NFT Mania is Back w/Trump’s Collection and ViceHub’s Satirical Take on Epstein

The NFT market is back and thriving after a dormant 2022, and everyone wants a piece of it, including former US Presidents.

According to a tracking report from CryptoSlam, NFT sales surged from $546.9 million in December to $780.2 million in January. This data is available only for the Ethereum blockchain, the main host of NFT trading and minting. However, NFT activity is increasing on other networks, too, boasting considerable success on Solana and, more recently, Bitcoin.

As impressive as it may be, the rejuvenated interest in digital art collectibles is still far from the record numbers of 2021. Also, in January last year, global NFT sales spiked beyond $5 billion before the crypto market and everything linked to it took a depressing plunge. Nevertheless, it is an encouraging comeback for NFTs as many more believe they represent the future in art, gaming, branding, memorabilia, and even memes.

Let’s look closer at some of the factors fueling the NFT comeback and defying all rumors of the market’s untimely demise.

Non-fungible tokens first entered the public arena in 2017, when blockchain technology was releasing one innovation after another. Unfortunately, the concept was still new and obscure to attract a large following. It took a couple of years before musicians, artists, and other creators discovered the full potential of NFTs. Increasing communities of collectors and traders transformed this seemingly banal gimmick into a multi-billion market.

Last year, the crypto winter froze the general interest in NFTs. Some collectors cashed in on their digital possessions. Meanwhile, traders undersold prized assets, and new projects delayed promising NFT releases. After months of uncertainty and doom prophecies from naysayers, the frozen layer of skepticism covering NFTs started thawing.

Firing up the market came from an unlikely source, Donald Trump. The former US President launched a series of NFTs in late 2022, Trump Cards, attracting everyone’s attention in crypto and beyond. The collection includes various artistic depictions of the American politician, including him dressed as a cowboy, astronaut, or laser-beaming superhero.

For some, Trump’s foray into NFTs is not a surprise. After all, the longtime businessman has delved into every possible industry, lending his image rights to selling steaks, cosmetics, vodka, vitamins, and mattresses, just to name a few. Still, his adoption of digital artwork helped normalize politics in crypto and redirected the spotlight on non-fungible digital assets.

To date, Trump Cards sales reached $17.3 million, generating over $5.6 million in revenue, according to CryptoSlam.

Elsewhere, one of the most successful NFT collections, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), experienced increased trading activity. For example, its #5840 digital art collectible was sold recently for $822,730. Meanwhile, a CryptoPunks NFT, the pipe-smoking punk #7674," brought its owner no less than $433,555.

The increase in NFT sales and digital artwork popularity opens new ways of trading and collecting these assets. So far, digital creators, game developers, and famous people have proven that their blockchain representations are worth the hype and money. But there is still room for other sectors to incorporate NFTs and find their rightful spot in crypto.

That’s the case of the Lolita Adventures NFT series, which aims to encapsulate events from history and popular culture on the blockchain. Moreover, it does so with a satirical twist, depicting real-life happenings cheekily and in a meme-like format.

This particular collection contains the actual flight log of the trips former US President Bill Clinton took onboard Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet. The late American financier is infamous for his alleged interactions with underage girls. That’s why some media outlets derisively nicknamed his plane the Lolita Express.

The NFT series uses a similar moniker to describe an anti-establishment collection that fuses a meme-like approach with a journalistic ethos and allows people to collect, own, and trade authentic bits of recent history. It is the first time a project has brought this novel concept to the blockchain.

Each of the 26 NFTs in the series accounts for a flight Clinton and Epstein took together. The auction is now live on OpenSea, with bidding for the first NFT ending on February 28th. From March 1st, the rest of the collection will be available for auction at a rate of 1 NFT every 24 hours. Powering this initiative is ViceHub, an Ethereum and Solana-based NFT marketplace/launchpad aiming to empower creators and showcase a new genre of NFT art incorporating satire, parody, and meme comedy.

The emerging new projects support an organic rise in NFT sale volumes. For instance, the top NFT marketplace, OpenSea, reported $443.98 million in sales for January 2023. Meanwhile, its up-and-coming competitor, Blur, has topped the same month at $366 million.

It is a much-anticipated revival of the NFT scene, which some also attribute to the incursion of big brands in the market.

Starbucks, one of the world’s largest chains of coffeehouses, entered the industry with Starbucks Odyssey, an NFT-driven rewards program built on Polygon. The beta launch occurred in December, and already started trading on Nifty Gateway's official secondary marketplace between early adopters. To date, the total sales volume is north of $140,000.

Meanwhile, French fashion giant Mugler collaborates with digital 3D artist Marc Tudisco to enter the Web3 space through the power of NFTs. The digital collectibles resulting from this partnership sold in only a few minutes. This shows that fashion enthusiasts are also eager to parade their assets on the blockchain.

Lastly, the Bitcoin blockchain is the latest network that supports the minting and development of NFT collections. A CryptoPunks derivative, the Bitcoin Punks, is already making waves using the business's oldest open-source, public ledgers.

With all these developments, NFT enthusiasts have something to look forward to in 2023. The market is unlikely to regain the record levels of 2021 too soon. However, it’s enough to show that non-fungible digital collectibles can find almost any purpose on the blockchain, from satire to fashion, celebrity branding, and more.