Donald Trump’s NFT Success Unveils Former President’s Crypto Ventures

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has made significant strides in the NFT market, as revealed in a recent financial disclosure form submitted to the Office of Government Ethics. The disclosure, which unveils a staggering $1 billion in earnings from various sources, highlights Trump’s ownership of CIC Digital LLC. This company acquires licensing payments for using Trump’s persona on nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and holds a crypto wallet valued between $250,000 to $500,000.

Two sets of digital trading cards have been released as a result of Trump’s entry into the NFT market, and both have had a big influence. The first season, which debuted in December, sold out on the first day, a feat that the second season also accomplished. Despite a 60% drop in the price of the original collection following the unveiling of the second series, the “Trump Digital Trading Cards” have remained a hot commodity on the NFT marketplace Opensea.

The second series, sold for $99 each on the Polygon blockchain, generated over $4.65 million in revenue with 47,000 assets in the collection. The sales, conducted by wrapped Ether transactions, brought around $2 million worth of new funds into the Polygon network. This success came despite a downturn in the NFT market, with Trump’s NFTs experiencing a spike in sales after his indictment earlier this year.

In addition to his NFT ventures, Trump’s media pursuits include an ownership stake in Trump Media and Technology Group, valued between $5 million and $25 million. The group’s revenue streams include over $1 million in advertising revenue from a conservative live-streaming site.

Trump’s diverse income sources also extend to more traditional avenues. For speaking engagements, he claimed getting $12.6 million in fees, including $1.4 million from a live tour with an American journalist. He also disclosed large earnings from the sale of his Washington hotel, which totaled $284.5 million, and from the administration of his Dubai golf club, which brought him over $1 million.

As the world of digital assets continues to evolve, Trump’s involvement in the NFT market underscores the growing intersection of politics, celebrity, and cryptocurrency. With his digital trading cards making waves in the NFT space, it remains to be seen how this venture will influence his financial pursuits moving forward.

Image source: Shutterstock

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Jimmy Fallon Fights Subpoena in NFT Legal Battle

The current litigation between Yuga Laboratories Inc. and Ripps et al. has brought attention to the intellectual property and trademark rights that are associated with the NFT industry. In a separate case involving Yuga Laboratories and securities fraud, Fallon is a co-defendant with Paris Hilton. During his program, Fallon disclosed that he had purchased a non-fungible token (NFT) issued by the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Notwithstanding this, Fallon’s legal team asserts that their client is not a party to the lawsuit involving Yuga Laboratories and Ripps and has nothing to do with the aforementioned case.

Collectors now have a new option to acquire rare pictures in NFT format as a result of a cooperation between Getty Images and Candy Digital. Beginning on March 21, customers will be able to make purchases of the NFTs on Candy Digital’s website. Prices for the NFTs will range anywhere from $25 to $200. The United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and Japan are just some of the locations where consumers will be able to purchase the new release.

With the purpose of providing real-time insights into the digital asset ecosystem, Forkast Labs has introduced a number of NFT indexes, one of which is the Forkast 500 NFT index, which evaluates the performance of digital assets on 21 different blockchains. These indexes attempt to give a more complete measure of the health of the NFT economy, which is difficult to determine using standard market rankings based on prices, sales, and transaction volumes. These indices aim to provide a more comprehensive assessment of the health of the NFT economy.

The trade volume on the NFT market surpassed $2.04 billion in February, representing a 117% increase from January’s figure of $941 million, indicating that the sector is expanding. Its expansion is attributable to Blur, a developing market that just overtook OpenSea in trade volume. This month alone, Blur eclipsed OpenSea. Even while there are indications that a positive trend is developing in the market, the NFT area is still in the process of evolving, with new possibilities and legal conflicts forming.

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PleasrDAO Purchases One-of-a-Kind Wu-Tang Album

Key Takeaways

  • PleasrDAO revealed today in a blog post that it had purchased Wu-Tang Clan’s one-of-a-kind 2015 album.
  • The album’s previous owners include Martin Shkreli and the United States Government.
  • Though no plans for the album were revealed, PleasrDAO teased that some may be forthcoming.


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The digital art collective PleasrDAO has purchased the sole copy of Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, once owned by disgraced pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli and seized by the U.S. Government as part of the forfeiture of Shkreli’s assets. PleasrDAO has not yet revealed any plans for the album.

Wu-Tang Album Out of Government Custody

PleasrDAO, a self-styled “collective of DeFi leaders, early NFT collectors, and digital artists” with a reputation for curating culturally significant NFTs, has added a new and notable rarity to its real-world art collection—Wu-Tang Clan’s famous “one-of-one” 2015 album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin

Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is famous for being extraordinarily rare—only one copy is known to exist. In fact, only one copy is legally allowed to exist. The album was the brainchild of Tarik “Cilvaringz” Azzougarh, a Wu-Tang fanatic who eventually worked his way into the band’s circles and pushed the idea of an album that would only exist as a single copy and contractually could not be copied or commercially distributed for a minimum of 88 years. 


The album also secured a famous, though infamous, buyer—“Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, who gained notoriety for hiking the price of AIDS drugs to unaffordable levels and who was eventually tried and convicted for securities fraud by the Department of Justice. As a result of that conviction, the U.S. Government seized Shkreli’s assets, including the one-of-a-kind album, in 2018. Since then, the mystery album has languished in government custody.

It was reported in July that the government had found a buyer for the album, though at the time they remained anonymous. The price of the sale was unclear, although the government revealed that the sale of the album would cover the outstanding balance of the $7.4 million Shkreli had been ordered to pay in a forfeiture money judgment. 

PleasrDAO has now revealed itself as the final buyer and current owner of the album. As evidence, PleasrDAO’s “chief pleasing officer” Jamis Johnson detailed the acquisition in a video and blog post earlier today which depicts, among other events, Johnson listening to the album.

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PleasrDAO has not revealed its plans for the album and is severely limited by the album’s contractual restrictions, which remain in effect and forbid any public distribution of the album’s contents. Still, Johnson indicated that there could be plans in the works, writing in his blog post, “we firmly believe there are ways to share this musical masterpiece with the world.”

He told Rolling Stone, however: “For people reading this…it’s gonna take a long time to be done right.”

Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies. 

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TIME Magazine Auctions “Is God Dead?” Cover in NFT Collection

Key Takeaways

  • TIME Magazine has minted a series of NFTs modelled after the infamous “Is God Dead?” cover printed in the 1960s.
  • Bidding for the “Is Fiat Dead?” NFT currently stands at 20 ETH or around $35,000.
  • The magazine described the rise of the NFT industry as “stratospheric.”




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TIME Magazine is auctioning three NFTs inspired by famous TIME covers of the past, as well as one new cover created just for the auction.

Iconic NFTs

On April 8 1966, TIME printed an issue with the cover asking the question “Is God Dead?”

The controversial question was printed in red ink on a black background, and marked TIME’s first cover to feature text only.

“It is a question that tantalizes both believers, who perhaps secretly fear that he is, and atheists, who possibly suspect the answer is no,” said then-editor John Elson.

TIME followed up on this format on April 3 2017, asking “Is Truth Dead?” during the first year of Donald Trump’s U.S. presidency.


Editor Nancy Gibbs confirmed that the cover was about Trump and various false statements made throughout his time in office.

“Just like many said they believed in God in 1966, many today would say they believe in Truth, and yet we find ourselves having an intense debate over its role and power in the face of a President who treats it like a toy.

Now, TIME has designed a cover specifically as an NFT, asking “Is Fiat Dead?”

Is Fiat Dead?

TIME is auctioning all three NFTs on the SuperRare crypto marketplace. The auction is now live and will run until 8PM ET on March 24.

At the time of writing, bidding for the “Is Fiat Dead?” NFT stands at 20 ETH or approximately $35,000. Bidding for “Is Truth Dead?” is now at 10 ETH, while the current bid for “Is God Dead?” is 0.5 ETH.

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The 98-year-old magazine company is the latest organization to enter the NFT space, with Atari including NFTs in its latest platform release among many other examples.

TIME stated that “Fiat money is government-issued currency that is not backed by a physical commodity, such as gold or silver, but rather by the government that issued it. Crypto currencies [sic], like Bitcoin and Dogecoin, are challenging that model.”

TIME published content in 2018 about how Bitcoin can help combat authoritarianism.

According to Nonfungible.com, the total volume of the NFT market now stands above $517 million, with Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” collection selling for $69 million at Christie’s including fees, and it’s likely that the TIME auction will generate significant interest as the closing date approaches.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author held Bitcoin.

This news was brought to you by ANKR, our preferred DeFi Partner.


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