The “Disaster Girl” photo that sparked a thousand memes is the latest to make it big all over again as an NFT. Zoe Roth, a 21-year-old college student and face of the viral “Disaster Girl,” sold an NFT of the meme for roughly $500,000 worth of Ether, The New York Times reported. The auction took place earlier this month, on auction site Foundation. Roth plans to use the funds to pay for school and make donations to charity, she told The Times.
The now iconic image dates back to 2005, when her father, David Roth, snapped the photo in their neighborhood while watching local firefighters at a controlled burn. Eventually, he entered it into a contest (he won), and the photo was quickly picked up by internet forums, according to Know Your Meme.
It’s not the first time an old meme has found a new life as an NFT or non-fungible token. The artist behind Nyan Cat sold an NFT based on the viral 2011 clip for $605,000 earlier this year. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also recently sold his first tweet as an NFT for nearly $3 million.
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