That mischievous smirk on an innocent girl¡¯s face while a house burns down in the background--a meme that has intrigued the internet community for more than a decade--has fetched the ¡®disaster girl¡¯ over ?3.7 crore In NFT.
Zoe Roth took control over the viral image macro taken by her father in 2005 of her flashing a sinister smile as firefighters doused a house fire in their North Carolina (US) neighbourhood.
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Just so there isn¡¯t any confusion, then 4-year-old Roth isn¡¯t an arsonist; and when she isn¡¯t being her alter ego--teasing the internet with her diabolical smile--the internet¡¯s favourite child lives a parallel life as a 21-year-old young adult who is a senior at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The Roth family didn¡¯t know what to do with all the internet infamy until February when it was suggested that she should sell the original image as a non-fungible token (NFT).
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Putting aside initial suspicion, the father-daughter duo sought the advice of "meme" celebrities like "Overly Attached Girlfriend" Laina Morris and "Bad Luck Brian" Kyle Craven before hiring a manager and a lawyer to sort the process out, the Raleigh News and Observer reported.
Thereafter, on April 16, they listed the original copy of the ¡®Disaster Girl¡¯ meme for a 24-hour auction, which was purchased by 3F Music, a Dubai-based music studio, for 180 Ether--a cryptocurrency currently worth over ?3.7 crore.
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The same company also bought several other big-ticket NFTs, including Overly Attached Girlfriend ($411,000) and The New York Times¡¯ meta NFT-column ($560,000), The Verge reported.
NFT is a digital signature authenticated by blockchain that certifies the ownership and originality of items. It has become the latest investment craze, with one digital artwork selling for nearly $70 million while a hand-painted "self-portrait" co-created by the famous humanoid robot Sophia fetched just under $700,000.