The Internet sensation ‘Doge Meme’ has auctioned for 4 million USD

'Doge,' the picture of an exuberant Japanese Shiba Inu, was sold as an NFT (non-fungible token) for a staggering figure of 4 million USD. According to sources, this figure ranked Doge as the costliest NFT meme in existence.

Atsuko Sato, the owner of the famous dog, put the meme that became available as an NFT for auction in June. Following that, numerous bids for Doge possession were presented, but the ultimate purchase was struck for a price of 1,696.9 ETH, almost equivalent to 4 million USD.

In 2010, Sato posted a photo of her dog Kabosu, who was sitting with his legs folded and a puzzled look on his face. Sato had no idea when he uploaded the modest photograph that it would become so legendary in the coming years. Kabosu's photo quickly went viral on the web and became a famous meme. One of Reddit's commenters came up with the popular name linked with Kabosu's image.

The internet fame of Doge grew to new heights when a bunch of netizens used it as motivation to build the cryptocurrency 'Dogecoin.' Back in 2013, Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer launched Dogecoin as a satire mocking the rampant cryptocurrency mania. On December 6, 2013, the coin was officially introduced.

What began as a prank has grown into a major digital commodity that is being heralded as the cryptocurrency's future. 2021 has been a fantastic year for Dogecoin, with a significant increase in its worth.

Dogecoin is among the most talked-about cryptocurrencies in the world, despite its modest market valuation. It frequently appears in the Twitter posts of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has already stated his love for Dogecoin. NBC News stated, quoting the auction platform Zora, that the auction victor, whose Twitter handle is @pleasrdao, put in a bid for 1,696.9 ETH. According to the article, it was the most costly meme NFT has ever sold. The extensively circulated meme was the inspiration for the Dogecoin cryptocurrency.

"We are ecstatic to be a participant of this momentous day in the history of the web. Doge, more than any other meme, deserves to be the new meme NFT record bearer", Don Caldwell, editor-in-chief of the Know Your Meme online memes repository, acknowledged. On June 8, Atsuko Sato, the owner of Kabosu, the dog in the photograph, placed the meme up for sale. According to NBC News, a portion of the revenues from the NFT auction will go to a variety of organizations, including the Japanese Red Cross Society and the World Food Program.

The success of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency named after the joke, has given Doge a breath of fresh air. Even though Dogecoin has been around for a long time, its reputation skyrocketed when Musk promoted it on social networking sites. As per Decrypt, a cryptocurrency news website, an NFT of Doge, will not serve as a trademark.

According to Decrypt, the NFT seems more like a digital signature from the meme creator, confirming legitimacy, much like a signed baseball card. According to a spokesperson for the auctions, the revenues from the purchase of Doge would go to charity.

Analysts have suggested that the marketplace is seeing a "meme golden age" due to the current inflow of memes being offered as NFTs. "Disaster Girl," "Overly Attached Girlfriend," "Nyan Cat," and "Success Kid" are among the other memes that have been purchased as famous photographs in the meme gold rush. Caldwell believes that genuine artists should be verified so that they can sell their work and get credit. "We think that artists should be appropriately acknowledged for their work and that this area urgently needs this level of control," he added.