Melania Trump launches NFT platform; Solana and MoonPay distance themselves from the project

Former First Lady of the United States Melania Trump launched an NFT platform and unveiled her first digital artwork built on the Solana blockchain.

Excited for this new venture, which combines my passion for art and commitment to helping our Nation’s children fulfill their own unique American Dream. #MelaniaNFT https://t.co/XJN18tMllg pic.twitter.com/wMpmDDsQdp

— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) December 16, 2021

The NFT collection is titled Melania’s Vision. The tokens consist of a digitised watercolor by French illustrator Marc-Antoine Coulon, paired with an audio recording of Trump’s voice.

The NFTs were available for purchase from December 16 to December 31, 2021. The token price stood at 1 SOL (~$179). A portion of the proceeds went to support the Be Best initiative, overseen by Trump.

In an interview with Breitbart, the former First Lady said she plans to release digital artworks on a regular basis.

According to the press release, the NFTs could be purchased with cryptocurrency and fiat through MoonPay. However, MoonPay denied this.

While we encourage everyone to be involved in Web 3.0, we would like to clarify that we are not partnered with Melania, nor can users purchase her collection using this payment method.

— MoonPay (@moonpay) December 16, 2021

“In a recent Bloomberg article, MoonPay was named a partner of Melania Trump’s new NFT project. The piece contains a factual error, as MoonPay does not play any official role in this project. […] We would like to clarify that we do not collaborate with Melania, and users cannot purchase her collection using our service,” the company said.

A representative of Solana Labs also told Decrypt that the company does not work with Trump:

“I would like to inform you, to avoid confusion, that this is her personal choice to use the Solana blockchain. The project is not part of any of our initiatives.”

Back in December, grandmaster Garry Kasparov released an NFT collection on the 1Kind platform.

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