April 20, 2023
By Sharan Kaur Phillora
According to a filing from the US office of Government Ethics, President Trump served as “manager, president, secretary and treasurer” for CIC Digital LLC through March 2022. This company licensed NFT INT LLC to use his name, likeness and image in the widely publicised “Trump”. Digital Trading Card” NFT collection.
The filing further showed President Trump earned more than $5 million from speaking engagements. He also earned less than $201 from Trump Media & Technology Group – the company behind Truth Social.
Here’s what we know:
The 45,000 digital collectables featuring the image of the 45th president were released in December and sold out within 24 hours. The collection price has recently increased due to the news of the former president’s arraignment in New York.
According to documents filed on Friday, Trump holds the “manager, president, secretary, and treasurer” positions at CIC Digital LLC and CIC Ventures LLC. According to the official website for Trump Trading Cards, CIC Digital LLC licensed NFT INT LLC, the company behind the NFT initiative, to use Trump’s name, image, and visage for a fee.
The filing reveals that CIC Digital LLC earned between $100,001 and $1,000,000 in “NFTs” The report also indicates that CIC Ventures LLC earned more than $5 million from speaking engagements.
Since its inception, the project has generated sales in excess of $19 million, according to on-chain data collected by the NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam. In contrast, the number of active accounts holding Trump NFTs has decreased by 13% in the past week to 208.
Regardless of OpenSea data, 65% of collectors retain a single NFT, while 23% hold between two and three. Multiple wallets store more than 100 NFTs. In addition, 1,000 NFTs were not made available to the public and are currently being held in a Gnosis Safe Wallet, a multi-signature smart contract wallet that requires approval from multiple users before any asset movement.
It is not entirely clear that Trump can earn up to $1 million from sales of the NFT collection. While the official website states that none of the funds raised go directly to Trump’s reelection campaign, the filings indicate that Trump could still pocket a significant portion of the earnings.
About the author
Sharan Kaur Phillora’s thirst for knowledge has led her to study many different subjects, including NFTs and Blockchain technology – two emerging technologies that will change how we interact with each other in the future. When she isn’t exploring a new idea or concept, she enjoys reading literary masterpieces.
