Benzinga - Former President Donald Trump is known globally for numerous things, but many would say that crypto is not on the list. But the story of Trump's relationship with crypto, specifically in the past few months, has been nothing short of unbelievable.
Trump first received crypto in December 2022 when a company unaffiliated with Trump used his name, image and likeness to market and sell $4.5 million worth of Trump Digital Trading Cards non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The creators of the project agreed to send Trump Ethereum (ETH) as royalties. Trump has received over 1,800 ETH and Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) from the project and various other supporters.
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After the NFT project launched, Arkham Intelligence Inc. cross-referenced some of Trump's financial disclosures with on-chain activity from the NFT project to find Trump's public wallet address on the blockchain. This provided anyone with the ability to view Trump's holdings and send him crypto.
The most notable group to send him crypto has been the founders of MAGA Coin (TRUMP). The team sent 580,000 TRUMP tokens to the former president's wallet address when they founded the project in August 2023. At the time, the tokens were worth around $4,000.
The price of TRUMP has seen huge price appreciation, and Trump's holdings are now worth millions. As of early April, the position is worth around $2.5 million. However, in early March, at its peak, the TRUMP tokens were worth over $6.6 million. This propelled Trump's crypto holdings to a peak of over $8.5 million, though they are currently worth around $5.3 million.
Sending meme coins to famous wallets has been a trend in crypto for some time. One of the more famous examples is Dogelon Mars (ELON), a meme coin centered around Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk's desire to colonize Mars. The project sent half of the entire supply to Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin, who donated most of his share. Buterin sent over 430 trillion ELON tokens, worth approximately $336 million, to the Methuselah Foundation, a nonprofit focused on extending the human lifespan.
These projects like to send their supply to famous wallets to show their appreciation, attract attention or freeze the supply with the famous person.
Many other meme coins have sent portions of their supply to Trump, but none of the tokens have gained enough steam to make up a sizable portion of his portfolio.
In 2021, Trump called crypto a "disaster waiting to happen" and was strongly against it. His stance has since changed, to where he can now "live with it one way or the other." There is a possibility that Trump's crypto dealings have played a role in this change of stance.
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