Author: Xiyou, ChainCatcher
Editor: Nianqing, 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 enter the White House is not only a focus of global attention but also a new change in the crypto world.
From the very beginning of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly expressed his support for the development of cryptocurrencies. If he successfully returns to the White House, the strict regulatory policies in the U.S. regarding the crypto market may undergo changes, injecting new vitality into the industry. 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 United States.
Trump is not only a supporter of the crypto market but also an active participant. During his campaign, he received donations from crypto whales and institutions and personally engaged in multiple crypto projects. The income from NFT 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 by Trump's wallet address are valued at $6.15 million, peaking at $25 million in June this year, with nearly 1,000 ETH held, valued at $2.38 million.
Trump's active participation and significant profits in the crypto market undoubtedly bring new changes and attention to the crypto world. If Trump is elected, the impact on the crypto market will be profound.
Trump's NFT series has generated over $22 million in card sales, with licensing fees exceeding $8 million.
Since 2022, Trump-branded NFT digital trading cards have released four series, with the total number of NFTs exceeding 200,000. With each card priced at $99, income from selling NFTs alone has surpassed $22 million.
Firstly, in December 2022, Trump launched his first series of NFTs—Trump Digital Trading Card NFT. This series of NFTs was created on Polygon and features Trump in various cosplay themes, including images of Trump as a superhero, astronaut, race car driver, and Western sheriff.
This is the first series of Trump's NFT theme, with each priced at $99 and a total issuance of 45,000. Buyers can participate in a lottery, meet Trump, or play golf. The launch of this series quickly received a warm response from the market, selling out within 18 hours, with sales reaching $4.455 million.
Additionally, the NFT series has been quite active in the secondary market. According to the latest data from Opensea, the number of addresses holding this NFT series has exceeded 140,000, with a total trading volume in the secondary market of 15,859 ETH, which is approximately $41.23 million at a price of $2,600 per ETH.
This means that the first NFT series alone generated $4.45 million from card sales. Additionally, this series has a 10% royalty, and from the trading volume of over $40 million, the royalty income is over $4 million. The total income from this NFT series exceeds $8.5 million (including card sales and royalty income).
Perhaps seeing the considerable profits brought by NFTs, just four months after the first NFT release (April 2023), the second series of Trump Digital Trading Cards (Trump Digital Trading Cards Series 2) was officially launched. This series mainly showcases Trump's tough guy image in a suit, with a total issuance of 47,000 cards, each priced at $99, and selling out in less than 5 hours, reaching sales of $4.653 million, with a current floor price of 110 POL (approximately $33).
On December 23 of the same year, Trump released the third series of NFTs (Trump Digital Trading Cards MugShot Edition), priced again at $99 each. Unlike previous series, this series has a total of 100,000 cards, mainly showcasing Trump's image after his arrest. This NFT series generated approximately $9.9 million in revenue.
In August of this year, the fourth set of NFTs (Trump Digital Trading Cards America First Edition) went on sale. This NFT series features Trump's image in a suit during his presidential campaign debate with Biden, expressing a never-surrender political strategy, and includes scenes of dancing, holding Bitcoin, and standing next to a buffalo or lion, further confirming Trump's support for crypto.
The fourth NFT series is also priced at $99 each, with holders receiving parts of the debate suit and special benefits, and can attend golf club dinners. The official website shows it has sold out. However, NFTs from this series cannot be transferred before January 31, 2025. According to the latest data from Opensea, the fourth NFT series has an issuance of 31,740 cards, with total card sales income of approximately $3.14 million, holding addresses numbering 1,568, and the current floor price is 529 POL (approximately $161.7).
In summary, the first series of Trump's NFTs was issued in December 2022, with a total of 45,000 cards (sales income of $4.45 million); the second series was released in April 2023, with 47,000 cards (sales income of $4.65 million), and both series 1 and 2 have an additional 10% royalty income; the third series MugShot was released in December 2023, with 100,000 cards ($9.9 million); the fourth NFT series America First was launched in August this year, with a total issuance of 31,740 cards (profit of $3.14 million).
Thus, the income earned from Trump NFT digital trading cards has surpassed $22 million.
However, the Trump series NFTs are not directly issued by him or his company, but produced and sold by the NFT issuing company NFT International LLC (NFT INT LLC), which is authorized to produce digital trading cards using Trump's name, likeness, and images under a paid license and pays Trump licensing fees.
According to earlier disclosed financial data from Trump's campaign this year, NFT INT LLC has earned $19 million from 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 income from the newly launched NFT in August, NFT INT LLC has earned over $22 million solely from selling Trump's NFTs. If the NFT issuing company pays licensing fees based on revenue share, the fees paid to Trump would account for approximately 37% of the revenue ($7.15 million / $19 million), and the fourth set of NFTs would require an additional $1.17 million in licensing fees ($3.14 million * 37%), meaning Trump netted over $8 million just from the branded NFTs ($7.15 million + $1.17 million).
Since Trump entered the presidential race, the floor price of Trump series NFTs has significantly increased. As of November 5, there are two priced above $100. The first series digital trading card has a floor price of 450 POL (approximately $135); the second series digital trading card has a floor price of 110 POL (approximately $33); the floor price of the third series MugShot is unknown; and the fourth NFT series (America First) is quoted at 529 POL (approximately $161.7).
The Trump family is expected to earn $337 million through the branded DeFi project World Liberty Financial.
If NFTs are Trump's first successful foray into the crypto market, then the DeFi project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is another major achievement of the Trump family publicly endorsing.
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 official Twitter. Before and after the WLFI token sale, Trump's official X account continuously posted promotional content for its token sales, leading the crypto community to view World Liberty Financial as a DeFi project personally supported 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, World Liberty Financial's WLFI token officially began public sale, with a total issuance of 100 billion tokens, planning to publicly sell 20 billion tokens at a price of $0.015 (equivalent to $300 million).
However, the sales results of the WLFI token after its launch fell far short of expectations, with participation funds not exceeding $15 million. As of November 5, 982 million WLFI tokens had been sold, raising only $14.73 million.
The main reason for this result is that the white paper released by World Liberty Financial on October 18 shows that the project is just a licensed collaboration using Trump's image for promotion, and Trump himself may occasionally need to tweet to promote the WLF and World Liberty Financial agreements. The Trump family has not personally participated in the project, only appearing as an endorsement.
As licensing compensation, the Trump family will receive 22.5 billion WLF tokens, which, at an issuance price of $0.015, will be worth $337.5 million. Additionally, the Trump family has the right to receive 75% of the protocol's net income but has no responsibilities for WLF.
From Trump's image in tweets to the website and white paper, World Liberty Financial seems highly tied to the Trump family. However, the reality is that Trump and his family's products are OEM, with the Trump family only earning income through brand leasing, while other operators use the Trump family's name to operate the product. More worryingly, the operators behind World Liberty Financial have been found to have code that appears to be directly copied from the DeFi product Dough Finance, which was recently attacked by hackers.
"Branding, licensing, endorsements, etc." is not uncommon in the Trump family. Around the world, many hotels or buildings named after Trump are collaborations with Trump in the form of licensing and OEM. Similarly, in the crypto world, Trump has issued NFTs in an OEM manner and applied them again in the crypto DeFi project World Liberty Financial. However, from the perspective of participation in the crypto community, even with Trump's branding, users may not necessarily accept it.
