Former President Donald Trump’s wife Melania Trump launched a platform for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) Thursday, together with “Melania’s Vision,” a digital artwork and audiofile and limited edition NFTs.
According to DappRadar, a sales tracking firm, trading reached $22 billion in 2021, up from $100 million in 2020, and the floor market cap of the top 100 NFTs ever issued a” a measure of their collective value – was $16.7 billion.
According to a handout to Breitbart News, the proceeds will go towards Trump’s campaign “efforts to support children in the foster care system”.
“Mrs. Trump will release NFTs in regular intervals exclusively on MelaniaTrump.com. The first, ‘Melania’s Vision’ will be available to purchase between December 16 and December 31, 2021.”
NFTs are distinct and non-interchangeable data units stored on blockchains, the decentralised ledger technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
They are typically used to prove the identity of a digital or physical asset, such as pictures, videos, and audio files, and are frequently compared to certificates of authenticity, which are used to verify the authenticity or originality of a work.
With a heady mix of celebrity quotient and sheer wealth, NFTs have been hogging the news in 2021.
Oddities
One of the most expensive NFTs available, a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT, was accidentally sold for $3,015 despite being valued at $300,000. The owner, Max, wanted to list his Bored Ape NFT for 75 Ether but ended up listing it for 0.75 Ether due to a “lapse of concentration.”
An NFT commemorating Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales’s first edit on the online reference resource 20 years ago, as well as the computer he used to programme the platform, fetched nearly $1 million at auction on Wednesday.
The First 5000 Days, a digital collage by Beeple, the name used by American digital artist Mike Winkelmann, was auctioned for $69.3 million in March, making it one of the most valuable pieces of art ever sold by a living artist.
Human One, another Beeple NFT, sold for $29 million.
Other multimillion-dollar NFTs included the Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of 10,000 NFTs depicted as cartoon primates and used as profile photos on their owners’ social media accounts, which raised $26.2 million. Celebrity BAYC owners include Jimmy Fallon, the talk show host, and Post Malone, the rapper.
The former First Lady told Breitbart News that she believes blockchain technology provides a platform for creators to reach people directly, without the interference of censorious gatekeepers.
