Original title: "Selling "Trump": The Trump family has made tens of millions of dollars by "private label authorization" to crypto projects"
Original author: Grapefruit, ChainCatcher
On November 5, local time, the voting for the 60th presidential campaign in the United States was settled. Who will eventually enter the White House between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is not only the focus of world attention, but also a new change in the crypto world.
Since the beginning of the campaign, Trump has publicly expressed his support for the development of cryptocurrencies many times. If he successfully returns to the White House, the United States' strict regulatory policy on the crypto market may usher in a change, injecting new vitality into the development of the industry. At the Bitcoin 2024 Conference, Trump said in his speech: If re-elected, he will ensure that the government retains 100% of the Bitcoin it holds and will list Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset for the United States.
Trump is not only a supporter of the crypto market, but also a personal participant. During the campaign, he not only received donations from crypto whales and institutions, but also personally involved in multiple crypto projects. The cumulative income from NFT and DeFi crypto projects participated in through OEM has exceeded 10 million US dollars.
According to the data Arkham platform, the value of crypto assets held in Trump's wallet address on November 5 was 6.15 million US dollars. At the peak in June this year, the value was as high as 25 million US dollars, of which the number of Ethereum held was close to 1,000, worth 2.38 million US dollars.
Trump's active participation and significant gains 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 far-reaching.
Since 2022, Trump's NFT digital trading cards have issued 4 series, and the cumulative number of NFTs issued has exceeded 200,000. Each card is calculated at $99, and the revenue from selling NFT cards alone exceeds $22 million.
First, in December 2022, Trump released his first series of NFTs, the Trump Digital Trading Card NFT, which was created on Polygon. The series of NFTs is based on Trump's cosplay photos, including Trump as a superhero, astronaut, racer, western sheriff and other cartoon characters.
This is the first series of Trump NFT theme, each priced at $99, with a circulation of 45,000. Buyers can participate in the lottery, meet Trump or play golf, etc. The launch of this series quickly received a warm response from the market. It was sold out within 18 hours of going online, with sales reaching $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 addresses holding this series of NFTs has reached more than 140,000, and the total transaction amount in the secondary market has reached 15,859 ETH, which is about $41.23 million based on the price of ETH at $2,600 per coin.
This means that Trump’s first NFT series earned $4.45 million in revenue from card sales alone. In addition, the series also has a 10% royalty, and the royalty income from the transaction volume of more than $40 million is more than $4 million. The total revenue brought by this series of NFTs exceeded US$8.5 million (including income from selling cards and royalties).
Perhaps seeing the considerable benefits brought by NFTs, only 4 months after the first NFT (April 2023), the second series of Trump Digital Trading Cards NFTs (Trump Digital Trading Cards Series2) was officially launched. This series of NFTs mainly shows Trump's tough image in a suit. The total number of NFTs issued is 47,000, each priced at US$99. It was sold out in less than 5 hours after it was launched, with sales of US$4.653 million. The current floor price is 110POL (US$33).
On December 23 of the same year, Trump released the third series of NFTs (Trump Digital Trading Cards MugShot Edition), which is still priced at US$99 per piece. Unlike the previous series, this series has a total of 10 10,000 pieces, mainly showing Trump's image after his arrest. This series of NFTs brought in about $9.9 million in revenue.
In August this year, Trump's fourth NFT series (Trump Digital Trading Cards America First Edition America First) went on sale. This series of NFTs is based on the image of Trump in a suit when he debated with Biden during the US presidential election. It is used to express the political strategy of never surrendering. It also includes scenes such as dancing, holding Bitcoin, and standing next to a buffalo or a lion, which makes people more convinced of Trump's support for encryption.
The fourth set of NFT series also costs $99 per card. Holders can get the debate suit part and special benefits, and can also participate in the golf club dinner. The official website shows that it is sold out. However, this series of NFTs cannot be transferred before January 31, 2025. According to the latest data from Opensea, the fourth set of NFT series has a circulation of 31,740, with a total income of approximately $3.14 million from selling cards, 1,568 holding addresses, and a current floor price of 529POL (approximately $161.7).
To put it simply, the first series of Trump NFTs was released in December 2022, with a total of 45,000 cards (US$4.45 million in revenue from selling cards); the second series was released in April 2023, with a total of 47,000 cards (US$4.65 million in revenue from selling cards), and both series 1 and 2 had an additional 10% royalty income; the third series MugShot was released in December 2023, with a total of 100,000 cards (US$9.9 million); the fourth NFT series America First was launched in August this year, with a circulation of 31,740 (profit of US$3.14 million).
So far, the revenue earned by Trump NFT digital trading cards has exceeded US$22 million.
However, the Trump series of NFTs are not issued directly by him or his company, but are produced and sold by NFT issuing company NFT International LLC (NFT INT LLC), which is authorized to use Trump's name, portrait and image to produce digital trading cards under a paid license and pay Trump a license fee.
According to Trump's campaign financial data disclosed earlier this year, NFT INT LLC has earned $19 million by launching three series of Trump digital trading cards, paid Trump $7.15 million in licensing fees, and Trump's wife Melania Trump earned $330,000 from NFT sales.
Then, with the $3.14 million in revenue from the newly launched NFT in August, NFT INT LLC has earned more than $22 million from issuing Trump NFTs and selling cards alone. If the NFT issuing company pays the licensing fee based on the revenue-to-expense ratio, the fee paid to Trump will account for about 37% of the revenue ($7.15 million/$19 million), and the fourth set of NFTs will need to pay Trump another $1.17 million in licensing fees ($3.14 million*37%), which means that Trump's net profit from naming NFTs alone is more than $8 million ($7.15 million + $1.17 million).
Since Trump participated in the presidential campaign, the floor price of the Trump series NFT has risen sharply. As of November 5, there are 2 NFTs above $100. The floor price of the first series of digital trading cards is 450POL (135 USD); the floor price of the second series of digital trading cards is 110POL (33 USD); the floor price of the third series MugShot is unknown; the fourth set of NFT series (America Firs) is quoted at 529POL (about 161.7 USD).
If NFT is Trump's first successful test in the crypto market, then the DeFi project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is another masterpiece of the Trump family's public title platform.
World Liberty Financial claims to be a project promoted by members of Donald Trump's family (sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.), and has been supported by Trump himself on his official Twitter account many times. For example, before and after the sale of WLFI tokens, Trump's official X account continuously released content promoting the sale of its tokens, making World Liberty Financial regarded by the crypto community 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 with stablecoins.
On the evening of October 15, the public sale of World Liberty Financial's token WLFI officially began. The total issuance of WLFI tokens is as high as 100 billion, and it is planned to sell 20 billion tokens at a price of $0.015 (equivalent to $300 million).
However, the sales results of WLFI tokens after they were launched were far from expectations, with less than $15 million in participating funds. As of November 5, only 982 million WLFI tokens were sold, earning only $14.73 million.
The main reason for this result is that the white paper released by World Liberty Financial on October 18 showed that the project and the Trump family and Trump only used Trump's image for publicity and promotion through authorized cooperation. Trump himself occasionally had to promote the WLF and World Liberty Financial agreements through tweets. The Trump family did not personally participate in the project, but only appeared in the form of endorsement.
In return for the authorization, the Trump family will receive 22.5 billion WLF tokens, which will be worth $337.5 million at the issue price of $0.015. In addition, the Trump family will be entitled to 75% of the net income of the agreement, but will not be responsible for WLF.
From tweets to Trump's image on the website and white paper, World Liberty Financial seems to be highly tied to the Trump family. However, the truth is that it is an OEM product of Trump and his family. The Trump family only makes profits by renting out the brand, and there are other traders behind it who use the reputation of the Trump family to operate the product. What is more worrying is that the trader behind World Liberty Financial was also found to have his code directly copied from Dough Finance, a DeFi product that was just hacked this year.
Business forms such as "branding, naming, and platforming" are not uncommon in the Trump family. Many Trump hotels or buildings named after Trump around the world are in cooperation with Trump in the form of licensing and OEM. Similarly, in the crypto world, Trump issued NFT in the form of OEM and used it again in the crypto DeFi project World Liberty Financial. However, judging from the participation of the crypto community this time, even if there is a Trump naming user, they may not buy it.
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