Is the meme NFT market dying?
The NFT for the popular internet meme “Side Eyeing Chloe” sold on Friday in an auction for 25 ETH, which is approximately $76,377.50.
Credit: screenshot: Foundation.app
NFTs are digital tokens that show ownership of digital art, or really any online asset. Ownership of these NFTs is tracked via blockchain. However, that ownership does not include transfer of copyright. The auction took place on Foundation, an NFT marketplace platform.
Side Eyeing Chloe became a popular internet meme after her mother uploaded a video in 2013 titled “Lily’s Disneyland Surprise… AGAIN.”
A screengrab of Chloe Clem, the child in the video, giving her mother the side-eye after her mom surprises her with a trip to Disneyland on the way to school, soon went viral. Buzzfeed even once called Side Eyeing Chloe the “patron saint of Tumblr” due to the memes’ popularity on the platform.
There’s no doubt that $76,000 is a lot of money, especially in exchange for someone to just claim ownership over an image you never intended to monetize in the first place. There’s no doubt the Clem family is pleased with the sale too.
However, speaking to BBC, Chloe’s mom Katie did voice a little disappointment in the price.
“If we’re going based off meme sales before, it’s a bit lower, but we’re so grateful for what it sold for,” she said.
And Katie makes an interesting point. Meme NFTs have been making headlines in recent months due to their enormous selling prices.
The NFT for the “Charlie Bit My Finger” video sold in May for more than $760,000. The “Disaster Girl” image NFT was purchased that same month for $500,000. The Overly-Attached Girlfriend image NFT sold just a few weeks earlier for more than $400,000.
According to Know Your Meme, a website that tracks internet memes, the Disaster Girl image isn’t all that much more popular than Side Eyeing Chloe.
So, why such a big price discrepancy? Why is the Disaster Girl NFT worth half-a-million dollars yet Side Eyeing Chloe couldn’t crack near-six figures? Well, there could be a couple of reasons.
For one, NFT sales have plummeted from their peak popularity back in April and early May 2021. It’s not just the sales pricing dropping either. Overall market activity has dropped and keeps dropping, too.
The relatively small number of NFT-buyers making these large purchases have enormous influence over the entire market. There’s perhaps no better example of this than with the meme NFT market.
The NFTs for the previously mentioned memes – Charlie Bit My Finger, Disaster Girl, Overly Attached Girlfriend, and even Side Eyeing Chloe – have all been acquired by just one single buyer: A Dubai-based music producer who goes by his production company, 3F Music, as his online handle.
So, basically, if you’re looking to sell an NFT of a popular meme that you created, its value is pretty much determined by this one person.
Side-Eyeing Chloe sold for “only” $76,377.50 because that’s what 3F Music deemed it was worth.
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