A group of cryptocurrency investors backing a memecoin hopes the statue will soon be installed at one of Mr. Trump’s golf courses in Florida.
www.nytimes.com
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I missed this one last month.
“… For more than a year, the golden statue has been at the center of one of the stranger moneymaking ventures of the Trump era. A group of cryptocurrency investors paid $300,000 to have a sculptor create it as a tribute to Mr. Trump, an outspoken crypto proponent.
Then they used it to promote a memecoin called $PATRIOT.
Now, improbably, the project appears close to fruition. A pedestal made of concrete and stainless steel
was installed last month on the grounds of Mr. Trump’s golf complex in Doral, Fla. Pastor Mark Burns, one of the organizers of the effort and a friend of Mr. Trump’s, told his collaborators that the president planned to attend the statue’s unveiling there, according to messages reviewed by The New York Times.
… In text messages reviewed by The Times, Mr. Cottrill said he was owed $75,000 for the intellectual property rights to the statue.
“You are using my copyrighted image in marketing your token!” he wrote to one of the coin’s backers last month.
“Yes lol as we planned to from day 1,” replied Ashley Sansalone, a crypto developer who worked on $PATRIOT, as well as a separate coin
called Elon GOAT….”