Harambe Gets Immortalized As NFT For His Fifth Death Anniversary
Image by Jason Miklacic / Flickr via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has been an incredible marketplace for memes, with both the viral Charlie Bit My Finger video and the ‘Disaster Girl’ photograph selling for upwards of US$500,000.
Now, Harambe will be joining the mix, with a photograph of the famed gorilla—which you can view here—going on auction to mark the fifth year anniversary of his death.
The western lowland gorilla garnered a ton of posthumous fame on the internet when he was shot at the Cincinnati Zoo in May 2016, after a three-year-old boy fell into his enclosure. Following news of the incident, hashtags such as #RIPHarambe and #JusticeForHarambe were trending for weeks, allowing social media users to channel their outrage over his death into memes, memorializing Harambe as part of internet pop culture.
Harambe’s official photographer, Jeff McCurry, had originally taken the up-for-auction photograph on the gorilla’s first day at the Cincinnati Zoo. According to the BBC, the image was shared more than five billion times online after the gorilla’s death.
While details of the auction, including the starting bidding price, have yet to be revealed, it won’t be surprising if Harambe joins the ranks of other viral internet memes that have broken NFT auction records.
[via Highsnobiety, cover image Jason Miklacic / Flickr via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)]
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