Trump's NFT Trading Cards Witness Surge In Sales Following His Indictment

The news of Former President Donald Trump's indictment has pushed his digital collectibles into the spotlight, resulting in a spike in their sales.

Prices boosted and more trading activity took place around the collection, according to data from Opensea, after the Thursday announcement of the 45th President of the United States becoming the first head of state, former or incumbent, to face criminal charges in the country.

Trump faces over 30 charges in the indictment related to an alleged hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in connection with the 2016 presidential election, according to Bitcoin.com.

NFT traders sprung into action and caused a surge in the sales of Trump Digital Trading Cards, with nearly 14,000 individuals becoming owners of the tokenized card - some of which depict the former president as a superhero or wearing a "Trump Champion" boxing belt.

The sales increased well over 400% in just about 24 hours following the indictment announcement. It also saw an increase in trading volume with over 91 ETH Thursday while the data shows a sales volume of around 34 ETH the day before the announcement. Data also indicated that the NFTs exceeded a floor price of 0.59 ETH Friday.

The floor price dropped back to around the 0.51 ETH range Sunday but was still above the initial mint price of $99 during its initial December release.

Trump's collection of digital cards was first released on his social platform on Dec. 15, 2022. At the time, Trump encouraged NFT traders to collect all "limited edition cards featu[ring] amazing ART of my Life & Career" and said they would "make a great Christmas gift."

With the purchase of each trading card, buyers also automatically received a ticket to sweepstakes like a chance to have dinner, a golf session or a Zoom call with Trump.

The collectibles, which were immediately mocked on social media, sold out within hours of the release.

NFTs have had a generally strong first quarter this year. Although there was a significant dip in sales in March this year, the sales in Q1 of 2023 as a whole saw the trading volume expand by more than 137%, according to a report by the global decentralized apps store Dappradar. About $4.7 billion worth of NFT trading volume took place this quarter.