Viral Side-Eyeing Chloe Meme To Be Sold As NFT

There are an infinite number of memes scattered across the internet. A day doesn’t pass by without encountering funny memes as we scroll our social media feeds. Memes can feature either a famous line, iconic movie scene, or anything under the sun. A young girl became an instant internet sensation after her photo turned into a viral meme. 

Based on the September 21, 2021 status update from the girl’s social media accounts, “Side-Eyeing Chloe meme” is sold as an NFT auction amounting to over $15,000. The announcement was confirmed through posts about the sale uploaded on the @withfnd Twitter handle.

What is NFT and Why Does “Side-Eyeing Chloe” Viral Meme Being Auctioned?

NFT stands for a non-fungible token, allowing a person to buy and sell any digital item on the internet. Blockchain keeps track of the owner of the file. Despite holding the digital certificate, buyers have no control over the copyright for the image it represents. NFT cannot be traded or exchanged with any equivalent, unlike cryptocurrencies. Technically, NFT may contain digital assets such as drawings, animated GIFs, video games, or songs.  In addition, NFT can be unique, like a real-life painting or a copy of many, like trading cards.  

Non-fungible tokens have been trending lately, and some even selling for millions of dollars. Chloe Clem’s family has confirmed that the bid for this viral meme will start at 5 Ethereum, which is worth more or less $15,000. The price tag on a meme is not shocking anymore after Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sold his first-ever tweet for a whopping $2.9 million to a Malaysia-based businessman. The said auction signaled the beginning of market deals on ownership rights to digital art on the internet. At present, the Doge meme is the Most Expensive NFT sold for $4 million back in June.

Quick history of the viral meme

The users noticed the Side-Eyeing Chloe viral meme back in 2013 after Chloe’s mother uploaded an unconvinced reaction of her daughter. The meme is now valued at thousands of dollars. It’s all because NFT gives the content a digital certificate of ownership for the item. Remember that there are no copyrights for this, meaning the auction winner will own the digital token representing the meme. 

The viral meme originated from a video posted by Chloe’s mom in September 2013. The video featured her daughters reacting to the Disneyland surprise. The footage suddenly became an internet sensation and was able to gain more than 20 million views. 

Chloe’s mother told the BBC about this and said it was a weird and overwhelming experience for them. She added that her family and friends started sending her these memes. Until now, more memes are being forwarded to them featuring Side-Eyeing Chloe. 

Update: Who Won the Auction?

On September 24, 2021, a music company won and bought the NFT of Side-Eyeing Chloe meme. 

The non-fungible token or NFT of the popular viral meme, Side-Eyeing Chloe, was bought by 3F Music Production Company (@3FMusic) for 25 Ethereum (a form of cryptocurrency). It has an overall value of approximately $75,000. The Dubai-based company also purchased other massive memes like Charlie Bit My Finger, Overly Attached Girlfriend, and Disaster Girl.

The Clem family monitored the online auction of the Side-Eyeing Chloe meme from their Utah home. Based on the report of Washington Post, the Clem family plans to use some of their earnings for the meme NFT sale on a Walt Disney World trip in Florida. The internet star, Chloe, now ten years old, is very excited about the trip since it will be her first time there. 

According to the Washington Post, Chloe Clem also added a horse and a pair of brand-new AirPods to her wish list. The Clem family plans to save the rest of the cryptocurrency in anticipation of the ever-changing market price. 

Why Are Some NFTs So Expensive

It made us curious. Why are some non-fungible tokens so expensive? NFTs verify the ownership of digital files. They can represent digital masterpieces and items associated with video games, collector’s items, and more. Everything stored as data on a blockchain can be considered NFT, often bought by cryptocurrencies.

This year, researchers at the Alan Turing Institute (ATI) completed a study that analyzed the factors affecting the price of NFTs. The experts looked at three components. These include the NFTs visual features, previous sales of similar or related NFTs, and the social network of both the buyer and the seller. ATI used a machine learning model to analyze the dataset of 4.7 million NFTs dealt by more than 500,000 buyers and sellers. The result was that past sales of NFTs were the most critical factor among the three, which accounts for over 50% of the price variance. 

For example, past sales of CryptoPunks collection NFTs would be a good baseline of future sales of tokens from the same group. The second most crucial element involves the visual features, accounting for a maximum of 20%. Meanwhile, the popularity of the traders influenced the performance by 10 percent. In conclusion, these three factors can explain up to 70 percent of the unpredictability of NFT prices. 

Price tags for NFTs of internet memes have tremendously increased in the previous year. It is worth noting that Internet sensations like Nyan Cat ($880,000), Doge ($4 million), Charlie Bit My Finger ($760,000), Overly Attached Girlfriend ($411,000), and Disaster Girl ($500,000) have reaped considerable earnings in NFT. 

Not only that, digital artist Beeple sold a collection of NFTs at auction for $69 million earlier this year. Several years ago, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sold an NFT of his first tweet for $2.9 million.