Donald Trump’s crypto-pivot – +1M in ETH, +7M in NFT licensing deal

• Trump completed a full U-Turn with the revelation of crypto-holdings in his financial disclosures
• Many crypto-holders continue to be single issue voters

Former President Donald Trump has gone a long way towards furnishing his so-called pro-crypto credentials over the last few months. These credentials were polished even further after he revealed yesterday that he owns cryptos worth over $1 million in his financial disclosure form.

Citing a cryptocurrency wallet and a ‘virtual Ethereum key,’ Trump claimed that he values these holdings at a value of somewhere between $1 million and $5 million.

In fact, according to Arkham Intelligence, his crypto-holdings right now are valued at upwards of $3.5 million.

Source: Arkham Intelligence

This is significant, especially since this means he has done a full U-Turn a few years after he claimed that cryptocurrencies are a scam and not real money. Back in office, the then-President had derided and criticized this asset class.

However, all that has changed of late, with the Former President now taking a very pro-crypto stance and even cozying up to crypto execs and lobbyists.

Now, it’s worth pointing out here that Trump’s latest affair with this asset class isn’t limited to mainstream crypto assets either. In fact, the aforementioned financial disclosure also revealed that he raked in upwards of $7 million in an NFT licensing deal. Back in 2021 too, Donald Trump made millions selling NFTs.

Why the sudden pivot from Donald Trump?

Well, there’s a very political reason attached to it since this allows him to position himself in the opposite corner from Vice President Kamala Harris. The SEC under the Biden administration and by extension, the Democrats, have for long been somewhat hostile towards crypto-entities and crypto-holders. Most of these folks are single issue voters who have very strong opinions about the asset class.

What this means is that the Former President sees an advantage in cashing in on their skepticism of the Democrats.

Here, it’s worth mentioning that there is a monetary element too. Many of those lobbying for pro-crypto policies happen to have a lot of capital to invest in candidates who they believe will be good for them.

That is the reason why Donald Trump went the extra mile to meet execs from the industry at his Mar-A-Lago resort recently, with some even promising to raise as much as $100M for his re-election campaign.