Former US President Donald Trump, known for his skepticism towards cryptocurrencies, was revealed to hold between $250,001 and $500,000 in an Ethereum (ETH) wallet, according to a financial disclosure form filed in April 2023.
The contents of the wallet remain unknown, leaving the possibility that it could include Ethereum, ERC20 tokens, or potentially NFTs.
The news was largely mentionted; However, there are two glaring questions:
- Is Trump no longer anti-crypto?
- Why Polygon wallet is not disclosed?
Trump’s position on crypto and NFT.
This report is a surprising revelation considering Trump’s public stance on cryptocurrencies. In 2019, Trump expressed his disapproval of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on Twitter, dismissing them as volatile “air-based” assets that could potentially facilitate illegal activities.
Despite his skepticism, Trump unveiled his first collection of NFTs in December 2022, three years after criticizing cryptocurrencies. As reported by Soumen Datta, the former president launched the ‘Collect Trump Cards’ series, with each NFT priced at $99 and minted on the Polygon blockchain in a bold move in the crypto space. The collection, managed by NFT International LLC, released 45,000 NFTs available for minting during the sweepstakes entry period.
However, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Trump-branded NFTs. CryptoSlate reported in December 2022 that the floor price of the collection fell by 80% in 10 days from 0.84 ETH to 0.16 ETH. In addition, OpenSea data showed a unique ownership percentage of just 34%, with 15,115 owners owning the 45,000 NFT.
The April 2023 launch of Trump’s ‘Series 2’ NFT collection saw its price floor fall more than 10% below the purchase price. While sales of the first collection increased by nearly 500%, the bottom price of both collections fell in tandem with the fall in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) to $27,300.
Currently, the bottom price of Trump’s original series of trading cards is 0.1065 ETH, while series 2 is at 0.018 ETH, according in OpenSea.
Trump Polygon wallet detected?
So, while Trump’s revealed Ethereum wallet may cause concern, it’s important to remember that his NFTs were mined on Polygon, a two-tier scaling solution for Ethereum, not Ethereum itself. This distinction is crucial to understanding the scope and impact of his cryptographic ventures.
Analysis of on-chain data provides further insight into the distribution of Trump’s NFTs at Polygon. Two main 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 602 was given in several batches between April and May 2023.
Since the bottom price of NFTs during this period hovered around 0.17 ETH, it can be inferred that each of the wallets, as previously mentioned, contained between $153,000 and $184,000 worth of NFTs, roughly 1% of the supply each.
Interestingly, these accounts also received significant amounts from Trump’s Series 2 cards, worth between $20,000 and $40,000 at the time.
These amounts are roughly in line with Trump’s disclosure statement regarding his crypto wallet holdings. Given the volatile nature of NFT trading and pricing, a $250,001 – $500,000 valuation for any of these wallets might not be unreasonable. So one of those wallets might belong to Trump.
Additionally, the two wallets’ acquisition methods for these NFTs also differ. Account 0x6D65 received his NFTs through the smart contract’s “available advanced order fulfillment” feature, while account 0x72f8 received his in standard bulk trades.
Additionally, the transaction history of the 0x72f8 wallet appears to contain only token deposits that appear to be spam. At the same time, 0x6D65 has about $40k in wrapped ETH (wETH), three trades with NFT trading platform Seaport and many smaller trades.
Ethereum wallet addresses.
Since Trump’s disclosure contained an Ethereum wallet, CryptoSlate looked at Polygon addresses on the native Ethereum chain.
On the Ethereum network, the address 0x6D65 contains approximately $16,000 in ETH.
Its activity indicates that it belongs to an entity with experience in 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 release, with some aligning them with a Gnosis Safe group multi sig wallet.
The address specified? 0xfb65.
However, the address 0x72f8, reflecting its activity on the Polygon network, does not show transactions on Ethereum. The wallet remained inactive throughout.
Given the nature of the addresses’ activities on both networks, one could speculate whether 0x72f8 could indeed be Trump’s address, since it stands to reason that many NFTs would be held back for their creator. Additionally, the lack of activity may indicate that this is a cold storage wallet set to have Trump’s NFT quota.
If this guess is correct, it would be more accurate for the filing to say “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 address 0x72f8.
The addresses identified are likely related to entities involved in the creation of the project or a whale with access to bulk transaction mode.
However, while the information raises interesting possibilities, it should be approached with caution until further clarification.
