Selling “Trump”: The Trump family has made millions by “licensing” to cryptocurrency projects

Author: Grapefruit, ChainCatcher

Editor: Nianqing, ChainCatcher

On November 5, local time, the voting dust settled in the 60th presidential campaign in the United States. Whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris will ultimately move into the White House has become not only a focus of global attention but also a new change in the crypto world.

Since the beginning of the campaign, Trump has repeatedly expressed his support for the development of cryptocurrencies. If he successfully returns to the White House, the strict regulatory policies on the crypto market in the U.S. may undergo a transformation, injecting new vitality into the industry. At the Bitcoin 2024 conference, Trump stated in his speech that if re-elected, he would ensure that the government retains 100% of its Bitcoin holdings and would classify Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset for the United States.

Trump is not only a supporter of the crypto market but also a personal participant. During his campaign, he received donations from crypto whales and institutions and personally engaged in several crypto projects. The income from NFT and DeFi crypto projects he participated in through OEM branding has exceeded $10 million.

According to data from the Arkham platform, as of November 5, the crypto assets held in Trump’s wallet address were valued at $6.15 million. At the peak in June this year, the value reached as high as $25 million, with nearly 1,000 Ethereum held, valued at $2.38 million.

Trump’s active participation and significant gains in the crypto market undoubtedly bring new changes and attention to the crypto world. If Trump is elected, the impact on the crypto market will be profound.

Trump’s NFT series card sales revenue exceeds $22 million, licensing fees profit over $8 million

Since 2022, Trump’s branded NFT digital trading cards have released four series, with a total of over 200,000 NFTs issued. Each card is priced at $99, and the revenue from selling NFTs alone has exceeded $22 million.

First, in December 2022, Trump released his first series of NFTs—Trump Digital Trading Card NFTs. This series of NFTs was created on Polygon and features Trump in various cosplay themes, including cartoon characters like a superhero, astronaut, race car driver, and western sheriff.

This is the first series of Trump’s NFTs, with each priced at $99 and a total issuance of 45,000. Buyers could participate in a lottery, meet Trump, or play golf, among other benefits. The launch of this series quickly garnered a warm market response, selling out within 18 hours and achieving sales of $4.455 million.

Additionally, the trading of this NFT series in the secondary market has been quite active. According to the latest data from Opensea, the number of addresses holding this NFT series has exceeded 140,000, with a total trading volume in the secondary market of 15,859 ETH, which, at a price of $2,600 per ETH, amounts to approximately $41.23 million.

This means that the first NFT series alone generated $4.45 million in sales revenue. Furthermore, this series also has a 10% royalty, which means the royalty income from over $40 million in trading volume amounts to over $4 million. The total income from this NFT series exceeds $8.5 million (including sales revenue and royalty income).

Perhaps seeing the considerable profits from NFTs, just four months after the first NFT series (in April 2023), the second series of Trump Digital Trading Cards (Trump Digital Trading Cards Series 2) was officially launched. This series mainly showcases Trump’s tough guy image in a suit, with a total issuance of 47,000 cards, each priced at $99. It sold out in less than 5 hours, achieving sales of $4.653 million, with a current floor price of 110 POL (approximately $33).

On December 23 of the same year, Trump released the third series of NFTs (Trump Digital Trading Cards MugShot Edition), priced at $99 per card. Unlike previous series, this one has a total of 100,000 cards and mainly showcases Trump’s image after his arrest. This series generated approximately $9.9 million in revenue.

In August of this year, Trump’s fourth NFT series (Trump Digital Trading Cards America First Edition) went on sale. This series is themed around Trump’s suit during the presidential debate with Biden, expressing a never-surrender political strategy, and includes scenes of dancing, holding Bitcoin, and standing next to a buffalo or lion, further reinforcing Trump’s support for crypto.

The fourth NFT series is also priced at $99 per card, and holders can receive benefits related to the debate suit and participate in a golf club dinner. The official website shows that it has sold out. However, this series of NFTs cannot be transferred until January 31, 2025. According to the latest data from Opensea, the fourth series has an issuance of 31,740 cards, with total sales revenue of approximately $3.14 million, and the number of holding addresses is 1,568, with a current floor price of 529 POL (approximately $161.7).

In summary, the first series of Trump’s NFTs was issued in December 2022, with a total of 45,000 cards (sales revenue of $4.45 million); the second series was released in April 2023, with 47,000 cards (sales revenue of $4.65 million), and both series 1 and 2 have an additional 10% royalty income; the third series MugShot was released in December 2023, with 100,000 cards (revenue of $9.9 million); the fourth NFT series America First went live in August this year, with an issuance of 31,740 (profit of $3.14 million).

Thus far, the income generated from Trump’s NFT digital trading cards has exceeded $22 million.

However, the Trump series NFTs are not directly issued by him or his company but are produced and sold by the NFT issuing company NFT International LLC (NFT INT LLC). This company is authorized to use Trump’s name, likeness, and images to create digital trading cards under a paid licensing agreement and pays Trump a licensing fee.

According to earlier disclosed financial data from Trump’s campaign, NFT INT LLC has earned $19 million from launching three series of Trump’s digital trading cards and paid Trump $7.15 million in licensing fees, while Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, earned $330,000 from NFT sales.

Adding the $3.14 million in revenue from the new NFTs launched in August, to date, NFT INT LLC has earned over $22 million solely from selling Trump’s NFTs. If the NFT issuing company pays licensing fees based on revenue proportions, the fees paid to Trump would account for approximately 37% of the revenue ($7.15 million / $19 million). The fourth NFT would require an additional payment of $1.17 million in licensing fees to Trump ($3.14 million * 37%), meaning Trump has netted over $8 million from the NFT licensing alone ($7.15 million + $1.17 million).

Since Trump began his presidential campaign, the floor prices of the Trump series NFTs have significantly increased. As of November 5, there are two priced above $100, with the floor price of the first series digital trading cards at 450 POL ($135); the floor price of the second series digital trading cards is 110 POL ($33); the floor price of the third series MugShot is unknown; and the fourth NFT series (America First) is priced at 529 POL (approximately $161.7).

The Trump family expects to earn $337 million through the branded DeFi project World Liberty Financial

If NFTs were Trump’s first successful foray into the crypto market, then the DeFi project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is another significant effort publicly endorsed by the Trump family.

World Liberty Financial claims to be a project driven by members of Donald Trump’s family (sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.) and has received multiple endorsements from Trump himself on his official Twitter account. For instance, before and after the WLFI token sale, Trump’s official X account continuously posted promotional content for its token sales, leading the crypto community to view World Liberty Financial as a DeFi project personally supported by Trump.

World Liberty Financial is a DeFi protocol where users can borrow and lend cryptocurrencies, create liquidity pools, and trade using stablecoins.

On the evening of October 15, the WLFI token officially began public sales, with a total issuance of 100 billion tokens, planning to publicly sell 20 billion tokens at a price of $0.015 (equivalent to $300 million).

However, the sales results of the WLFI token fell far short of expectations, with participating funds totaling less than $15 million. As of November 5, only 982 million WLFI tokens had been sold, raising just $14.73 million.

The main reason for this outcome is that the white paper released by World Liberty Financial on October 18 indicated that the project was merely using Trump’s image for promotion and marketing through an authorized partnership, and Trump himself occasionally needed to promote the WLF and World Liberty Financial protocol through tweets. The Trump family did not personally participate in the project but only appeared as endorsers.

As a return for the authorization, the Trump family will receive 22.5 billion WLF tokens, which, at the issuance price of $0.015, will be worth $337.5 million. Additionally, the Trump family has the right to receive 75% of the net income from the protocol but is not responsible for WLF.

From the tweets to the images of Trump on the website and white paper, World Liberty Financial appears to be highly tied to the Trump family. However, the reality is that it is a branded (OEM) product of Trump and his family, who are merely profiting from leasing their brand, while other operators are using the Trump family’s name to run the product. Even more concerning is that the operators behind World Liberty Financial have been found to have code that appears to be directly copied from the DeFi product Dough Finance, which was recently hacked.

“Branding, licensing, and endorsements” are not uncommon business practices in the Trump family. Around the world, many hotels or buildings named after Trump are collaborations with Trump under licensing and OEM agreements. Similarly, in the crypto world, Trump has issued NFTs in an OEM manner and has again applied this in the crypto DeFi project World Liberty Financial. However, this time, based on the level of participation from the crypto community, even with Trump’s branding, users may not necessarily be convinced.