For a rather hefty sum, one of the Internet’s most popular images could be yours to keep.
In the fall of 2013, toddler Chloe Clem went viral across all major social media platforms after a video posted by her mother gained attention for a hilarious screenshot of Chloe’s face. In the video, Chloe’s mother enthusiastically reveals to her young daughter a surprise trip to Disneyland, but Chloe does not react with similar excitement. Thus, the Chloe meme was born.
The still frame, now commonly referred to as “Side-Eyeing Chloe,” quickly joined the ever-growing lexicon of Internet sensations and legendary memes.
Now, 8 years later, Chloe and her family have a new plan for the iconic image: to sell it.
The Clem family has made the choice to profit off Chloe’s image by selling it as a non-fungible token (NFT) on the blockchain. NFTs are an emerging online token used to represent and commodify art within the digital space; the tokens make it so that images that do not exist within a tangible, physical capacity can still be purchased and owned.
2021 has marked an uptick in meme-content available on the blockchain. The faces of several other Internet memes have also taken action to make money off their popular images via NFTs. Some meme-able moments have already sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Chloe and the Clem family began bidding on the image at the price of 5 Ethereum coins— the cryptocurrency equivalent of about $15,000. However, buyers quickly pushed the price award.
3F Music, a Dubai-based production company, put in the final bid on the Chloe meme this past Friday, costing it 25 Ether coins. In U.S. dollars, this means that Chloe’s side-eye amassed almost $75,000.
While Chloe seems to have an imaginative approach regarding how to spend her newfound mini-fortune, her mother insists that the money from the sold NFT will be going towards funding her daughters’ college education. This just goes to show, even in a world crazy enough where a meme can make you millions, some constants remain the same.
