The prices of Donald Trump’s nonfungible tokens rallied after a Manhattan grand jury voted Thursday to indict the former president, marking the first time in U.S. history a former or serving president will face criminal charges.
The collection of NFTs — called Trump Digital Trading Cards — featuring imagery of Trump in costumes such as cowboy, basketball player and a sort of superhero, saw its floor price, or the lowest price for collection items, up over 20% Thursday, to as high as 0.6 ETH, or around $1,098 based on ether’s current price, before it retreated to around 0.56 ETH according to data from NFT marketplace OpenSea.
The sales volume of the NFT collection for the past 24 hours went up more than 400% from the previous day to around 107 ETH, according to data from OpenSea.
Specific charges against Trump were not immediately clear as the indictment has yet to be unsealed, but the Manhattan district attorney has alleged that Trump had broken the law for his role in a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election campaign .
The Margin (December 2022): Trump NFTs were the ‘big announcement’ promised by the former president. They drew strong reactions — and are said to have sold out.
Also (December 2022): Donald Trump’s NFT collection said to have sold out within day of launch
Read: Why is Trump possibly getting arrested? And who is Stormy Daniels, again?
Prosecutors said in 2016 , Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, $130,000 through a shell company to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.
Cohen was reimbursed by Trump, whose Trump Organization recorded the payment as a legal expense.
Cohen later served prison time after pleading guilty in 2018 to federal charges, including tax evasion, and two campaign-finance violations. Trump has denied any wrongdoing, including having the extramarital encounter in the first place.
The NFT collection was launched in December, and Trump promoted it on his social platform Truth Social, even as crypto prices were being hit hard.
Proceeds from the NFT sales won’t be used to support Trump’s 2024 election campaign, according to collecttrumpcards.com, the website at which the NFTs were sold.
A spokesperson for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Bitcoin
BTCUSD,
is trading above $28,500 Friday, up 1% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. Ether is trading at around $1,832, up 2.8% over the past 24 hours.
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