The crisp white Herve Pierre hat that Melania Trump wore to greet French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife at the White House in April 2018 went up on the auction block this month—along with a watercolor and NFT showing her wearing it—in the hopes that the entire set would bring in a starting bid of $250,000. But the two-week online auction, which ran through Tuesday, only accepted bids in tokens off the Solana blockchain—leaving Trump's headpiece as "collateral damage" after the cryptocurrency fell 40% in value this week, reports Insider.
The last listed bid for Trump's "Head of State Collection" came in at just over $170,000, even though at one point during the auction that number had reached as high as $275,000, per the Washington Post. Solana wasn't the only crypto to take a hit this week: Bitcoin experienced a 20% plunge, while Ethereum fell 30%. The New York Times notes that if Trump holds onto her Solana tokens, they could potentially rise in value, but there's also a chance they could see a further price dip.
"This is just evidence that none of the cryptocurrency assets provide a good, stable enough means of payment," says Cornell law professor Dan Awrey, who studies money and payment systems. "It is just too volatile." A "portion" of the proceeds from the auction is said to be allotted to help give kids in foster care "access to computer science and technology education," per a release. (More Melania Trump stories.)
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