Melania Trump reportedly made winning bid for her own NFT piece placed on auction

The winning bid for the former first lady of the United States, Melania Trump's non-fungible token (NFT) named "Melania's Vision" that was put to auction last month was made by her only. The investigative reports on the blockchain transaction of the NFT auction suggested that cryptocurrency used to purchase Trump's virtual art piece came from the same wallet that "belongs to the entity that originally listed the project for sale," VICE media reported. A probe further revealed that the buyer, who was the creator of Melania's NFT "transferred 372,657 USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, to a second wallet that later sent 1,800 SOL to a third address."

The auction, however, ran much below the expected price touted by a press release by Trump's office, according to a New York Times. The piece was sold at $1,70,000, which the publication described as "deflated results" as a result of a crash in the price of cryptocurrencies then.

Melania Trump apparently purchased her own NFT at auction

The blockchain transaction records were verified by Motherboard and later shared with an independent researcher, who revealed that the NFT piece at the auction was brought by Melania Trump herself, or at least whoever set up her account for the auction. However, the former first lady's office refused the claims, saying that "the nature of Blockchain protocol is entirely transparent." Accordingly, the public can view each transaction in the blockchain," a statement to Motherboard said, without clarifying who the buyer was.

"The transaction was facilitated on behalf of the third party," The office of Melania Trump said in a statement to Motherboard.

For the unversed, the former first lady got into NFTs last year and launched her own website to line up a slate of auctions. Last month, she started auctioning the "Head of State, 2022" Collection on the Solana blockchain, VICE media reported. Her first item for auction was of an "iconic white millinery masterpiece worn by Mrs. Trump". As per a press release by Trump's organisation the opening bid for the piece was "the equivalent of $250,000" denominated in SOL tokens (1,800 SOL at the time).

Notably, SOL is the seventh-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalisation. The blockchains, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, allow anybody to trace the path of the transactions since they are tied to a permanent address. As per records cited by VICE, the auction winner's address was funded with 1800 SOL on January 25, which was sourced from the address that created Melania's NFT. After the auction, the auction winner's address sent the SOL back to the creator of Melania Trump's NFT address, which was converted to USDC.

Ex-US president Donald Trump to launch NFT collection on Feb 21

Meanwhile, in the latest tweet, the former first lady informed Donald Trump that will launch the first NFT collection on February 21. It will consist of 10 original pieces of digital artwork, highlighting iconic moments from President Trump's administration.

Image: AP