A cheap cash grab, that’s what almost everybody said last week about the Trump Digital Trading Cards. Of course, Trump made roughly $4.5 million from the proceeding of the NFT sale. The story of his digital collectibles doesn’t stop there. It appears that more people are interested in owning an NFT, picturing the former U.S. president in hilarious poses and costumes.

Why are the Trump NFTs so successful, and can they bring back the NFT hype?

Trump NFTs facing high volatility

When the collection was first on-sale on OpenSea, the price went down for some time. Many felt that this was the confirmation that Trump NFTs would go down in history as a complete and utter failure. That assessment was wrong and volatility kicked in.

The NFT collection is based on Polygon, and the floor price for a single NFT is 0.3 ETH at the time of writing. The most expensive pieces of the collection are offered for billions of ETH on the marketplace. Surely, these offers won’t fill, but it underlines the point that the holders are not really planning on selling their collectibles. What is even more important is that there is a 10% creator fee involved. Which means that each and single time a Trump NFT is changing hands, the former U.S. president makes bank.

Source: OpenSea

At the time of writing the total volume for Trump NFTs is at 6,373 ETH which is about $7.5 million worth of Ether. This means that Trump made additionally $750,000 from the ongoing trade on OpenSea. Should the collection become an even bigger success, the former U.S. president could become the first politician that funds a substantial amount of money for his campaign through an NFT collection. Trump is preparing to run for president again in 2024.

Why is the price pumping?

One reason for the appreciation in a very short amount of time is the reason that the collection sold-out in no-time. A total of 45,000 NFTs were offered to the public, along with special prices such as a dinner with Donald Trump. Some fans and supports might have felt FOMO and were buying at steep price right after the initial sale had ended.

Another reason is the fact that the collection was mentioned during Saturday Night Live, one of the most successful U.S. late-night shows of all time. Once the NFTs made an appearance on the show, the interest sparked on OpenSea.

At the same time, many derivatives appeared on the marketplace trying to copy the success and lure in unsuspecting investors to buy an NFT that is not affiliated with Trump. While television shows are pocking fun of Trump and his collection, it appears that they even helped with the success of the collection.

Skeptics are still warning

Not everybody is happy with Trumps NFT collection. This time it is not only about his controversial personality, but also about whether the NFTs are a scam. So far, there is market manipulation spotted. Some users on Reddit have pointed out that one wallet holds about 2% of all collectibles, and that the same entity could be affiliated with the creator of the collection.

Other users on Twitter are sharing analysis of the trading cards itself with interesting results. Some of them appear to have watermarks from Shutterstock still on them. While it is not illegal to use licensed material, it seems a little bit odd that these marks haven’t been removed properly.

Once again Trumps splits the audience into two groups. His supporters are joyful over the trading cards, while his critics are calling him a scammer.