The famous “Doge” meme, one of the internet’s most iconic memes, has smashed the record for the most expensive meme NFT. The NFT, featuring an enthused-looking Shiba Inu dog, sold for over $4 million at an auction on Friday, June 11.
Atsuko Sato had put up the meme for auction on Tuesday on the auction site Zora. Sato is the owner of Kabosu, the dog featured in the famous image. The winner, @pleasrdao, won the NFT after placing a bid of 1,696.9 ETH or roughly $4 million. A part of the proceedings will also go to charities such as the Japanese Red Cross Society and the World Food Programme.
Dogecoin’s rise leads to ‘Doge’ Meme NFT
Sato had taken the original image on February 13th, 2010, and shared it on her personal blog. Soon, it kickstarted the Doge meme craze.
“When I first found out about the Kabosu memes, I was very surprised,” Sato was quote as saying by NBC News. “I was terrified at the thought that just one photo I had casually posted on my blog could spread all over the world to places I didn’t know.”
This year, Doge’s popularity surged after cryptocurrency Dogecoin witnessed a dramatic price rise. Software engineers Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus had originally created Dogecoin as a joke in the meme’s honor. The cryptocurrency has thus been around for years. However, it came to the limelight after Elon Musk endorsed it on social media.
Doge meme is not the only meme that has allowed its owners to cash in through the NFT craze. For instance, ‘Disaster Girl’ featuring 4-year-old Zoe Roth, was sold for 180 ETH or about $430,000 at the time. Similarly, an NFT of “Pepe the Frog” sold for about $1 million early this year.
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