NFTs
Trump endorses Bible line – after selling shoes, NFTs and more
Ahead of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, former President Donald Trump is promoting the “God Bless America Bible,” his latest venture on the long list of branded merchandise that the real estate mogul and former reality TV star has profited from throughout his political career — and before.
“Inspired by the song “God Bless the USA” by country musician Lee Greenwood, the Bible is selling for $59.99 and is described on its website as “the only Bible endorsed by President Trump.”
In addition to the King James Version of the Bible, the book features a “handwritten refrain of ‘God Bless America,'” the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance, its website states.
According to its website, this Bible is “not owned, managed or controlled” by Trump, the Trump Organization or its affiliated entities.
Instead, it uses Trump’s “name, image and likeness under paid license” through its licensing company, meaning Trump receives a cut of the Bible’s profits — a familiar arrangement for the former president.
The new product, however, is “not political” and “has nothing to do with any political campaign,” according to the website, and its proceeds will not go to Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The Biden campaign responded to Trump’s latest trademark deal by labeling it “a fraud.”
“The choice for voters this November is clear: Joe Biden, who cares about helping the American people, or Donald Trump, who only cares about helping himself,” said Biden spokesman Ammar Moussa. to ABC News.
Trump, for his part, has argued that his business success is part of what makes him a good politician.
It is not yet known how much money Trump has made or will make from this branded Bible, and it is still unclear who actually owns or manages the sales, except that the site is copyrighted by an entity called “2024 God Bless the USA Bible.” . “
Promoting the Bible in a video posted on his social media platform, Trump said: “Every American needs a Bible in their home, and I have many.”
“It’s my favorite book; It’s a lot of people’s favorite book,” he continued. “This Bible is a reminder that the greatest thing we have to bring America back, to make America great again, is our religion.”
Donald Trump, March 25, 2024, in New York. Andrea Renault/star Max/GC Images/Getty Images
Trump has attested to his affinity for the Bible before, including in 2015. In an interview, however, he was hesitant about his favorite verse because “the Bible means a lot to me, but I don’t want to go into details.”
In a speech in 2016, he called one of the books of the Bible “Two Corinthians” – when it is better known as Second Corinthians. He blamed this slip-up for the bad grades he received.
The former president, who spent most of his adult life as a headline-making businessman and later TV star, often seized opportunities to cash in on brand partnerships — regardless of how unexpected or successful, like a previous line of products sold soon. “Trump steaks.”
Such ventures are attracting new attention as he faces major financial pressures, having to post a $175 million bond to cover a civil fraud trial in New York, which he denies, while separately dealing with a significant campaign finance disadvantage. against rival Joe Biden.
Some Christians have criticized Trump for commodifying the Bible, highlighting the possibility that his profits from the venture could help pay his legal bills amid his escalating legal battles, which could offend some of his religious supporters.
Anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project on Wednesday resurfaced an ad published in 2022 that accused Trump of raising money from his supporters and using the money for his personal businesses, saying the Bible is “his latest scam to finance his hundreds of millions in legal costs – as if Trump had ever read a page of the Bible in his life.”
The new Bible he’s promoting isn’t the only unusual merchandise he’s taking time to highlight in the campaign.
Last month, Trump revealed similar licensed merchandise at SneakerCon in Philadelphia – a gold “Never Surrender High-Top” with a “T” emblem, wrapped with an American flag on the collar.
This appearance was the latest example of Trump’s campaign mixing with his business ventures, where he autographed some of the high-top sneakers and took the stage to praise them while delivering campaign remarks.
The gold “Never Surrender High-Top” sneakers were sold online for $399.99, along with other Trump-branded shoes and fragrances.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump takes the stage to introduce a new line of exclusive footwear at Sneaker Con at the Philadelphia Convention Center, February 17, 2024, in Philadelphia.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Like the God Bless the USA Bible, Trump shoes and fragrances are licensed to use his name and trademarks, but are not designed, manufactured, distributed or sold by Trump and the Trump Organization, according to the “Trump Sneakers”.
Both the God Bless the USA Bible and Trump sneakers were licensed to use Trump’s branding through a company called CIC Ventures LLC, which, according to Trump’s financial disclosure report, is 100% owned by Donald J. .Trump Revocable Trust.
CIC Ventures LLC, that supposedly stands for “Commander In Chief Ventures”, it is the same entity through which Trump appears to have received millions of dollars in royalties for the book “Our Journey Together”, a compilation of photos by Trump’s official White House photographer, published by Gold Standard Publishing LLC and sold by the publishing company co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. Winning Team Publishing.
In the former president’s financial disclosures, the royalties are disclosed under the name “A MAGA Journey,” which was the original title of the book.
Donald Trump also raises millions of dollars in speaking fees through CIC Ventures LLC every year, his disclosure reports show.
According to the Florida entity registration application, CIC Ventures was once run by former Trump White House adviser Nick Luna and is currently represented by Trump lawyer John B. Marion.
Former Republican President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd at a campaign rally, March 16, 2024, in Vandalia, Ohio.Jeff Dean/AP
Trump and his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, together also raised at least $700,000 from Trump-branded digital trading cards — which are a version of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. Some of the Trumps’ digital trading cards resemble him as cartoon characters, like a superhero, while Melania Trump’s cards feature watercolor paintings of her, as well as flowers.
Last year, amid Donald Trump’s mounting criminal charges — all of which he denies — he leveraged his Georgia indictment by promoting digital trading cards with his Fulton County Jail booking photo for $99 each.
The website on which the cards were sold also offered some customers the option to win a physical trading card featuring a piece of the suit he wore in the booking photo, as well as the opportunity to dine with him at his Mar-a-Club. Lake.
The trading card website said the cards were not affiliated with the campaign. But the Fulton County photo is something the Trump campaign has also capitalized on. raising more than US$9 million a few days after the photo was released, selling various merchandise such as coffee mugs, t-shirts and posters.
Over the years, Donald Trump has made profits from licensing his brand in several other businesses, including projects in foreign countries such as China, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
NFTs
RTFKT Announces Project Animus Reveal, Launches Egg Unboxing Event Amid Mixed Reactions | NFT CULTURE | NFT News | Web3 Culture
RTFKT, the innovative creator-led company renowned for its cutting-edge sneakers and metaverse collectibles, has officially unveiled its highly anticipated collection, Project Animus. This project marks a significant milestone in RTFKT’s journey, introducing a new dimension to its digital universe after a long period of development. However, the initial market response has been disappointing, with the revealed Animi trading at a floor price of 0.05 ETH, significantly lower than the eggs’ floor price of 0.09 ETH.
The Genesis of the Project Animus
Initially introduced in October 2022, Project Animus introduces a unique ecosystem of digital creatures called Animi. These Animi are designed to enhance Clone X’s avatars, offering an immersive and engaging experience for the community. The recent reveal showcased a diverse range of Animi species, each with distinct design traits and elemental attributes, breaking away from traditional trait-based rarity systems.
A New Digital Frontier: The History and Evolution of Project Animus
The Animus Project is RTFKT’s latest intellectual property, promising to revolutionize the NFT space with its unique digital creatures. The journey kicked off on October 8, 2022, with an interactive teaser event called “The Eggsperience.” This livestream event allowed attendees to explore a virtual Animus Research Facility, generating intrigue and excitement among the community.
Renowned artist Takashi Murakami played a significant role in the project, revealing the first Murakami-themed Animus creature, Saisei, on April 30, 2023. This collaboration added a layer of artistic prestige to the project, further elevating its status within the NFT community.
Animus Egg Incubation: A Journey from Egg to Animi
Clone X NFT holders had the opportunity to claim an Animus Egg until March 1, 2024. This was followed by the Animus Egg Hatching event, which ran from May 7 to June 4, 2024. During this period, holders of several RTFKT NFTs, including Clone X, Space Pod, Loot Pod, Exo Pod, and Lux Pod, were able to use a points-based system to increase their chances of hatching rarer Animi. The limited supply of Project Animus Eggs is capped at 20,000, with no public sale planned.
Mixed market reception
Despite the excitement and innovative features, the market reaction to the reveal of Project Animus has been lukewarm. Animi is currently trading at a floor price of 0.05 ETH, significantly lower than the eggs’ floor price of 0.09 ETH. This discrepancy has led to disappointment among some collectors who had high expectations for the project.
What Awaits Us: The Future of Project Animus
Following the reveal, RTFKT plans to release a collection of exclusive Animus Artist Edition characters. Holders of Clone X Artist Edition NFTs are guaranteed to get one of these special editions. The distribution will include 88 Special Edition Animus, with 8 Mythic (Dragon Sakura), 40 Shiny, and 40 Ghost Animus. The odds of receiving a Special Edition Animus are the same for all Eggs hatched, regardless of the points accumulated.
The remaining Animus characters will be distributed among unhatched Eggs, encompassing Special Edition Animus, as well as Cosmic Animus and Murakami Element from Generation 1, Generation 2, and Generation 3.
Conclusion
RTFKT’s Project Animus represents a bold step forward in the NFT space, combining cutting-edge technology with artistic collaboration to create an immersive and innovative digital ecosystem. However, the initial market reception highlights the challenges of living up to high expectations in the ever-evolving NFT landscape. As the project continues to evolve, it promises to deliver unique experiences and opportunities for its community, solidifying RTFKT’s position as a leader in the metaverse and digital collectibles arena.
Summary: RTFKT has unveiled Project Animus, introducing a unique ecosystem of digital creatures called Animi designed to enhance Clone X avatars. Despite the excitement, market response has been mixed, with Animi trading at a lower floor price than eggs. The project kicked off with an interactive event in October 2022, featuring collaborations with artist Takashi Murakami. Following the reveal, RTFKT will release special edition Animus characters. The total supply of Animus Eggs is limited to 20,000, with no public sale planned.
NFTs
The Olympics have reportedly ditched Mario and Sonic games in favor of mobile and NFTs
The long and historic partnership between Nintendo and Sega to create video games for the Olympics reportedly ended in 2020 as event organizers sought opportunities elsewhere.
Lee Cocker, who served as executive producer on several Mario & Sonic Olympics titles, said Eurogamer the International Olympic Committee let the licensing agreement lapse because it “wanted to look at other partners, NFTs and esports.”
“Basically, the IOC wanted to bring [it] “Turn inward and look for other partners so you can get more money,” Cocker added.
The 2024 Summer Olympics kicked off in Paris last week, but there were no Mario & Sonic games available in time for the event to begin – the first time this has happened since the original release in 2007 to coincide with the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
Over the past two decades, there have been four Mario and Sonic adaptations for the Summer Olympics, as well as two for the Winter Olympics.
This year, instead of a Nintendo/Sega title, the IOC released Olympics Go! Paris 2024, a free-to-play mobile and PC title developed by nWay, which has worked on several Power Rangers games.
Olympics Go! allows players to compete in 12 sports and unlock NFTs from the Paris 2024 digital pin collection.
The original Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was announced in March 2007 and marked the first time the two mascots – once archrivals in the console wars of the 1990s – appeared together in a game.
NFTs
DraftKings abruptly shuts down NFT operation, leaving collectors panicking over vast holdings of digital tokens
DraftKings, the daily fantasy sports and sports betting company, abruptly shut down a program called Reignmakers on Tuesday, posting a notice on its website and associated app and sending a mass email to some subset of its user base. Reignmakers, which the company launched in 2021, offered pay-to-play competitions in NFL football, PGA Tour golf and UFC mixed martial arts. The decision to eliminate the entire program, DraftKings says, was not made lightly but was forced “due to recent legal developments.”
DraftKings has yet to specify what “recent legal developments” are troubling its now-dead Reignmakers product. The company was sued in U.S. District Court in 2023 by a Reignmakers player named Justin Dufoe, who accuses the company of dealing in unregistered securities, taking advantage of relatively unsophisticated “retail investors,” and failing to market and support Reignmakers to the degree necessary to return to its users the financial benefits expected. DraftKings filed a motion in September to dismiss Dufoe’s complaint, but that motion was denied on July 2. A scheduling conference was held by the parties on July 29; Reignmakers was permanently shut down on July 30. A DraftKings spokesperson reached by Defector on Wednesday declined to confirm whether Dufoe’s complaint is the “recent legal development” that forced the company’s hand.
Users of the Reignmakers NFL product, who in recent days began murmuring on social channels about a notable lack of DraftKings activity so close to the start of the NFL preseason schedule, were caught off guard and, in some cases, devastated by the news. Members of the DraftKings Discord server, where all Reignmakers-related channels were abruptly shut down and locked following the announcement, flooded a general channel in various states of panic, sharing news, theorizing, lamenting, and, in some cases, openly worrying about whether it would be possible to recoup any decent fraction of the genuinely impressive sums of money they had invested in this DraftKings product.
Reignmakers is nominally a daily fantasy contest—users build lineups of players and then pit those lineups against other users’ lineups for cash prizes—but it’s actually a distributor of nonfungible digital tokens (NFTs), originated and sold by DraftKings, and then frequently resold on a dedicated secondary marketplace also hosted by DraftKings. At the lineup-building level, Reignmakers functions like a card-collecting game, with artificial scarcity driving the prices of the most coveted cards to insane, eye-popping heights. Reignmakers NFTs are tiered and offered in timed drops designed to heighten the sense of scarcity. A user can enter a lower-tier contest using a collection of NFTs that may have cost a few hundred dollars in total (or that were earned by purchasing random packs of NFTs that offer generally low odds of scoring top assets) and throw their lot in with hundreds of casual users competing for relatively unimpressive rewards. Random packs at the lowest tier would have prices as low as a few dollars; mid-tier cards—Star and Elite tiers, I’d guess—could cost a player upwards of $1,000.
But players interested in hunting down the biggest payouts, not just from games but from leaderboard prizes and other assorted prizes, would need to enter higher-tier games, and to enter the higher-tier games, a user’s collection needed to include higher-tier NFTs. DraftKings ensured that these cards were extremely scarce and could only be purchased directly on the marketplace at prices that any reasonable person would consider utterly insane.
For example, the highest-tier Reignmaker contests (called the Reignmakers tier, of course) have in the past been limited to listings with at least two of the highest-tier, rarest NFTs (also the Reignmaker tier) plus three NFTs from the second-highest tier (Legendary). NFTs at these tiers are expensive. Not just expensive in the way that, like, a steak dinner is expensive, but expensive in the way that buying even one of them should trigger a mandatory visit to a gambling addiction counselor, if not sirens and a straitjacket. Back in 2022a Reignmaker-level Ja’Marr Chase NFT from something called the Field Pass Promo Set could be purchased directly from the DraftKings Reignmaker Marketplace for a whopping $32,100.
Reignmakers users purchased NFTs at various levels with the expectation that owning them would convey better odds of winning contests hosted on DraftKings. This was the gamification element of Reignmakers, which emerged several months after DraftKings began trading and minting its NFTs. But as with all NFTs, a very large part of the real appeal for its buyers was the expectation, however insane, that these worthless, virtually worthless, infinitely duplicable digital images would increase in value over time. Now that both the Reignmakers game and the Reignmakers marketplace have been shut down, Reignmakers NFT holders are worried that their investments may have suddenly lost all monetary value. One Discord user described Tuesday as “a bad day to wake up and realize you have $2,000 worth of unopened NFL Rookie Packs”; Another user asked the group if they should expect “a refund” on the $10,000 they’ve already spent on Reignmakers NFTs this year. A pessimistic Reddit user posted tuesday that they would sue DraftKings if they were forced to take a total loss on a Reignmakers NFT collection worth approximately $100,000.
The game (scam?) was built to make numbers like these not only possible, but somewhat easily achievable. A user who intended to compete from a position of strength in multiple overlapping high-profile contests at the same time, and who had been in the blockchain madhouse for a period of years, could easily have spent six figures on Reignmakers NFTs. DraftKings used non-gaming incentives to entice players to spend more and more money, much like casinos give away free suites to players who over-bet on blackjack. Another Reddit user lamented the loss of the additional prizes and ranking bonuses he had hoped to earn in the upcoming NFL season by having a portfolio of NFTs that had reached the highest levels of value and prestige. “I was already loaded up on 2024 creation tokens and rookie debut cards,” said this Reignmakers userwho claimed his portfolio was finally “close to the top 250 overall.”
Dufoe’s complaint says the NFTs minted by DraftKings for Reignmakers qualify as securities, function like securities, and should be regulated as securities. In its motion to dismiss, DraftKings attempted to position its NFTs as game pieces — eye-wateringly expensive, yes, but essentially the same thing as Magic: The Gathering cards or Monopoly hotels. The court, in resolving these arguments, applied what’s known as “the Howey test,” referencing a case from 1946 in which the U.S. Supreme Court established a standard for determining whether a specific instrument qualifies as an investment contract. Judge Dennis J. Casper, in ruling against DraftKings’ motion, concluded that Dufoe could plausibly argue that Reignmakers’ NFT transactions represent “the pooling of assets from multiple investors in such a manner that all share in the profits and risks of the enterprise,” arguing that DraftKings’ absolute control over the game and marketplace effectively binds the financial interests of the company and the buyers, the latter of whom depend on the viability of both for their NFTs to retain any value.
Reignmakers users are different from Monopoly players in at least one crucial way: A person who buys a Monopoly board has no expectation from Hasbro that those little red and green pieces will appreciate in value. It’s a game! No matter what any hysterically conflicted party may say to the contrary, that’s not what NFT collecting is. DraftKings had been selling Reignmakers NFTs for months before they were gamified, and Dufoe, in his complaint, cites public comments made by DraftKings spokespeople that seem to explicitly position Reignmakers NFTs as assets with independent monetary value beyond their utility in Reignmakers contests. Judge Casper, in his ruling on the motion to dismiss, cites a Twitter account associated with a podcast run by DraftKings CEO Matthew Kalish, who in a tweet described NFTs as “the opportunity to invest in startups, artists, operations, and entrepreneurs all at once.” This is probably the kind of thing that NFT peddlers should stop saying. This advice assumes, of course, that NFTs will continue to exist as instruments on the other side of this and other lawsuits.
DraftKings has posted a worryingly sparse FAQ at the bottom of the your ad Tuesday, anticipating but largely failing to address questions from players who see this as yet another in a long line of brutal blockchain rug pulls. In a hilarious reversal of existing Reignmakers policy, Reignmakers users are now allowed by DraftKings to withdraw their Reignmakers NFTs from their DraftKings portfolios and into their personal NFT wallets, where those NFTs will have precisely zero value, to anyone, for the rest of all time. There’s also vague language about Reignmakers users having the option to “relinquish” their NFTs back to DraftKings in exchange for “cash payments,” subject to “certain conditions” and according to an as-yet-unspecified formula that will take into account, among other things, the “size and quality” of a player’s collection.
Reignmakers users are not optimistic. Those who claim to have been victims of other blockchain market crashes are warning their peers on Discord and Reddit to expect payouts that amount to pennies on the dollar; in the absence of any clarifying information, users are unsure whether cashing out their NFTs from Reignmakers to their personal NFT wallets, for reasons that completely pass any and all understanding, would effectively preclude the possibility of delivering these silly digital tokens back to DraftKings. It remains to be seen what exactly DraftKings has in mind with the “certain conditions” attached to the delivery process. There is much that has yet to be resolved. A DraftKings spokesperson contacted by Defector indicated that more time would be needed to answer a list of specific questions and issued a statement noting that it is “in DraftKings’ DNA to innovate and disrupt to provide the best possible gaming experiences for our customers.” The original complaint is embedded below.
Do you know anything about the demise of Reignmakers, either from the consumer side or from the DraftKings side? We’d love to hear from you. Get it in touch!
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NFTs
There Will Be No More ‘Mario & Sonic’ Olympics Because of NFTs
Nintendo and SEGA have been teaming up with the Olympics for several years now in the popular Mario & sonic in the Olympic Games series, but a new report claims the International Olympic Committee has abandoned the series in favor of new deals in eSports and NFTs.
According to Eurogamer“A veteran behind the series,” Lee Cocker, told the outlet that the IOC chose not to renew its license with SEGA and Nintendo, letting it expire in 2020. “They wanted to look at other partners and NFTs and eSports,” Cocker told Eurogamer. “Basically, the IOC wanted to bring [it] turn inward and look for other partners so they could get more money.”
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games is a series that has been running since 2008, with six main games covering the regular and Winter Olympics. In the games, players could control various characters from the Mario and Sonic franchises and compete in Olympic sporting events.
It’s no secret that NFTs are a big part of this year’s Paris 2024 Olympics. Olympics Go! Paris 2024 is a mobile and mobile-connected game your site states that players can “join the excitement of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with nWay’s officially licensed, commemorative NFT Digital Pins collection honoring Paris 2024!”
As for eSports, Saudi Arabia will host the ESports Olympic Games in 2025. This is part of a partnership with the Saudi National Olympic Committee (NOC) that is expected to last for the next 12 years and is expected to feature regular events.
IOC President Thomas Bach said: “By partnering with the Saudi NOC, we also ensure that Olympic values are respected, in particular with regard to the game titles on the programme, the promotion of gender equality and the engagement with young audiences who are embracing esports.”
In other news, Someone claimed they’re suing Bandai Namco because Elden Ring is too difficult.
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