‘Disaster Girl’ Zoe Roth who is famous for her iconic meme has sold her infamous meme as a non-fungible token (NFT) for $500,000 (roughly Rs. 3.7 crores). She sold the original photograph of the meme where she is smiling while a house burns in the background. The auction was carried out on Foundation App.
The picture was clicked back in 2005 when young Zoe Ruth was smirking while a house appeared to be on fire in the background. Roth, then aged 4, was living in Mebane, North Carolina when her father, Dave Roth.
The internet however discovered this picture in 2008 when one of the multiple pictures clicked by her father of the incident was published in 2008. Roth became an internet sensation as this picture was used by netizens intensively for memes.
Roth received a mail in February from an anonymous person regarding the sale of her photograph as a non-fungible token or NFT. Despite some suspicion, the father-daughter duo sat over the idea and decided to go ahead with the sale.
Roth also revealed in an interview that she sought advice from other ‘meme celebrities’ over this. Some of them being ‘Bad Luck Brian’ and ‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’. She then went ahead to hire a lawyer and manager to handle and sort the process for her.
The photograph was listed as a non-fungible token on the 16th of April for a 2-hour auction. The price sky-rocketed to 180 Ether, which is equivalent to $470,000.
According to media reports, the auction was eventually worn by a collector known as ‘3F Music’, Farzin Fardin Fard, CEO of a music production company based in Dubai.
Roth said that she would be using the amount she received to fund her college and to also donate a significant share to the charity. That being said, her dad wishes to use the money for repairing the AC in his car instead of donating it. She will be retaining the copyright of the NFT and would receive 10 percent every time the NFT is sold in the future.
She is not the first meme star to leverage this boom and gain some monetary benefit out of it. Laina Morris (“Overly Attached Girlfriend”) sold her meme for $411,000 earlier in April. Kyle Craven (the “Bad Luck Brian” meme) sold his meme for $36,000.