with an issuance of 45,000. Buyers can participate in a lottery, meet Trump, or play golf, among other benefits. This series quickly garnered enthusiastic market response, selling out within 18 hours and achieving sales of $4.455 million.
In addition, the trading of this series of NFTs in the secondary market is also quite active. According to the latest data from Opensea, the number of holding addresses for this series has exceeded 140,000, with a total trading volume in the secondary market of 15,859ETH, which, based on a price of $2,600 per ETH, is approximately $41.23 million.
This means that Trump's first NFT series generated $4.45 million in sales revenue alone, and this series also has a 10% royalty, bringing in over $4 million in royalties from a transaction volume of over $40 million. The total revenue from this series of NFTs exceeds $8.5 million (including sales revenue and royalty income).
Perhaps seeing the considerable profits brought by NFTs, just four months after the first NFT (in April 2023), Trump Digital Trading Cards Series 2 was officially launched. This series primarily showcases Trump in a suit, with a total issuance of 47,000, priced at $99 each, and sold out in less than 5 hours, reaching sales of $4.653 million, with a current floor price of 110POL ($33).
On December 23 of the same year, Trump released the third series of NFTs (Trump Digital Trading Cards MugShot Edition), priced at $99 each. Unlike the previous series, this one has a total of 100,000 cards, mainly showcasing Trump's image after his arrest. This series of NFTs generated approximately $9.9 million in revenue.
In August of this year, Trump launched the fourth series of NFTs (Trump Digital Trading Cards America First Edition), themed around Trump's suit image during the presidential debate against Biden, expressing a never-surrender political strategy, and including scenes of dancing, holding Bitcoin, and standing next to a buffalo or lion, further reinforcing Trump's support for crypto.
The fourth series of NFTs is also priced at $99 each, with holders receiving benefits related to the debate suit and special perks, including participation in a golf club dinner. The official website shows that it has sold out. However, this series of NFTs cannot be transferred until January 31, 2025. According to the latest data from Opensea, the fourth series had an issuance of 31,740, with total sales revenue of approximately $3.14 million, and the number of holding addresses is 1,568, with a current floor price of 529POL (approximately $161.7).
In summary, the first series of Trump NFTs was issued in December 2022, with a total of 45,000 cards (sales revenue of $4.45 million); the second series was released in April 2023, with 47,000 cards (sales revenue of $4.65 million), and both series 1 and 2 had an additional 10% royalty income; the third series MugShot was released in December 2023, with 100,000 cards (revenue of $9.9 million); the fourth NFT series America First was launched in August this year, with an issuance of 31,740 (profit of $3.14 million).
As of now, the revenue generated from the Trump NFT digital trading cards has exceeded $22 million.
However, the Trump series NFTs are not directly issued by him or his company, but are produced and sold by the NFT issuing company NFT International LLC (NFT INT LLC), which is authorized to create digital trading cards using Trump's name, likeness, and images under a paid licensing agreement and pays Trump licensing fees.
According to financial data disclosed earlier this year from Trump's campaign, NFT INT LLC has earned $19 million by launching three series of Trump digital trading cards, paying Trump $7.15 million in licensing fees, while Trump's wife Melania Trump earned $330,000 from NFT sales.
Adding the $3.14 million in revenue from the newly launched NFT in August, to date, NFT INT LLC has earned over $22 million from selling Trump NFTs alone. If the NFT issuing company pays licensing fees based on revenue ratios, the fees paid to Trump would account for approximately 37% of the revenue ($7.15 million / $19 million), and the fourth series of NFTs would require an additional payment of $1.17 million in licensing fees to Trump ($3.14 million * 37%), meaning Trump has netted over $8 million just from licensing the NFTs ($7.15 million + $1.17 million).
Since Trump entered the presidential race, the floor price of the Trump series NFTs has significantly increased. As of November 5, there are two that are priced over $100, with the floor price of the first series digital trading card being 450POL ($135); the second series digital trading card has a floor price of 110POL ($33); the floor price of the third series MugShot is unknown; and the fourth NFT series (America First) is quoted at 529POL (approximately $161.7).
The Trump family expects to earn $337.5 million through the branded DeFi project World Liberty Financial.
If the NFTs were Trump's first successful foray into the crypto market, then the DeFi project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is another significant effort named after Trump.
World Liberty Financial claims to be a project driven by members of Donald Trump's family (sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.) and has received multiple endorsements from Trump himself on his official Twitter account. For instance, before and after the WLFI token sale, Trump's official X account continuously posted promotional content for the token sales, leading the crypto community to view World Liberty Financial as a DeFi project personally supported and endorsed by Trump.
World Liberty Financial is a DeFi protocol where users can borrow and lend cryptocurrencies, create liquidity pools, and trade using stablecoins.
On the evening of October 15, the World Liberty Financial token WLFI officially began public sales, with a total issuance of up to 100 billion tokens, planning to sell 20 billion at a price of $0.015 (equivalent to $300 million).
However, the sales results after the WLFI token launch fell far short of expectations, with participating funds totaling less than $15 million. As of November 5, only 982 million WLFI tokens had been sold, generating $14.73 million.
The main reason for this result is that on October 18, World Liberty Financial released a white paper showing that the project is merely leveraging Trump's image for promotion and publicity through a licensing partnership with the Trump family, in which Trump himself occasionally needs to promote WLF and the World Liberty Financial protocol through tweets. The Trump family has not personally participated in the project but has merely appeared as endorsements.
As a licensing return, the Trump family will receive 22.5 billion WLF tokens, which, based on the issuance price of $0.015, will be worth $337.5 million. Additionally, the Trump family has the right to receive 75% of the net income from the protocol but bears no responsibility for WLF.
From the images of Trump on tweets to those on the website and white paper, World Liberty Financial appears to be highly tied to the Trump family. However, the reality is that Trump's family products are OEM products, and the Trump family is merely profiting through brand rental, while other operators behind the scenes are using the Trump family's reputation to manage the products. More concerning is that the operators behind World Liberty Financial have been found to have code that appears to be directly copied from Dough Finance, a DeFi product that was recently hacked this year.
The business model of 'branding, naming, and endorsements' is not uncommon in the Trump family. Around the world, many hotels or buildings named after Trump are collaborations with Trump in licensing and OEM forms. Similarly, in the crypto world, Trump issued NFTs in an OEM form and applied it again in the crypto DeFi project World Liberty Financial. However, based on the participation of the crypto community, even with Trump's name, users may not necessarily buy in.
Original link
