‘Love in the time of Web3’ meme sells as NFT for $20,000

On October 21, the world’s second richest man, Elon Musk, shared the meme entitled ‘Love in the time of Web3’. What ensued however, made one 28 year old thousands of dollars richer.

The original meme was in-fact a non-fungible token (NFT) listed on Zora, a marketplace whereby people are able to buy, sell and curate NFTs on Ethereum. The image shows two lovers looking at Bitcoin’s price at $69,000 and Ethereum at $4,200. The NFT was created by 28 year old Eva Beylin.

Beylin listed the image’s NFT for sale the same evening Musk tweeted it. As little as two days later, the NFT was sold to an anonymous buyer for $20,004,71 USD. In addition to this, the new buyer instantly relisted the NFT for sale for 69.42 WETH (277,774,54 USD.) As of latest the ‘Love in the time of Web3’ NFT has received another offer for 6.942 WETH (27,774.54 USD.) If the NFT sells, Beylin will receive 15% in royalty fees.

alright this has gone TOO far – what started as a funny meme about serendipity of btc/eth prices is now… 69.42 ETH on 2nd market?!

this is the power of web3 – it wouldn't be possible for a hobby artist like me to earn from art in web2 ?

ty @ourZORA ?https://t.co/74eIc3xmzx

— Eva Beylin (@evabeylin) October 22, 2021

The 28 year old took inspiration from another meme created by Twitter user @shegenerates. The Twitter user, known as Shegen, created a similar meme, editing bitcoin and ether prices into a similar picture frame. To compensate Shegen, the 28 year old donated 20% of the sale to the user.

Meanwhile, the creator of the original illustration remains unknown, also posing the question of whether Beylin’s ‘Love in the time of Web3’ meme violates any copyright laws.

One thing remains certain. Expect more crypto-centric memes from the Dogefather himself, Elon Musk.