The "Hot Potato" craze hit, and a potato worth more than $3,200 sparked a meme movement

作者:Nancy,PANews

An ordinary potato with the word “Hot” printed on it sold for about $3,200 and attracted well-known artists such as Jack Butcher and Sam Spratt to join the second creation craze, and even set off a meme movement called “Hot Potato”.

The story begins with a tweet by Vincent Van Dough, a well-known NFT collector whose NFT works have also sparked a wave of Pepe frog creations. On November 2, Vincent Van Dough launched a game on Twitter in which he allowed anyone to bid on the NFT minting platform and Manifold without a reserve price, and the competition was a regular potato marked “Hot”. What’s special is that the NFT corresponding to this potato will only remain in the wallet for 24 hours, and will be automatically destroyed after the time is exceeded.

! [The “Hot Potato” craze hits, and a potato worth more than $3,200 sparked a meme movement] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-69a80767fe-108a801210-dd1a6f-cd5cc0.webp)

Once the game began, a number of people joined the auction, and the bids rose from 0.01 ETH to 1.788 ETH (worth about $3,200 at the time), and were eventually acquired by a well-known crypto trader with the Twitter account @osf_rekt. Subsequently, @osf_rekt said that he would resell the potato to valuable “candidates”, which successfully attracted the participation of many KOLs and celebrities, including American pop idol Usher, artist Matt Kane, etc.

During the period of being resold several times, there were also the initiation of the “Council of Carbs”, made up of artists who qualified to be holders of the “Hot Potato”, who started a campaign to “receive potatoes for art”, and others who “threatened” the community to make more spin-off “Hot Potato” JPEGs and GIFs or destroy potatoes.

! [The “Hot Potato” craze hits, and a potato worth more than $3,200 sparked a meme movement] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-69a80767fe-44b4bab2bf-dd1a6f-cd5cc0.webp)

Not only that, artists such as Jack Butcher and Beeple also watched and even created a second creation, and some people also called for potatoes to be transferred to Beeple, which added fuel to the popularity of “Hot Potato”, and all kinds of memes spread quickly on the Internet overnight.

! [The “Hot Potato” craze hits, and a potato worth more than $3,200 sparked a meme movement] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-69a80767fe-5ea8cf2e6c-dd1a6f-cd5cc0.webp)

A second creation by Jack Butcher

What’s even more interesting is that Vincent Van Dough himself also planned a “Potato Travel” to transport food to @osf_rekt in Paris, so that the potatoes had a series of magical journeys such as first class, staying in luxury hotels, and displaying them with luxury jewelry. In the end, the physical potato was delivered to @osf_rekt. And the artist Sam Spratt also came to a fake drama of “robbing potatoes halfway”, which filled the humorous atmosphere.

! [The “Hot Potato” craze hits, and a potato worth more than $3,200 sparked a meme movement] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-69a80767fe-9083841c57-dd1a6f-cd5cc0.webp)

Hot Potato in first class

In fact, the popularity of “Hot Potato” does not lie in its own value, but in the marketing methods behind it. In the process of building the influence of “Hot Potato” NFT, in addition to the celebrity effect and the common burning mechanism, it also introduces traditional games such as “timed explosion”, encouraging holders to sell and transfer before the NFT price drops or the game ends, and the new owner needs to pay more fees during each sale, which undoubtedly brings a crazy meme self-propagation effect and gradually increases the value of the asset.

As “Hot Potato” suggests, crypto assets are like “hot potatoes”, and investors are trying to avoid being the last “taker”.