By
Svetlana Soroka
April 26th, 2024
The auction started on Friday and saw a fierce bidding war between two prominent bidders, Memeland, a crypto project, and GiganticRebirth, known within the crypto community as GCR.
An iconic photograph that inspired the creation of Solana’s popular meme coin Dogwifhat (WIF) has been sold as an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) for an astonishing $4.3 million. According to reports, the image features Achi, a beloved dog, wearing a distinctive pink beanie hat.
The photograph of Achi wearing the hat gained widespread popularity in 2018 when the owners took a photo of him and uploaded it to the internet. The beanie hat captured people’s hearts worldwide and eventually created the meme coin known as $wif.
Someone Purchased NFT for 1,210 Ethereum
Today, the photo was purchased for 1,210 Ethereum (Ether), equivalent to approximately $4.3 million in an auction hosted on the crypto auction platform Foundation.
The auction started on Friday and saw a fierce bidding war between two prominent bidders, Memeland, a crypto project, and GiganticRebirth, known within the crypto community as GCR.
However, in the end, GCR also known under the alias “PleasrDAO”, emerged victorious in a winning bid to become the new owner of the iconic photograph.
The Foundation’s partnership manager confirmed the win, who wrote on X formerly Twitter, that GiganticRebirth collected the “image”.
🚨SOLD🚨
On November 17, 2018, Achi's owners captured him in an endearing hat on camera. It went viral, ultimately becoming a meme and mascot for the meme coin $wif.
Today, that image was collected by Gigantic Rebirth Ventures on FND for 1,210.759 ETH (4.3 Mil)! pic.twitter.com/8jV4szdPg1
— Rob | Foundation (@RDToTheMoon) March 18, 2024
During the auction, the owner of the iconic photograph described it as capturing the essence of the memecoin “$wif” which resonated with people across the globe.
GCR, under the alias “PleasrDAO”, was one of the top traders by realized profit on the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX between 2021 and 2022 before the company’s bankruptcy in November of the same year.
The group’s ability to predict market movements and trends to make informed trade decisions garnered them a large following on social media platforms.
Although GCR’s identity remains a mystery, their influence in the crypto community is undeniable and the purchase of the iconic photo of Achi has further solidified their status as a significant figure in the space.
Meme Coin Season Is Here to Stay
The sale of the NFT comes at a time when interest in meme coins and NFTs is at an all-time high.
Dogwifhat, the meme coin inspired by Achi’s photo, has seen a surge in popularity, with its price increasing by 10% in the hours following the auction.
Earlier this month, Coinspeaker reported that another meme token named after United States President Joe Biden surged past 830% in just six hours.
The digital asset called BODEN hit a market capitalization of $24 million within 24 hours of trading.
Most recently, a newly launched meme coin based on the Solana ecosystem, Book of Meme (BOME), made headlines for rallying over 250% following a listing announcement on Binance.
Other meme coins such as BONK, PEPE, BOBO, and Shiba Inu’s SHIB have been on a positive trajectory over the past few weeks, leading the meme coin season with good returns for investors.