Melania Trump launches NFT venture, promising ?an amulet to inspire?

She is married to former US president Donald Trump but now you, too, can stare into the "cobalt blue eyes" of Melania Trump at the touch of a button and with your very own piece of trendy, digital art.

The former first lady has jumped into the latest internet craze by launching a non-fungible token (NFT) just in time for Christmas. It puts Melania right in the middle of a fashion frenzy in hi-tech art circles - though critics may regard it as the latest attempt by the Trump family to cash in on political success.

An NFT is a digital asset - typically pictures, songs or videos - bought in an online marketplace and stored on blockchain, a secure public ledger. Blockchain allows anyone to verify the NFT's authenticity and keeps a record of who owns what.

In Melania's first public venture since leaving the White House almost a year ago, an NFT named Melania's Vision can be bought between 16 and 31 December with the SOL cryptocurrency or an old-fashioned credit card.

An irony-free statement from her office says it is "a breathtaking watercolor art by Marc-Antoine Coulon, and embodies Mrs Trump's cobalt blue eyes, providing the collector with an amulet to inspire."

"The limited-edition piece of digital artwork will be 1 SOL (approximately $150) and includes an audio recording from Mrs Trump with a message of hope."

Melania, 51, joins a growing list of celebrities offering lucrative digital memorabilia. Earlier this year Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi, Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt and American football player Tom Brady launched their own collections of NFTs. Singer Justin Bieber and K-pop group BTS have also dived in.