Remastered 'nyan cat' art sells for the equivalent of $605k

While the first Christie's auction of digital artwork backed by NFT (non-fungible token) is still a few days away, one of the most notable sales in that world has already taken place. Chris Torres created the rainbow-streaming animation of Nyan Cat based on his own pet and uploaded it to YouTube in 2011, before recreating a high-quality one-of-one edition for this sale.

NFTs allow buyers to verify the single owner of digital items, and someone paid 300 Ether — the cryptocurrency that runs on the Ethereum blockchain — to win an auction put on by digital marketplace Foundation. As of this writing, that much Ether is worth about $605,382, so it didn't come cheap. You can see how the auction ended on a livestream below. Digital marketplaces and artists are looking at NFTs to provide a future for finding value in their creations, but we'll have to wait and see which artwork is next to sell at such a high figure.

Just opened up the flood gates to the future of meme economy in the Crypto universe, no big deal~

But seriously, thanks for believing in Nyan Cat all these years. I hope this inspires future artists to get into #NFT universe so they can get proper recognition for their work! pic.twitter.com/JX7UU9VSPb

— ☆Chris☆ (@PRguitarman) February 19, 2021

Going once, going twice, sold! 🌈

Thank you to @PRguitarman for bringing us along for the historic ride. 🌐 @NyanCat forever. 💖

Rewatch the auction live stream → https://t.co/XJQI2O0Ula pic.twitter.com/ywpgglnGiw

— Foundation (@withFND) February 19, 2021