Donald Trump's non-fungible tokens, better known as NFTs, are apparently worth a lot less than what the former president claims, according to sales data assessed by Newsweek.
During Trump's nearly 7-hour deposition testimony in New York Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud lawsuit against him in April, the former president repeatedly defended himself saying he did not over-inflate the value of his net worth.
In September 2022, James sued Trump and three of his children, together with the Trump Organization, accusing them of "staggering" fraud for overvaluing the former president's assets and properties. The case is expected to go to trial later this year, as Trump battles several legal cases while he runs for the 2024 election.
In the 400-page transcript of April's deposition made available to the public last week, Trump takes credit for single-handedly reviving the NFT market, saying that "a few months ago everyone was saying the NFTs are dead."
"I did an NFT deal the other day," he said. "People are saying, what are you doing in NFTs? It sold out in less than a day. It was supposed to take six months," he added, mentioning the sale as proof that his is the "hottest brand in the world" since he became president in 2016.
Trump then claimed to have sold 45,000 trading cards, for which "people paid $99." He added that these same NFTs are now worth much more than their original price, saying they sell for $1,300 on average.
"Some of those cards are selling for 22, 23, 24,000 dollars now. And I think the average is about $1,300 a card. So people made a lot of money. I'm happy those are Trump people," he said.
He added that "somebody hit the jackpot" selling his NFTs for $82,000 and $82,100. "I'll get you the exact number [...] I'll check this," he said. Trump attributed the number of sales to the value of his name as a brand.
The former president said he got into the NFT market "with a person that does that stuff" and added that "we're going to be doing another one very shortly."
But the numbers he provided during his deposition don't reflect those on OpenSea, an NFT marketplace where users can buy Trump's cards. The highest value the former president's original NFTs ever reached was on average 0.6782 ETH—the native currency of the Ethereum network, called Ether—on February 13, 2023, which equals to about $1,109.
On April 3, the value of Trump's trading cards was 0.4438 ETH (over $723), while on April 10 it had slid to 0.3814 ETH ($621.79). On April 17, they were worth 0.1543 ETH ($251.55) and on April 24, they were valued at 0.1304 ETH ($218.46).
Trump's deposition happened on April 13.
In May, Newsweek reported that Trump's trading cards had plunged to a record low value of around $1.04.
At the moment, according to the website, Trump's NFTs are valued at 0.1499 ETH—about $245.
The highest-ever sale on the platform for an autographed Trump card was back in December 2022, for a total of 37 ETH—the equivalent of $60,000, as per data available on PolygonScan, a blockchain explorer which enable users to find metric related to the Polygon blockchain.
Newsweek contacted the Trump Organization for comment by email on Monday.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
