After releasing new non-fungible tokens, the former president of the US has received a negative backlash concerning the Trump NFT collection. The former president was heavily criticized for wasting the money of those who bought the NFTs for poorly edited and photoshopped stock photos.
Ex-president Trump, a former ardent critic of NFT crypto, and the whole cryptocurrency industry made a surprising announcement saying he would launch his NFTs very soon. The former president then launched the NFTs, which sold out despite the negative reviews it had received initially. At the time of writing, the Trump NFT collection had a trading volume of 6.5k ETH or $7.7 million, with more than 13,000 users minting tokens upon its release.
Instagram/collecttrump
But it seems those who purchased the Trump NFT collection have been scammed after new research showed the poor quality of the collection. The NFT collection is on the verge of being taken down by OpenSea if the platform confirms these claims. Before the sale of the Trump NFT collection started, many people saw the venture as an avenue to collect the money of naive citizens. The NFT project lacked a definite purpose or plan; these are often associated with failure.
The two major allegations made against former president Donald Trump and his team of NFT creators are:
- The images used for creating these NFTs were of poor quality, and it was taken from other people's work. In the NFT crypto industry, uniqueness matters a lot for non-fungible tokens.
- The team badly did the photoshop behind the project as people could see different inscriptions behind the photos.
Trump NFT Collection is a Risky Investment
Many news outlets, including the Washington Post, have warned that those who went ahead to purchase the Trump NFT collection might have themselves to blame if the allegations turned out to be true.
According to their statement, "If the images seen on the website are similar to the digital images that will be transferred to anyone who pays the $99 fee, then the Trump cards will feature clumsy Photoshop pictures of the former president’s face grafted onto reasonably fit male bodies, clad in various costumes of masculine bravado, including sporting garb, a sheriff’s duster and lots of blue suits."
"The joke, in the end, will, unfortunately, be at the expense of people who pay $99 for his NFTs, which, despite what appears to be an initial surge of interest, are likely to be extremely risky as a long-term investment. But that, too, is very on brand for Trump, a perfect distillation of his unique take on marketing," they warned.
Trump Has Been a Critic Of the Crypto Industry
It has come as a surprise to many after Donald Trump announced the launch of his NFT collection despite being a strong crypto critic himself. When he was still active on Twitter, the former president criticized the industry several times, saying it was a joke with no value.
In a post that has now been deleted, the former president said, "I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated crypto assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity."
So it had come as a big surprise to many that the former industry critic is now promoting the sale of his NFT within the same industry. While many might overlook this, many things point out that Trump might just be selling these cheaply made NFTs because of funds needed for the upcoming elections in 2024.