Donald Trump's NFT Prices Soar Following Indictment
- Donald Trump's digital trading cards have seen a surge in price following news that a grand jury in Manhattan voted to indict him on Thursday.
- The cards were initially priced at $99, but the resale price of his NFTS has risen to around $974 as of April 1.
- Trump has denied all wrongdoing and denied ever having an affair with Stormy Daniels.
The price of former President Donald Trump's digital trading cards has soared in recent days following news that a grand jury in Manhattan voted to indict him on Thursday.
The floor price for Trump's non-fungible token (NFT) trading cards was 0.41 Ethereum (ETH) - approximately $748 - as of March 29, according to data from nftpricefloor.com, but had surged to 0.534 ETH by April 1, equivalent to around $974.
The former president reportedly plans to fly from his home in Florida to New York on Tuesday in order to be arraigned on charges related to the Manhattan District Attorney's investigation into Trump's alleged role in hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
The exact charges Trump is facing have not yet been revealed but he has denied all wrongdoing, denied ever having an affair with Daniels, and harshly criticized the investigation.
Trump's digital trading cards also saw a price surge earlier this month amid speculation that he would be indicted in New York. The former president had predicted his own arrest and called for protests on March 18 and the resale price of his NFTS then experienced a sharp rise.
However, the price then fell back when Trump was not arrested on March 21 as he had predicted and fluctuated over the following days, before falling to 0.41 ETH on March 29.
On March 30, a grand jury in Manhattan voted to indict Trump and the NFTs' price on the resale market began rising again and reached 0.49 ETH - around $893 - before falling to 0.459 ($873) on March 31.
The price has subsequently risen again but the former president will derive no financial benefit from the surge, as all 45,000 of his digital trading cards sold out within their first 12 hours of release in December. They were initially priced at $99 and around 14,000 people purchased them.
Trump was widely mocked over the digital trading cards, which portray him in guises such as a superhero, cowboy, and astronaut after he had teased a "major announcement."
That had led to significant speculation about what Trump would announce and later led to criticism, including from Trump's former White House adviser Steve Bannon, who said that whoever had advised Trump on the venture "ought to be fired today."
Speaking to conservative network OAN in December, Trump said the digital trading card collection was about "art" and not money.
"You know, it's sort of comic book art when you think of it, but they showed me the art and I said, gee, I always wanted to have a 30-inch waist," the former president said.
"I'm looking at this stuff and I'm saying 'Wow, that's sorta cute, that might sell, that might sell.' They thought it would sell in six months, it sold in six hours," Trump said.
Newsweek has reached out to former President Trump's office via email for comment.
