The Seven Most Expensive Meme NFTs in History

Last week, a photo of a Shiba Inu wearing a knitted hat was sold for over $4.3 million, setting a new record in the history of Meme NFTs. This Shiba Inu named Achi is the main character of the famous "Dogwifhat" internet meme, and the high sale price of its NFT work has attracted widespread attention.

This is not the first time a Meme NFT has reached a high price. In recent years, the integration of internet culture and the crypto world has spawned several well-known Memes being turned into NFTs, repeatedly setting auction records. Here are the seven highest-priced Meme NFTs to date:

1. Dogwifhat: 4.3 million USD

Last week, the Dogwifhat NFT was sold for 1,210.759 ETH (approximately 4.31 million USD). This high price was largely attributed to the original Dogwifhat meme's popularity on the internet since the end of 2019, as well as the recent success of the similarly named meme coin WIF launched on Solana. The market capitalization of WIF briefly exceeded 3 billion USD last week.

This NFT photo is said to have been randomly taken by Achi's Korean owner in 2018. After deducting related fees, the seller is expected to earn about $4.1 million. The renowned cryptocurrency trader GCR acquired ownership of this photo through an auction on the digital art platform Foundation.

2. Doge: 4.2 million USD

Before the Dogwifhat NFT broke the record, the Doge meme had long held the title of the most expensive Meme NFT. On June 11, 2021, a photo of the Shiba Inu Kabosu taken by Japanese kindergarten teacher Atsuko Satō sold for 1696.9 ETH (approximately $4.234 million).

Doge is not only one of the most influential memes in internet culture but also inspired the creation of the first meme coin in the crypto world, Dogecoin. The buyer, PleasrDAO, subsequently split the Doge NFT into billions of tokens, creating hundreds of millions of dollars in value.

3. Frog Pepe: $3.5 million

On October 5, 2021, the original Pepe the Frog Genesis NFT created by Matt Furie was sold for a high price of 1000 ETH (approximately 3.5 million USD). This green amphibian character is renowned both on the internet and in the crypto community, and it inspired the relatively successful meme coin Pepecoin on Ethereum last year.

This NFT represents the first comic strip depicting the character drawn by Furie in November 2006. The buyer is an NFT fund formed by a crypto hedge fund and anonymous investors. Recently, this NFT was resold to an executive in the crypto industry during a liquidation process.

4. Charlie Bit My Finger: $761,000

On May 22, 2021, the NFT of the early viral YouTube video "Charlie Bit My Finger" was sold for $760,999. The parents of the two boys in the video hoped to raise college tuition for their children by turning it into an NFT. This strategy was quite successful, and the NFT was ultimately purchased by Dubai collector 3FMusic. Although the original plan was to take the video down from YouTube, the buyer stated that they did not mind, so the video is still available for viewing on YouTube.

5. Nyan Cat: $590,000

On February 19, 2021, creator Chris Torres sold the pixel animation cat Nyan Cat, which was born in 2011, as an NFT for 300 ETH (approximately $590,000 at the time). This auction essentially pioneered the meme NFT as an asset class, and in the following months, many other well-known meme creators followed suit, tokenizing their works as NFTs and auctioning them.

6. Disaster Girl: $430,000

On April 17, 2021, Zoe Roth sold an NFT of a photo of herself as a child with a mischievous smile at the scene of a fire for 180 ETH (approximately $430,000). The photo, known as "Disaster Girl," is one of the most iconic internet memes of the early 21st century. The NFT was ultimately acquired by the collector 3FMusic.

7. Overly Attached Girlfriend: $411,000

In the spring of 2021, Laina Morris turned her "Overly Attached Girlfriend" meme photo, which went viral in 2012, into an NFT and sold it on the Foundation platform for 200 ETH (approximately $411,000). This piece was also collected by the NFT collector 3FMusic.

The transactions of these high-priced Meme NFTs fully reflect the deep integration of internet culture and blockchain technology, and provide meme creators with a new way to monetize their works. With the development of the crypto market, it is likely that more innovative meme NFT projects will emerge in the future.