NFT Transforms “Dogwifhat” into a $4.3 Million Asset
The beloved mascot of the meme coin “Dogwifhat” (WIF) on the Solana blockchain is a charming Shiba Inu wearing a pink hat. Recently, the famous “meme photo” of Dogwifhat was turned into an Ethereum-based NFT (non-fungible token) and sold for approximately $4.3 million to the anonymous cryptocurrency trader known as GCR.
This Dogwifhat NFT was auctioned on the digital art platform Foundation. Just two hours before the auction ended, the highest bid for the NFT was only 55 Ethereum, equivalent to around $195,000 at the time. Later on, GCR and the NFT project “Memeland” by 9GAG, a popular meme platform, also joined the bidding war. In the end, GCR emerged as the winner of the Dogwifhat NFT.
The auction price for this NFT made Dogwifhat the most expensive meme NFT in history. The previous record-holder was the “Doge NFT” inspired by Dogecoin, which was sold to the decentralized organization PleasrDAO for approximately $4.234 million in Ethereum on June 11, 2021.
According to the media outlet Decrypt, the two South Korean owners of the Shiba Inu named “Achi” were the driving force behind the Dogwifhat NFT auction. They took the iconic photo of the dog wearing the hat back in 2018.
After deducting the 5% platform fee charged by Foundation, the proceeds from the NFT auction will go into the pockets of Achi’s owners.
The Craze for Dogwifhat
Since its launch on Thanksgiving in 2023, Dogwifhat has seen a price surge of nearly 1000% within just one month. The adorable and humorous image has gained immense popularity in the community, sparking a “Dogwifhat frenzy.” Last Friday, the market value of Dogwifhat even reached a new record of $3 billion, making it a coin that “takes off” alongside Solana.
The madness of the Dogwifhat community extends beyond the price of the coin. In March, community members initiated a project called “Sphere wif hat,” aiming to raise funds to display the image of WIF on the new Las Vegas landmark “Sphere,” allowing more people to experience the meme trend of Dogwifhat.
The community managed to raise $650,000 in just four days, making the “Sphere wif hat” project possible. This fundraising event also caused a 38.8% surge in Dogwifhat’s price within 24 hours, reaching $3.4 per coin. Now, the star of Dogwifhat has transformed into an NFT, leading to a 10% price increase within an hour after the NFT was sold.
Blockchain as the Ideal Paradigm for Benefiting Creators
The “Dogwifhat NFT auction” not only showcases the power of the meme coin trend but also demonstrates the advantages of blockchain technology in directly benefiting creators.
According to “Smoke,” a member of the Dogwifhat NFT community, the photographer of the Dogwifhat photo and the pet’s owner have already received direct profits. Smoke believes that this is similar to the previous Dogecoin NFT auction, where the owner of the Dogecoin NFT image, Atsuko Sato, also directly benefited from blockchain technology.
Even the blockchain detective “ZachXBT” commented directly under the post about the sale of the Dogwifhat NFT, saying, “Glad to see creators getting proper rewards!”
Sources:
Decrypt, CoinDesk, The Block
Editor: Gao Jingyuan
