Benzinga - In early March, former President Donald Trump went on CNBC to discuss his views on cryptocurrency and Bitcoin. In a surprising comment, Trump reversed his previous views on Bitcoin and instead offered up a much more neutral stance on the asset class.
"I have seen there has been a lot of use of that, and I’m not sure that I’d want to take it away at this point … I can live with it one way or the other," Trump said.
This take was a turn from his comments in 2021, in which he said that crypto is a "disaster waiting to happen".
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This change in opinion could have huge implications for the crypto sector. If Trump is elected in November, these comments could give a hint as to how he would handle crypto from a regulatory perspective, presumably taking an approach that involves fewer regulations.
Another interesting point to note is that Trump holds crypto himself. In the interview, he noted, "I make money with it, I have fun with it too. Crazy new currencies, that's what I call them. They're crazy new currencies, whether it's Bitcoin or others." Trump is likely referencing the crypto royalties he has earned on numerous projects in the last couple of years.
Trump's name, image and likeness were used to launch a set of NFTs called Trump Digital Trading Cards, which launched in December 2022. The 45,000 NFTs were sold for a price of $99 each, but the cheapest NFT is currently listed for nearly $300. Trump has earned royalties on the sale of the NFTs, which were sent to his wallet address.
The address was obtained by Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics company that cross-referenced Trump's financial disclosures with on-chain activity. It shows the many inflows and outflows from Trump's wallet and allows anyone to track his crypto holdings over time.
Trump currently holds a little more than 650 ETH, worth around $2.7 million. These tokens were collected from royalties on NFT projects and supporters sending him coins. However, Trump sold over 1,000 ETH in late 2023, worth $2.4 million at the time.
Trump's largest crypto holding is a meme coin called MAGA (TRUMP). The token was launched on the Ethereum chain in the summer 2023 but quickly gained attention in March 2024. The creators of the token sent nearly 580,000 TRUMP tokens to the former president when the project launched. At the time, these tokens were worth only a few thousand dollars. However, the token has taken off, and Trump's holdings of the meme coin are currently worth over $3 million. At the peak, the tokens were worth over $6 million.
Trump's wallet also holds a handful of other small meme coins, but nothing of the magnitude of ETH or TRUMP. In total, the wallet holds more than $5.7 million in crypto.
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