Donald Trump holds $250,000 to $500,000 of assets in a cryptocurrency wallet, according to a financial disclosure released last month.
The asset, listed on Trump’s disclosure as “cryptocurrency wallet (Ethereum),” appears to be connected to a collection of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, that he marketed after leaving the White House.
In December 2022, Trump announced that he was releasing a “limited edition collection” of 44,000 NFTs representing cartoon-like trading cards that featured Trump in various getups, such as hunters’ camouflage, a welders’ suit and a superhero costume. The $99 cards sold out in a day. Trump and his partner, a company named NFT INC LLC, then released a second batch in April. It also sold out.
The sales appear to have raised more than $8.9 million. The former president earned $298,000 in licensing fees from the venture, according to the disclosure. His wallet is held under the same Trump entity through which he collected his licensing fees, CIC Digital.
A few hundred thousand dollars is pocket change for Trump, who is worth an estimated $2.5 billion. But the real estate tycoon is not above making an easy buck, even if it requires hawking a product he doesn’t particularly admire. “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” he tweeted in April 2019. “Unregulated crypto assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission has recently taken a more active role policing the broader cryptocurrency industry, going after celebrity endorsers like Kim Kardashian. But the regulatory agency has largely shied away from taking actions against NFT creators and companies, meaning Trump’s NFT venture probably won’t add to his legal woes.
Spokespeople for Trump did not respond to a request for comment. The existence of Trump’s crypto holding was previously reported by Bitcoin.com.