Investors who bought NFTs a few years ago may regret their decision. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are no longer as hot as they once were. At the peak of the NFT craze, it seemed that the whole world was attracted by the digital art craze.
NFT collections like CryptoPunks and Bored Apes sparked a cultural trend that gained a lot of attention from 2021 to 2022, with celebrities like Justin Bieber, LeBron James, Tony Hawk, and Madonna purchasing the artworks and generating a series of headlines in mainstream media.
Snoop Dogg and Eminem even performed at the MTV Video Music Awards as Bored Ape Yacht Club avatars, and in January 2022, American socialite Paris Hilton spoke with Jimmy Fallon about her love for NFTs on The Tonight Show.
A few months later, the market peaked in May 2022 with a market cap of $526 billion. Today, the total value of the market is close to $18 billion, a drop of 97%. So, what are those NFT investments doing now?
CryptoPunk #5822
CryptoPunks is one of the largest and most well-known NFT series ever. Launched by Larva Labs on the Ethereum blockchain in 2017, the series consists of 10,000 24x24 pixel "punk" characters, which promoted the rise of the crypto art movement.
In 2021, Christie's London auction house auctioned a batch of nine CryptoPunks for $16.9 million. According to Christie's, the CryptoPunk series was inspired by the London punk scene, Blade Runner and William Gibson's 1984 cyberpunk novel Neuromancer.
On February 12, 2022, CryptoPunk#5822was sold for 8,000 ETH, or $23.7 million, to Deepak Thapliyal, CEO of blockchain banking company Chain. Just one month later, Thapliyal rejected an offer for 10,000 ETH, which would have given him an immediate profit of $2 million.
CryptoPunk#5822is one of only nine Alien CryptoPunks ever made, and another Alien CryptoPunk#635sold in April 2024 for 4,000 ETH or $12.4 million, while Alien CryptoPunk#3100sold in March 2024 for 4,500 ETH. These sales suggest that Thapliyal’s investment has roughly halved in value in just two years.
While interest in CryptoPunks may have waned, interest in Ether has not, and in February 2022, 8,000 ETH was worth just $23.7 million, whereas today, 8,000 ETH would be worth $26.6 million.
EtherRock #93
Launched in 2017, EtherRock is a series of 100 "pet rocks" based on a free clip art image. All stones in the EtherRock series are the same size and shape but vary in color. Most stones are gray or brown, but the rarest EtherRock type is blue.
On November 2, 2021, EtherRock#93— a plain grey rock — sold for 420 ETH. What motivated the buyer to pay a whopping $1.8 million for this simple JPEG? Perhaps the amount of ether paid provides some clues.
All EtherRocks are almost similar, and today, one EtherRock trades for around 200 ETH, which is around $750,000-800,000, about $1 million less than in 2021.
That’s a lot of money down the drain.
Bored Ape #8817
It’s hard to imagine a single NFT collection that did more to educate the world about the industry than Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Bored Apes became all the rage in 2021, and they're nearly ubiquitous, with collectors including sports stars, musicians and business leaders like "Shark Tank"'s Mark Cuban. Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow even owns one, and DJ and music producer Steve Aoki has collected at least 12, although he later reduced the number to seven.
On October 26, 2021, Sotheby’s announced the record-breaking sale of Bored Ape#8817for $3.4 million, with its main selling point being its golden hair, a feature found in less than 1% of all Bored Apes.
Other golden apes sold for similar prices during the same period, with Bored Ape #3749, "The Captain," selling for $2.9 million in September 2021, and Bored Ape#232selling for $2.9 million or 1,080 ETH, with its owner Thapliyal later selling the ape for 800 ETH - a loss of 280 ETH, equivalent to $730,000 at current Ethereum prices.
On February 12, 2024, the golden Bored Ape#1726sold for just 275 ETH, or $665,000, and if this transaction is reflective of the value of other golden apes, many investors could be facing millions of dollars in unrealized losses.
Some are worse
Investors who invested in less well-known projects may have suffered greater losses. In September 2023, a report by dappGambl showed that of the 73,257 NFT series it identified, 69,795 had a market value of 0 ETH.
DappGambl concluded that 95% of NFT holders have zero investment value.
However, "damaged" collectors may argue that it is one-sided to focus only on the price of NFTs. After all, art is for the soul, not just for price speculation. From a technical perspective, the blockchain technology that supports NFTs has also proven to be reliable.
You can take away NFT collectors’ millions of dollars, but you can never take away their digital certificate of ownership, immutably recorded on the blockchain, proving that the JPEG you right-clicked and saved to your hard drive didn’t really belong to you.
How much money did Trump make from NFT issuance?
Republican candidate Donald Trump owns up to $5 million worth of cryptocurrency and has made more than $7 million from his foray into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a new financial disclosure document shows.
According to personal financial disclosure documents obtained by ethics watchdog Citizen Ethics, Trump reported holding between $1 million and $5 million worth of Ethereum cryptocurrency assets.
Additionally, Trump revealed that he earned more than $7.15 million from three NFT collections, including the "Mugshot" project for criminal prosecution and two separate Donald Trump trading card series collections.
Previously, Trump hinted at releasing a fourth NFT series on July 16, telling Bloomberg that "people are hoping" he will release another one.
The former president recently released a line of “official crypto sneakers” on August 1, with a limited edition of 1,000 pairs of orange high-tops that sold out in a few hours despite a $499 price tag.
Blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence estimated Trump’s Ethereum cryptocurrency holdings to be worth $3.5 million at the time of publication.
In June, as the price of the MAGA memecoin with the word "Trump" printed on it rose sharply, Trump's on-chain cryptocurrency holdings soared to $18 million.
The TRUMP memecoin was launched in August to donate to US veterans and protect children, and while it is named after the former president, it is not officially associated with or endorsed by Donald Trump.
In addition to cryptocurrencies, the disclosures show that the former president earned more than $300,000 from the sale of a range of branded products and a combined $216 million from his Lake Mara resort and his own-brand golf course in Doral, Florida.
This is a slight change from August 2023, when Trump disclosed owning more than $2.8 million in Ethereum-based crypto assets and reported more than $4.8 million in NFT gains.
Trump is legally obligated to file full financial disclosures during his campaign for U.S. federal office.
Trump, once a critic of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, has become an outspoken advocate for digital assets in recent months, establishing a pro-crypto stance as a key part of his 2024 campaign.
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Trump pledged that if elected president, he would build a national Bitcoin reserve and establish the United States as the "crypto capital of the world" by implementing a series of crypto-friendly policies.
With a net profit of 10 million US dollars, what are Trump’s “cryptocurrency incomes”?
Since Biden withdrew from the election, a new round of public opinion has emerged in the US presidential election. The Financial Times analyzed that Harris' current digital advertising expenditure is ten times that of Trump, mainly focusing on the publicity of technology platforms. In addition, during the conversation between Trump and Musk on the evening of August 12 local time, Trump did not talk about anything related to cryptocurrency, which once discouraged the market. At present, Polymarket predicts that Harris's chances of being elected will exceed Trump by 10%.
If we say that the most popular topic in the field of cryptocurrency in 2024 is the issue of the US election, related meme coins are flying everywhere, and every meeting of political bigwigs is not missed. The prediction market is once again ignited by one's own strength. At the center of this vortex is former US President Trump, who has gone from being a crypto-apathetic politician to a new presidential candidate who now calls for support for Bitcoin. Crypto has become a new breakthrough point for Trump's campaign this year.
In June of this year, Trump met with about a dozen Bitcoin mining executives and experts at Mar-a-Lago. According to CNBC, attendees described his opinions as curious and collaborative. Ordinary people need to buy Trump NFT to be eligible to attend this dinner. Last month, Trump also served as a heavyweight speaker at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, promising that if re-elected, he would make the United States "the crypto capital of the earth and the world's Bitcoin superpower."
Forbes estimates Trump's net worth at $4.5 billion. Last week, Trump's latest financial disclosure showed that he earned $7.15 million from NFTs. He also has at least $1 million to $5 million in crypto assets. Here's how much money Trump has made using cryptocurrencies, according to BlockBeats' statistics based on public addresses and information.
Political contributions: $5 million total
In May of this year, Bloomberg reported that the crypto industry's donations for the 2024 US election have reached US$94 million, a record high. Most of the donations came from political action committees (PACs). On May 21, Trump's US presidential campaign team announced that it would begin accepting cryptocurrency donations, becoming the first presidential candidate of a major US party to accept cryptocurrency as campaign donations.
Currently, there are two fundraising committees that are accepting cryptocurrency donations for the Trump campaign: Trump National Committee JFC, Inc. and Trump 47 Committee.
Public donation address
According to Arkham data monitoring, Trump currently holds more than $3.4 million in crypto assets in his public addresses, down more than 80% from its high this year.
The address’ assets peaked at $18 million, mainly due to the surge in Trump-related meme coins.
Trump National Council
According to Trump’s campaign website, 90% of the Trump National Committee’s contributions go to Donald J. Trump for President 2024 (up to $3,300), and 10% goes to the Republican National Committee (up to $413,000).
Coinbase Commerce, Gemini, and Anedot are all processing on-chain donations to the Trump National Committee. Below are the cryptocurrency addresses that belong to the Trump National Committee donations.
Coinbase Address:
0XE7E1AE3800B9D32751BBB3C2D0CE030F829AEF77
Gemini Address:
18UI9MKKLG5AZTHLOKFZLXMBXUJ8KMFWDN
0X42E10319C944C5FB7FCD76BFFB0DD3C3DEB605D8
0X18C8314C9BD4A378E4D612873A1899378EDD671D
Anedot Address:
3EFBD4KDPCEK7HOBUKOXJR2TERJCKBMELK
So far, very few cryptocurrency donations have been made to the Trump campaign through new platforms such as Gemini and Anedot.
Trump 47 Committee
Trump 47 is a joint fundraising committee authorized by Trump for President 2024, Inc., Save America PAC, the Republican National Committee (RNC), and Republican federal accounts in more than 40 states.
The maximum contribution from an individual to the Trump 47 Committee is $844,600, and individual contributions are allocated according to the following formula:
First $3,300 deposited into Trump presidential primary account
Next $3,300 to go to Trump presidential campaign account
The next $5,000 will go to Save America
The next $413,000 will go to the RNC
The rest is split among state Republicans.
For example, on June 21, Gemini co-founders Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss donated approximately $1 million worth of Bitcoin (15.47 BTC) to the Trump campaign, which exceeded the maximum donation limit of $844,600 per person that the 47 committees could legally accept, so $310,800 was returned.
According to OpenSecrets, as of June 30, the top 10 political action committees supporting Trump had raised about $255.9 million, but a large portion of that came from the traditional financial sector and U.S. dollar donations.
In the second quarter FEC disclosure documents submitted by the Trump campaign, individuals who donated to the Trump campaign via cryptocurrency included the Gemini brothers, Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell, Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty, BitGo CEO Michael Belshe, and Messari CEO Ryan Selkis, with a total of nearly $2.9 million in donated crypto assets.
According to breadcrumbs data, at least $1.8 million worth of BTC has been donated to the Trump campaign since BTC donations were accepted in May 2024.
At present, it is impossible to determine Trump’s total fundraising situation except based on on-chain evidence and FEC documents, but the campaign team will submit FEC documents in the future to show how much money they raised this quarter, and then they can calculate the proportion of crypto assets in the total donations.
“Trump Card” NFT series revenue: a total of US$7.15 million
According to Trump's financial disclosure, in addition to his declared holdings of Ethereum-based crypto assets worth between $1 million and $5 million, Trump also earned more than $7.15 million from three NFT series. In addition, Trump's wife also earned more than $330,000 from the sale of digital trading cards or NFT fees. Trump said in July that he planned to release another set of NFT series.
In December 2022, Trump launched his first NFT series, "Trump Digital Trading Cards," which sold for $99 each and sold out in less than a day.
In 2023, Trump released two new series of NFTs, "Trump Digital Trading Cards Series 2" and "Mugshot Edition", and introduced NFT benefits such as Trump dinners, signed souvenirs, etc.
OpenSea data shows that in terms of total transaction volume, Trump's first two NFT series are more popular, with transaction volumes of 15,812 ETH and 22,080 ETH respectively. Given that all sales are subject to a 10% royalty from creators, the first series of NFT projects has generated sales of US$19 million since its launch, earning US$1.425 million after deducting OpenSea's 2.5% fee.
It is unclear how much Trump personally profited from the NFTs, as neither the former president, the PAC, nor his campaign were directly involved in designing or minting the NFTs, which were instead done by a company called NFT INC LLC.
Trump earned $4.9 million from his NFT licensing agreement with NFT INT LLC, the company behind the release of Trump’s series of NFTs, which has earned millions of dollars in sales and royalties.
NFT INT LLC states on its digital trading card website that it is an independent entity and that “NFT INT LLC is not owned, managed, or controlled by the Trump Organization, Donald J. Trump, and NFT INT LLC uses the name, likeness, and image of Donald J. Trump under a paid license from CIC Digital LLC.”
Trump is listed as the manager, president, secretary and treasurer of CIC Digital LLC, according to disclosures released by CREW.
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