The wife of the ex-president of the United States, Melania Trump has been caught out placing a bid on her own NFT portrait. As boomers get to grips with the wonders and transparency of Web3, the heiress had nowhere to hide as savvy onlookers pulled the transactions on the Solana-based Haloplex stores apart on Twitter to reveal foul play.
Melanie Trump is bidding on her own NFT, and she’s the only one. The leading commentator, known on Twitter as genegeni AKA HTR2A, even went so far as to tag the IRS and Jacob Silverman, a Staff writer for The New Republic, in the post.
Amusingly, Melania does not appear to have a firm grasp of Web3 tech despite selling NFTs. She fundamentally ousted herself by using a wallet address tied to the listing to make an offer. Her amateur mistakes allowed the Twitter onlooker to investigate and out Melania very quickly.
What Melania Trump did
The NFT received a bid of 1,800 SOL, approximately $170,000 at writing. The wallet making the bid has the address – 497Zu5gfWSv4VNsoQfjixWXQZmKZ2pDzkVSASDBqnFL2.
The account making the bid was funded by this transaction from account 3CTu39MQUuBEmzCNxWEnRVn4JhqrcCCe4SBC2cyi713X
That account was funded in USDC from another account with the wallet address 39uiox73CYKoRp5MbdLmox4cu3bjjW7rJ2UWz7xsAENz.
Which is the account which created the original auction. Look below and you can see the wallet ending AEN as the update authority.
Wash trading
To recap, the wallet making the current high bid of 1,800 SOL was funded by the same wallet used to launch the original auction. Never was there a clearer case of manipulation. In the traditional finance world, such activity is called wash trading, where a party looks to artificially inflate the price of an item based on trading history or last sale price. An issue currently plaguing Ethereum marketplace LooksRare as users compete for transaction volume to get their hands on LOOKS token rewards.
Arguably, in this case, it appears an overzealous under-educated Web3 Melania has been caught out doing something a bit naughty. The fact the same people control all the wallets means they are paying fees and commissions on this activity. Furthermore, the sale hasn’t netted Melania any profits. While this is not the point, it is fascinating to see how people in and out of the limelight look to leverage and utilize the blockchain and subsequently how it reveals all – for those willing to look deep enough.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds ETH, BTC, AGIX, HEX, LINK, GRT, CRO, OMI, IMMUTABLE X, GALA, AVASTR, GMEE, CUBE, RADAR, FLOW, FTM, BNB, SPS, WRLD, ATOM, and ADA.
