An NFT of the Original "Doge" Pic Just Sold For $4 Million

Doge is now the highest-earning NFT meme ever.

Doge to Dollars

An NFT of the "Doge" meme sold for more than $4 million on Friday — making it the most ever paid for an NFT of a meme. 

The image was put up on the auction website Zora by Atsuko Sato on Tuesday, according to Insider. Sako is the owner of the original Shiba Inu made famous by the Doge meme. 

On Friday, a bidder who goes by the handle @pleasrdao won the NFT for 1,696.9 (nice) Ethereum, which is worth roughly $4 million at the time of reporting. 

The Meme Business

Since NFTs burst into the mainstream, memes have morphed from funny Internet images to funny Internet images that are also hot commodities. 

That might seem rather silly, but it's provided a way for folks who have created or been depicted in various memes over the years to finally be able to make money from them. 

For example, Chris Torres, the creator of the Nyan cat GIF, was able to sell an NFT of the GIF for nearly $600,000 in February, according to Insider. Zoe Roth, who's depicted in the "Disaster Girl" meme, sold the original image of her meme for nearly $500,000 in April.

"Being able to sell it just shows us that we do have some sort of control, some sort of agency in the whole process," Roth told the Raleigh News and Observer.  

So as much as NFTs might seem like another flash in the pan tech fad, they’re also a way for many creators to regain control over their likeness and creations — which can be especially hard when they reach meme status. 

READ MORE: Famed 'Doge' meme NFT sells for record-breaking $4 million at auction [Insider]

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