It seems like everyone is jumping on the NFT bandwagon, minting all sorts from music videos to famous artworks. But some tokenized commodities are getting quite bizarre. And still selling for staggering sums. Here are some weird NFTs catching our attention.
Charlie Bit Me Viral Video
The latest oddity to be minted as an NFT is a viral video on Youtube. The clip was first posted in 2007 and has since racked up over 880 million views. The brief video features two young brothers, Harry and Charlie. Harry’s endearing surprise when baby Charlie sinks his teeth into his finger has stolen the hearts of many internet users. The Davies-Carr family decided to auction the clip and, on Sunday, bids soared to a final $760,999. This also means the much-loved clip will leave Youtube as the family has said it will take it down after the auction.
Disaster Girl Meme
An NFT of a meme, known as Nyan Cat, made headlines in February when it sold for an eye-popping $580,000. Now, another well-known meme dubbed “disaster girl” has become a unique digital asset. The legendary photo shows a burning house during a firefighters’ training drill. A girl in the foreground turns to face the camera with a sly smile on her face.
Captured at four-years-old in the photo, Zoë Roth, now 21, decided to give the meme the crypto treatment. The original image sold as an NFT at auction at the end of April for $473,000. Roth has said she will donate some of the proceeds to charity and use some to pay off her student loan.
The First Tweet
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey decided to sell the first-ever tweet, his own, backed up by blockchain technology in March. The famous post, tweeted in 2006, read “just setting up my twttr”. At auction, it fetched a whopping $2.9 million. The buyer received a certificate signed by Dorsey and original data including the time the tweet was sent. The billionaire said the proceeds from the sale would be donated to charity. Unlike the Charlie Bit Me video, the post will remain visible on Twitter.
Hollywood Sign
Thanks to a collaboration between creative platform Sugar23 and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, the iconic Hollywood sign will join the ranks of weird NFTs. The project is still in its early stages. An artist is still to be found who will create the minted version but the aim is to auction it off this summer. Profits from the sale will again go to charitable causes.
Toilet Paper
Using an astute play on words, P&G’s Charmin toilet paper has become an “NFT(P)”. In an unusual marketing strategy, the company created three original toilet roll themed artworks. A press release states, “The NFT(P) presents a brilliant toilet paper aesthetic with soft but durable textures, making it a true centerpiece of your personal crypto art collection.” Artists Donna Adi, Shanee Benjamin and Made by Radio created the loo paper offerings. The NFT(P)s are being auctioned off, with proceeds benefiting Direct Relief, a charity providing life-saving medical supplies.
Digital Perfume
The most mind-boggling minting to date may be the creation of a digital perfume, Cyber Eau de Parfum. Getting deep into the realms of weird, Berlin company Look Labs used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to measure and record microscopic, molecular vibrations of the perfume, bottle and label. Artists incorporated the resulting wavelengths into 10 digital artworks encoded with NFTs. The company called these blockchain-based artworks a “digital reflection of a physical scent”.
Whether it’s thanks to their collectibility, aesthetic or just off-the-wall madness, these weird NFTs have provided desirable and buyers have snapped them up for some astonishing sums. And things are set to get stranger as Forbes reports even body parts are getting tokenized.
