https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vpx8/analyzing-the-very-bizarre-sale-of-melania-trumps-dollar170000-nft
The $170,000 purchase of an NFT collection auctioned by Melania Trump was made by the entity that originally put the NFT up for sale, according to blockchain records.
The former first lady got into NFTs last year, launching her own website and lining up a slate of auctions. On Jan. 11, Trump started auctioning the "Head of State Collection, 2022" on the Solana blockchain, a package deal that paired the "iconic white millinery masterpiece worn by Mrs. Trump" (a wide-brimmed hat she wore during a 2018 visit with French President Emanuel Macron) with a watercolor of her wearing it, as well as an NFT. The opening bid, according to a press release, was "the equivalent of $250,000" denominated in SOL tokens (1,800 SOL at the time) and a "portion" of the proceeds would be used to "provide foster care children with access to computer science and technology education."
After the auction's conclusion, the New York Times ran a piece describing the sale as attracting a few bids all around 1,800 SOL, ultimately ending with somebody purchasing the NFT for 1,800 SOL worth $170,000 at the time (now $200,000), a price far below the figure touted by the auction's press release and which the paper described as "deflated results" due to a wider crash in the price of cryptocurrencies.
Now, according to Solana blockchain records reviewed by Motherboard and shared with an independent researcher, we know who bought the NFT collection: Melania Trump herself, or at least, whoever set up the auction for her. In a statement to Motherboard from "the Office of Melania Trump," Trump said "the nature of Blockchain protocol is entirely transparent. Accordingly, the public can view each transaction on the blockchain. The transaction was facilitated on behalf of a third-party buyer."
Some suspect it was a "Wash Trade"
https://petapixel.com/2022/02/07/traders-are-buying-their-own-nfts-to-drive-up-prices-report/
Wash trading is the term used to describe the practice of a single owner buying and selling a security, or in this place an NFT, to themselves to simulate an increase in value. It’s illegal on stock exchanges in the United States and has been for nearly 100 years, but the NFT marketplace is unregulated and thus is a prime target for the age-old practice,
Engadget explains.
Chainalysis found 262 users that sold an NFT to a self-financed address more than 25 times. While the firm couldn’t be 100% sure that all instances of these sales to self-financed wallets are intended wash trades, the threshold of 25 trades gave it a higher degree of confidence that these were habitual wash traders.
“We calculated these 262 wash traders’ overall profits by subtracting the amount they’ve spent on gas fees from the amount they’ve made selling NFTs to unsuspecting buyers,” Chainalysis says. “One caveat for this analysis is that it only captures trades made in Ethereum and Wrapped Ethereum, so there’s likely wash trading activity we’re not considering here.”
The firm found that while a majority of wash traders have been unsuccessful, those who have succeeded have done so in a way that the entire group of 262 saw massive profit overall: 110 gained $8,875,315 from wash trading, while the majority 152 unprofitable traders only lost $416,948...
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