NUMBER CRUNCH

Would You Pay $580,000 for a GIF of an Animated Cat?

How to be an art snob but with memes

$580,000: That’s the approximate dollar equivalent (at the time) of how much an anonymous bidder paid in the cryptocurrency Ether last month to the creator of the Nyan Cat, an animated cat with a Pop-Tart body flying through space with a rainbow trail behind it, for a unique, remastered version of the meme, the New York Times reported.

The Nyan Cat sale is one of several recent examples of a phenomenon that allows individuals to buy and sell ownership of digital art and media using non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are digital records that operate using blockchain technology. The NBA’s Top Shot platform, launched to the public last fall, also lets individual fans purchase NFTs and claim bragging rights over specific basketball highlight clips that are available for anyone to watch or download online. The Nyan Cat sale isn’t even the largest NFT sale to have occurred recently. Famed auction house Christie’s is currently conducting its first auction for a piece of digital art, accepting payment in the cryptocurrency Ether, with the auction winner to receive an NFT. The highest bid is already above $2.4 million.

On Marker last week, Paul Chodirker wrote how one might understand the value ascribed to…