Donald Trump owns at least $1 million in crypto, earned millions from NFTs

Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure reveals that the former president — who once called Bitcoin a scam — now holds over $1 million in cryptocurrency.

According to his filings, the Republican presidential candidate has between $1 million and $5 million Ethereum. While this isn’t a massive amount given Trump’s other holdings and status, it will certainly be a plus for the crypto lobby he’s been looking to win over the past few months.

Tech executives and crypto leaders have started to do it hug former president this election cycle, seeing Trump as a much friendlier face than President Joe Biden or presumptive Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Trump’s vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance of Ohiois also a cryptocurrency-friendly leader with Bitcoin holdings that are valued between $100,001 and $250,000, according to a financial disclosure filed earlier this week.

While speaking to a crowd of about 3,000 people at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Trump vowed to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler on his first day in office over it. opposition to cryptocurrency. Trump also promised to establish a strategic national reserve of Bitcoin, reaffirmed his position that the US must emerge as a crypto-capital and superpower in the world and argued that Bitcoin could one day surpass the market capitalization of gold.

“This (Bitcoin) is the steel industry of 100 years ago,” he said.

Trump also earned $7.15 million from his line of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, a unique digital asset that can take the form of art, videos and other digital content stored on a blockchain network and traded using cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange. In 2022, Trump jumped into the NFT market for the first time, launching a collection with images of him depicted as a superhero, astronaut and cowboy.

Despite being a crypto-skeptic at the time, Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, launched NFT collections presenting Melanie’s “cobalt blue eyes”. She was paid $330,609 in license fees for the sale of NFTs, according to the disclosure.

Last August, he launched its latest NFT collection – “MugShot”, focusing on the subject of his pending criminal charges. IN A interview with Bloomberg Businessweek in June, Trump praised the success of his NFTs and said he would release a fourth collection.

“I’ve done it three times (and) I’m going to do it one more time, because people want me to do it again,” Trump said. “It’s an unbelievable spirit. Beautiful.”

— Vinamrata Chaturvedi contributed to this story