Former U.S. President Donald Trump, well-known for his skepticism towards cryptocurrencies, has been revealed to hold between $250,001 and $500,000 in an Ethereum (ETH) wallet, according to his financial disclosure form filed in April 2023.
The wallet’s contents remain undisclosed, leaving the potential for it to encompass Ethereum, ERC20 tokens, or potentially NFTs.
The news has been widely reported; however, there are two glaring questions:
- Is Trump no longer anti-crypto?
- Why is no Polygon wallet disclosed?
Trump’s crypto and NFT position.
This report is a surprising revelation considering Trump’s public stance on cryptocurrencies. In 2019, Trump expressed his disapproval of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on Twitter, dismissing them as volatile assets “based on thin air” that could potentially facilitate illegal activities.
Despite his skepticism, Trump introduced his first NFT collection in Dec. 2022, three years after his criticism of cryptocurrencies. As Soumen Datta reported, the former president launched the ‘Collect Trump Cards’ series, with each NFT costing $99 and minted on the Polygon blockchain in a bold move into the crypto space. The collection, managed by NFT International LLC, released 45,000 NFTs available for minting during the sweepstakes entry period.
However, it was not all smooth sailing for the Trump-branded NFTs. CryptoSlate reported in Dec. 2022 that the collection’s floor price plummeted by 80% in 10 days from 0.84 ETH to 0.16 ETH. Further, OpenSea data indicated a unique owner rate of only 34%, with 15,115 owners holding the 45,000 NFTs.
The launch of Trump’s ‘Series 2’ NFT collection in April 2023 saw its floor price tumble more than 10% below the purchase price. While the first collection’s sales surged up almost 500%, the floor price of both collections fell in tandem with a drop in the Bitcoin (BTC) price to $27,300.
Currently, the floor price of Trump’s initial run of trading cards is 0.1065 ETH, while Series 2 is at 0.018 ETH, according to OpenSea.
Trump Polygon wallet identified?
So, even though Trump’s disclosed Ethereum wallet might raise eyebrows, it’s important to remember that his NFTs were minted on Polygon, a layer-two scaling solution for Ethereum, not on Ethereum itself. This distinction is crucial to understanding the reach and impact of his crypto ventures.
Analyzing on-chain data gives further insight into the distribution of Trump’s NFTs on Polygon. Two primary wallet holders were allocated large amounts of Trump’s NFTs in bulk — one identified as 0x72f8 received 500 in June 2023, while another identified as 0x6D65 was given 602 in several batches between April and May 2023.
Given that the floor price of the NFTs during this period hovered around 0.17 ETH, it can be deduced that each of the wallets, as mentioned earlier, contained between $153,000 to $184,000 worth of NFTs, roughly 1% of the supply each.
Interestingly, these accounts also received substantial amounts of Trump’s Series 2 cards, valued between $20,000 and $40,000 at the time.
These amounts align roughly with Trump’s disclosure statement concerning crypto wallet holdings. Given the volatile nature of NFT trading and pricing, a $250,001 – $500,000 valuation of either of these wallets may not be unreasonable. Therefore, one of these wallets may belong to Trump.
Moreover, the two wallets’ acquisition methods for these NFTs also differ. The 0x6D65 account received its NFTs via the smart contract’s ‘fulfill available advanced orders’ function, while 0x72f8 received theirs in standard bulk transactions.
Furthermore, wallet 0x72f8’s transaction history appears to contain only token deposits that seem to be spam. At the same time, 0x6D65 has approximately $40k in wrapped ETH (wETH), three transactions with the NFT trading platform Seaport, and numerous smaller transactions.
Ethereum Wallet Addresses.
Given that Trump’s disclosure listed an Ethereum wallet, CryptoSlate reviewed the Polygon addresses on the native Ethereum chain.
On the Ethereum network, the 0x6D65 address holds around $16,000 in ETH.
Its activity indicates that it belongs to an entity with experience trading NFTs, something unlikely for the former U.S. President.
Onchain data suggests that the NFT collection has performed similar actions in the past, with analysts asserting, in Dec. 2022, that a number of NFTs with high rarity were minted internally prior to launch, with some aligning it with a group Gnosis Safe multi-sig wallet.
The address identified? 0xfb65.
However, the 0x72f8 address, mirroring its activity on the Polygon network, shows no transactions on Ethereum. The wallet has remained inactive throughout.
Given the nature of the addresses’ activities on both networks, one might speculate if the 0x72f8 could indeed be Trump’s address, given that it is reasonable that several NFTs would be held back for their creator. Further, the lack of activity might suggest it is a cold storage wallet designated to have Trump’s NFT quota.
If this speculation holds, it would be more accurate for the filing to read ‘Polygon wallet’ instead of ‘Ethereum wallet.’
It is important to stress that without official confirmation from Trump or his associates, it remains impossible to identify the 0x72f8 address as his definitively.
The addresses identified are likely related to entities involved in the project’s creation or a whale with access to a bulk transaction function.
Still, while the information sparks intriguing possibilities, it should be cautiously approached until further clarification is available.
The post Op-ed: Is Trump’s $500k crypto wallet just his own NFT trading card collection? appeared first on CryptoSlate.
