Dogwifhat Beanie Sells for $800K at Auction

The famous knitted beanie linked to the iconic photo of Achi, the Shiba Inu behind the Dogwifhat memecoin, was auctioned on the Bitcoin Ordinals marketplace, Ord City, for 6.8 BTC (approximately $794,074) on Thursday night. The successful bid came from 'Finn', the pseudonymous founder of the Solana memecoin launchpad Bags, who faced stiff competition from two other bidders during the 48-hour auction event. Finn announced the acquisition on X, expressing enthusiasm about Bags' first purchase: 'We’ve acquired a $1B hat for just $0.7M. Get ready for what’s coming next.' At one point, the auction had to be paused due to an influx of fake bids, including one for an impossible amount of bitcoin, equivalent to the total 21 million BTC supply. In response to these issues, Ord City increased the collateral requirements for the auction. Bags allows token deployers to share trading fees with users on X. Finn mentioned that he utilized fees from a Bags-deployed token called 'BUY THE HAT' to fund his winning bid, promising to ensure the hat returns to the community in some form, potentially linking the token to the hat. The BUY THE HAT token surged more than 700% in the past day, with a market cap of $7.8 million, according to DEX Screener. The Dogwifhat meme gained traction on platforms like Reddit and Twitter in 2020, eventually inspiring the creation of a Solana-based cryptocurrency named WIF in late 2023. The original pink hat, crafted as a Christmas decoration, was first photographed on Achi in November 2018, and the image went viral on Instagram. To verify the hat's authenticity, Ord City provided high-quality photos and a video explaining the meme's history and the hat's provenance from Achi’s owners. In their post, the owners expressed gratitude towards Finn, stating, 'This hat has been a lucky charm for us and a piece of internet culture that has traveled across chains, timelines, and communities.' Notably, the auction's final bid fell short compared to the $4.3 million raised from the sale of the original Dogwifhat photo as an NFT. In March 2024, during a three-day auction on the NFT marketplace Foundation, crypto trader Gigantic Rebirth Ventures placed the winning bid of 1,210.8 ETH, around $4.3 million at that time. Dogwifhat is currently trading at $0.92, reflecting a 3.2% increase in the past 24 hours. However, following a decline in memecoin excitement, the token has dropped over 70% from its peak during the NFT sale period, although it still holds a market cap near $1 billion.