Charlie Bit My Finger NFT Sells For $760,000 As Original Is Removed From YouTube

Last week, reports of the Davies-Carr family planning to sell their iconic Charlie Bit My Finger viral video as an NFT swept the web, only this time, news was less focused on the NFT and more focused on the fact that the original YouTube upload was going to be deleted following the sale.

Origin Protocol, the platform that ran the auction over the weekend, said in a statement that the intent behind removing the video from YouTube was for it to be "memorialized on the blockchain."

NFTs have been exploding in popularity this year since late February, and while they’re controversial for a few different reasons depending on who you ask, the decision to remove the original upload of Charlie Bit My Finger that’s existed on the platform since 2007 sparked one of the hottest debates surrounding crypto art yet.

We told you that this one would be monumental. The Charlie Bit Me #NFT auction will forever be known as a historic success!

Thank you to everyone who participated & a special congratulations to @3fmusic who will now decide the fate of this iconic video.https://t.co/K529CbFvcC pic.twitter.com/EkjR4H2b7W

— Origin Protocol (@OriginProtocol) May 23, 2021

Now, after 14 years and over 883 million views, Charlie Bit My Finger is slated to be taken off YouTube any day now after being sold as an NFT for nearly $761,000 yesterday (or 290 ETH). It was supposed to be deleted yesterday, but that doesn’t seem to have happened just yet.

With that final auction price, the Charlie Bit My Finger NFT is now the single highest-selling meme crypto-collectible of all time, beating out even Nyan Cat creator Chris Torres who sold the original GIF animation for around $600,000 (or 300 ETH) near the beginning of the craze.

According to Origin’s listing of the NFT, a collector by the name of “3fmusic” walked away with the one-of-one crypto-collectible after a bidding war with user “mememaster” drove the price up in the final moments from the starting bid of $100,000 to more than three-fourths of a million. Coincidentally, 3fmusic also recently purchased NFTs for Disaster Girl (180 ETH, about $450,000 final bid) and Overly Attached Girlfriend (200 ETH, about $411,000 final bid), spending around $1.6 million in total between all three.

CHARLIE BIT ME!

— 3F Music (@3fmusic) May 23, 2021

Included in their purchase is not only the 56-second video but also the chance to “recreate a hilarious modern-day rendition of the classic clip” with Charlie and Harry, who are now both teenagers.

Presently, the original is still on YouTube, but it's unlisted already with a note in the title stating “Waiting on NFT decision.” Of course, there are plenty of reuploads out there of Charlie Bit My Finger depending on where you look, and even if some of them get taken down, it’s unlikely that it’ll ever be fully erased from the internet if you still want to reminisce.