Fashy NFTs

Cryptocurrencies originated as a libertarian-adjacent project intended to free participants in the blockchain economy from government control of their finances. So it’s hardly a surprise that many hardcore Republicans and far-right extremists, suspicious not only of the feds but whether social media companies would cut them off from mass audiences and revenue streams, were early adopters. More recently, they’ve begun to cash in on non-fungible tokens (NFTs). If you don’t know what an NFT is, just understand that it’s a piece of content (usually art) that’s linked on a blockchain and they often sell for wild prices.

Blockchain-themed projects for Trump supporters like the dubious MAGACOIN or NFTs of Trump tweets are abundant. Parler, the aforementioned MAGA site, has announced plans to expand into NFTs. And Steve Bannon is shilling a cryptocurrency called FJB (Fuck Joe Biden).

A study by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that numerous far-right personalities, ranging from white supremacist and eugenics promoter Stefan Molyneux to neo-Nazi hacker Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer and Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin, have likely stockpiled massive returns from the surge in Bitcoin prices in the past few years. NFTs pose yet another opportunity. OpenSea, a web platform that allows users to easily create NFTs, has been widely reported to be saturated with works of art prominently featuring Adolf Hitler. Stonetoss, an anonymous right-wing cartoonist often accused by critics of being an outright fascist, claims to have made nearly $2 million on OpenSea and a similar site named Rarible before he was banned.

The far-right is primarily attracted to NFTs as a fundraising method, unlike mainstream crypto promoters who sell it as a long-term investment, according to Squire.

The “reaction to deplatforming extends to finances as well, as of that overall effort to build a parallel replacement economy,” Squire told Gizmodo. “Cryptocurrencies are certainly going to continue to be a piece of that equation, as are extremist-friendly crowdfunding platforms and real-time microfunding or ‘tipping’ sites that they can use to monetize their live video streams.”