Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump unveiled Tuesday the relaunch of his digital trading cards showing him in a range of fanciful scenes: dancing, in a superhero outfit and holding bitcoin.
This new collection has been titled "America First Collection" and is his latest series of non-fungible tokens or NFTs. The first foray by Trump into the world of NFTs had come in December 2022 when he put up a collection of 44,000 digital cards, which were completely sold within just two days. Despite scepticism and mockery, the NFTs were shocking hits at that time.
The new digital cards are selling at $99. The firmer says buyers who get more than one card might get other benefits, like a gala dinner with Trump, a pair of Trump sneakers, or even a physical embedded card with a piece of the suit Trump was wearing during a debate.
In a video posted to Truth Social, Trump said, "By popular demand, I'm doing a new series of Trump digital trading cards. You all know what they are, we've had a lot of fun with them." He went on to say the cards are available to buy through credit cards or cryptocurrency before saying quickly and as if slightly embarrassed, "They call me the crypto president, I don't know if that's true or not.go right now and collect your piece of American history."
This new NFT effort by Trump also follows a surge in national polling for Vice President Kamala Harris. According to averages compiled by FiveThirtyEight, Harris is now ahead. Indeed, Federal Election Commission reports indicate that the Harris campaign's July fundraising numbers were a stout $204 million compared to Trump's campaign, which reported pulling in just $48 million all said and done.
The introduction of these NFTs hints at the increased crossroads that cryptocurrency has been meeting with politics of late following the adversity that the cryptocurrency industry underwent. The NFT market made up one of the highest turnovers since early 2022 but has grossly dwindled in performance following this period. According to OpenSea, NFT sale volume fell over 90% from January 2022 figures to those in August 2023.
This fall comes after crypto exchange FTX collapsed in 2022 and saw increased government scrutiny and regulation of the industry. By most indications, though, cryptocurrencies will keep playing a growing role in political fundraising, with contributions flowing to campaigns on both sides of the aisle.
These statements, more so, delineated Trump's view of cryptocurrency as central to his political platform, adding that he seeks to make the United States "crypto capital of the planet and Bitcoin superpower of the globe."
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