"A Fool And His Money Are Soon Parted"

The MAGA GOP base is an authoritarian cult. All of us on the pro-democracy side had a good laugh at the absurdity of these cards, but anyone who thinks he's not the odds-on favorite for 2024 GOP nominee is as delusional as his supporters. $4.45m in 24hrs. https://t.co/Q4QDaJD77Q

— Resolute Square (@ResoluteSquare) December 16, 2022

And, no surprise, Trump took his take off the top:

NFT INT, the company behind the collection, says on its site that the money raised won't be funneled into Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. A blurb on its site states that NFT INT is not owned by Trump or any of his organizations, and that Trump himself isn't actually behind the collection. Instead, Trump licensed his name, image and likeness for the project. 

To put this in context:

NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, are tokens on a blockchain that prove ownership of a digital asset. They are to digital goods what a deed is to a house. The first NFT collections date back to 2017, but the market exploded last year as a powerful wave of speculation drove prices up to stunning levels. The most famous collection, The Bored Ape Yacht Club, launched at around $250 and peaked in price earlier this year at $400,000 a pop.  

This is where I remind you that people are still holding, even buying, Tesla stock.  Which is not an inapt comparison:

Though the NFTs were widely mocked by both Trump supporters and detractors alike, all 45,000 sold out in around 12 hours, according to OpenSea data. At $99 each, that means $4.45 million has been raised. The collection's creators also receive 10% of every sale on secondary markets like OpenSea. Thus far traders have spent $406,000 (320 ether) buying and selling the NFTs on OpenSea. Who that money goes to and how it's used remains a mystery. 

I still remember middle-aged housewives sitting around McDonalds early on the day of the release of the next Teenie Beanie Baby in the Happy Meal.  They thought those tiny toys were going to pay for a very comfortable retirement.  I remember people hoarding Beanie Babies thinking they were beating the stock market all to pieces.  It was tulips all over again.  Nothing ever really changes.  Did MAGAheads buy up all 45,000 of these NFT's?  More likely it was people hoping to sell them on to MAGAheads at a profit; the ones not thinking they got in on the ground floor of the next Bored Ape Yacht Club.

People who buy 45 or more of the NFT's get to meet Trump at a gala dinner in Florida, though they have to get themselves there, find lodging, and get away again on their own dime.  So far 202 people have more than 45 of these NFT's in their digital wallets.  But I wonder how many bought them direct, and how many bought them via Open Sea, and what the terms are for getting the dinner invitation.  Trump is well known for offering these invitations and never fulfilling them. 

45,000 sold means 202 people bought at least 9090 NFT's.  Does that mean 44,798 bought one each?  Doubtful.  What it probably means is a few thousand people bought them in toto.  Maybe in one Congressional district that'll sway a primary outcome.  But in the national primaries?  I'm guessing more people bought these because of Trump's notoriety and The Bored Ape Yacht Club (i.e, the Tesla fantasy) than did true MAGAheads (and I doubt they all vote in the same local primary races, either).  As a predictor of the political future, this news means about as much as the polls favoring DeSantis.  Although I hope those are true because, talk about a guy not ready for prime time....