After hyping it up for a week, Donald Trump released his major announcement on Thursday: “My official Donald Trump Digital Trading Card collection is here!” He posted the message to his social platform Truth Social.
Although the title might be a bit vague, he’s talking about NFTs — non-fungible tokens — a digital representation of a piece of physical merchandise. For NFTs, though, there isn’t physical merchandise. Buyers are given a unique code which represents their card on the Polygon blockchain.
Despite being hit with scathing criticism, CNET reports that the 45,000 NFTs sold out in less than 24 hours. Priced at $99 each, they depict Trump in various superhero outfits posing in front of Trump Tower, the Statue of Liberty in front of an American flag, and a Wall Street stock ticker.
Proceeds from the NFTs will not be funneled into his reelection campaign. The company behind the collection, NFT INT, says on its website that Trump licensed his name, image, and likeness, and he was not directly involved in the creation of the trading cards.
Each purchase enters the buyer into a sweepstakes, with prizes including signed memorabilia, a golf game with the former president, and a personal dinner at Mar-a-Lago.