Benzinga - Donald Trump has recently made headlines for his involvement with cryptocurrency. In early May, he hosted an NFTs event where he had dinner with supporters of one of his NFTs projects. At the dinner, he voiced support for cryptocurrency and that he wanted to create an environment where cryptocurrency companies could operate in the U.S. without fear of regulation. These comments came after Trump made millions on cryptocurrency from a handful of sources, all of which were free donations.
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Trump first began earning cryptocurrency in late 2022, following the release of the Trump Digital Trading Cards NFTs collection. The project used Trump's name, image, and likeness to release 45,000 NFTs priced at $99 each. Trump received royalties for allowing the company, Collect Trump Cards, to release the collection. In total, Trump has received over 1,800 ETH from the project.
In late 2023, Trump sold 1,075 of the ETH to generate proceeds of $2.4 million. Trump still owns over 800 ETH, currently worth $2.4 million.
However, the ETH is not necessarily a donation, as Trump earned the royalties by allowing another company to market the NFTs. Trump has earned more than $5 million in donations from other cryptocurrency companies.
Trump received 580,000 Maga Coin (TRUMP) tokens when the project launched in August 2023. The meme coin is focused on providing Trump supporters with a token to invest in that serves as "this kind of de facto betting market on the election for many investors," according to Steven Steele, the project’s marketing director. The founders of the project sent the tokens to Trump as a marketing ploy to show their support for the former president.
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When Trump first received the tokens they were trading for less than $0.01 each, and the total position was worth just a few thousand dollars. However, as Trump has continued to make headlines, a memecoin craze has occurred, and the presidential race heats up, the price of the token has surged.
In March 2024, the token reached an all-time high (ATH) of $11.56, which meant that Trump's 580,000 tokens were worth over $6.7 million.
While the price of the token has since fallen, it has remained well above the $5 level and has performed well in May. The recent spike in price was likely due to comments Trump gave at the NFTs dinner event, where he said that "if you like crypto in any form, and it comes in a lot of different forms, you better vote for Trump."
Trump's current holdings in MAGA Coin are worth over $5 million. While it is unclear whether or not Trump will sell the position or even is aware of them, the amount is certainly noteworthy, considering that Trump's election bid has raised over $200 million in total.
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