A GIF Was Just Sold For Half A Million Dollars
Image via Shutterstock
Long before the high-banking meme of Bernie Sanders existed a Pop Tart-space cat hybrid who left a streak of rainbows wherever it went. Its enduring reign as king of the meme jungle is evident, as the “remastered” version of ‘Nyan Cat’ has been purchased for the cryptocurrency equivalent of half a million dollars.
This year marks the meme’s 10th anniversary, and to commemorate this highlight in internet history, Nyan Cat’s designer Chris Torres gave the GIF an update, which saw the removal of a glitchy star in the night sky.
Torres called the refresh a “remaster,” and put up the animation on crypto art platform Foundation with the promise that he would never sell another version of Nyan Cat for the rest of his life.
The GIF ended up selling for an approximate 300 Ether, which equated to US$519,174 when Print Magazine got word of the sale.
Crypto art is gaining popularity as it is similar to buying original physical artwork and being the sole owner of that piece. For verification of authenticity and ownership, each creation is tagged with a permanent non-fungible token (NFT)—somewhat like a signature—that cannot be replicated.
As explained bySchool of Motion, obtaining a piece of crypto art isn’t the same as right-clicking and saving an image. Whereas you can easily download an image of a Picasso painting from the internet, purchasing this sort of digital art is akin to owning the actual Picasso painting.
Just opened up the flood gates to the future of meme economy in the Crypto universe, no big deal~
— ☆Chris☆ (@PRguitarman) February 19, 2021
But seriously, thanks for believing in Nyan Cat all these years. I hope this inspires future artists to get into #NFT universe so they can get proper recognition for their work! pic.twitter.com/JX7UU9VSPb
[via Print Magazine, cover image via Shutterstock]
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