Former US President Donald Trump, known for his skepticism towards cryptocurrencies, has been revealed to hold between $250,001 and $500,000 in an Ethereum (ETH) wallet, according to its financial disclosure form filed in April 2023.
The contents of the wallet remain secret, raising the possibility that it includes Ethereum, ERC20 tokens or possibly NFTs.
The news has passed wide reported; however, there are two glaring questions:
- Is Trump No Longer Anti-Crypto?
- Why isn’t a Polygon wallet disclosed?
Trump’s crypto and NFT position.
This report is a surprising revelation given Trump’s public stance on cryptocurrencies. In 2019, Trump expressed his disapproval of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on Twitter, dismissing them as volatile assets “based on air” that could potentially facilitate illicit activities.
Despite his skepticism, Trump introduced his first NFT collection in December 2022, three years after his critique of cryptocurrencies. As Soumen Datta reported, the former president launched the “Collect Trump Cards” series, with each NFT priced at $99 and minted onto the Polygon blockchain in a bold move into the crypto space. The collection, managed by NFT International LLC, released 45,000 NFTs available to hit during the sweepstakes entry period.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing for the Trump-branded NFTs. CryptoSlate reported in December 2022 that the bottom price of the collection plummeted by 80% in 10 days from 0.84 ETH to 0.16 ETH. Further, OpenSea data indicated a unique ownership percentage of just 34%, with 15,115 owners holding the 45,000 NFTs.
At the launch of Trump’s ‘Series 2’ NFT collection in April 2023, the floor price dropped more than 10% below the purchase price. While the sales of the first collection increased by almost 500%, the bottom price of both collections fell along with the price of Bitcoin (BTC) dropping to $27,300.
Currently, the floor price of Trump’s first series of trading cards is 0.1065 ETH, while Series 2 is 0.018 ETH, according to to OpenSea.
Trump Polygon Wallet Identified?
So while Trump’s revealed Ethereum wallet may raise eyebrows, it’s important to remember that his NFTs are minted on Polygon, a layer-two scaling solution for Ethereum, not Ethereum itself. This distinction is crucial to understanding the reach and impact of its crypto ventures.
Analyzing on-chain data provides more insight into the distribution of Trump’s NFTs on Polygon. Two primary wallet holders were allocated large amounts of Trump NFTs in bulk – one identified as 0x72f8 received 500 in June 2023, while another identified as 0x6D65 received 602 in several batches between April and May 2023.
Since the bottom price of the NFTs hovered around 0.17 ETH during this period, it can be deduced that each of the portfolios, as mentioned earlier, contained between $153,000 and $184,000 worth of NFTs, about 1% of the supply each.
Interestingly, these accounts also received significant amounts of Trump’s Series 2 cards, at the time ranging from $20,000 to $40,000.
These amounts roughly match Trump’s disclosure statement on crypto wallet ownership. Given the volatile nature of NFT trading and prices, a $250,001 – $500,000 valuation of one of these portfolios may not be unreasonable. Therefore, one of these portfolios may belong to Trump.
In addition, the acquisition methods of the two portfolios for these NFTs also differ. The 0x6D65 account received its NFTs through the “fulfill available advanced orders” feature of the smart contract, while 0x72f8 received theirs in standard bulk transactions.
In addition, wallet 0x72f8’s transaction history only appears to contain token deposits that appear to be spam. At the same time, 0x6D65 has about $40,000 in packaged ETH (wETH), three trades with NFT trading platform Seaport, and numerous smaller trades.
Ethereum Wallet Addresses.
Since Trump’s revelation mentioned an Ethereum wallet, CryptoSlate looked at the Polygon addresses on the native Ethereum chain.
On the Ethereum network, the 0x6D65 address contains about $16,000 worth of ETH.
Its activity indicates that it belongs to an entity with experience trading NFTs, something unlikely for the former US president.
Onchain data suggests that the NFT collection has taken similar actions in the past, with analysts claiming in December 2022 that a number of high rarity NFTs were internally minted prior to launch, with some aligning it with a group of Gnosis Safe multi-sig wallet.
Identified the address? 0xfb65.
However, the 0x72f8 address, which reflects its activity on the Polygon network, shows no transactions on Ethereum. The wallet has remained inactive the entire time.
Given the nature of the addresses’ activities on both networks, one might speculate whether the 0x72f8 could indeed be Trump’s address, as it is reasonable that several NFTs would be withheld from their creator. Further, the lack of activity could suggest that it is a cold storage wallet designated to have Trump’s NFT quota.
If this speculation is correct, it would be more accurate if the submission read “Polygon Wallet” instead of “Ethereum Wallet.”
It is important to emphasize that without official confirmation from Trump or his associates, it remains impossible to definitively identify the 0x72f8 address as his address.
The identified addresses are likely related to entities involved in the creation of the project or a whale with access to a bulk transaction function.
However, while the information raises intriguing possibilities, it should be approached with caution until there is more clarity.