Meme Creators And Icons Rally Behind #Memeconomy Movement As Crypto Art NFTs Flood The Internet

Ever since the sale of the Nyan Cat NFT near the end of February, the crypto art world has been booming, especially so for memes. Just in the last two weeks, Trollface, Deal With It and many more iconic memes have begun popping up on digital art platforms as their original creators auction off unique NFTs for their creations.

By now, pretty much everyone has likely heard of such NFTs making headlines, such as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey auctioning off his first tweet for millions. Alongside the massive rise in crypto art interest, the concept of the “meme economy” has also been increasing — but with a different meaning.

Posted under the hashtag “#memeconomy” on Twitter, this movement has accumulated hundreds of posts since starting in recent weeks, including artwork and auctions from meme creators and other meme celebrities. To learn more about this hashtag and surrounding movement, we spoke with its creator Chris Torres (Nyan Cat) and Kyle Craven (Bad Luck Brian) to see what it’s all about.

“So #Memeconomy is simple,” Torres said. “I coordinated with every single one of these meme creators to time their drops so that everybody has a chance to shine every single day. Each artist fully represents themselves in this, I am not taking a dime and am purely here to help and get lots of eyes on their stuff. I'm hoping this will be a successful week and I'd love to see every single one of these artists get the attribution they have deserved all these years.”

“The #memeconomy has recently sprung up to represent all the iconic memes from the ‘golden age of memes,’” Craven told us. “The hashtag really resonates with the creators and faces behind the original groundbreaking images that have shaped the digital world we live in.”

I'm excited to announce I've officially minted The Kitty Cat Dance as an #NFT on @withFND and it will be up for auction Wednesday, March 10, at 12pm PST!

💎#Memeconomyhttps://t.co/gBEhEzbyAf pic.twitter.com/MQhyvytdc0

— Steve Ibsen (@SteveIbsen) March 8, 2021

Torres sees the NFT space as the perfect place to bring back the power of memes to the artists who have struggled to get recognition for their contributions to internet culture, especially those that have been exploited by companies that take advantage of their work. After his own historic sale, several other individuals from meme creators to those featured in them reached out to Torres for help setting up their own, so he came up with the hashtag and movement to better coordinate their releases.

So far, Torres said that the first run of original meme NFTs using the tag include Me Gusta, Grumpy Cat, Keyboard Cat, Scumbag Steve and more, with others continuing to join in each passing day. Over the next week, these crypto-collectibles will continue to be auctioned off one after the other.

Torres, who told us the year has been filled with ups and downs for him, said that finding the NFT community online has been a highlight of 2021. His reason for taking part in #memeconomy traces back to struggles of his own as he battled for attribution and recognition with Nyan Cat in the past.

“Back in our interview last month, I brought up the fact that I'm actually fighting for memes of past and present,” Torres said. “Growing up in the memeverse, I've seen so many good artists lose out because their memes just get so big that they get stolen by large corporations. These artists never see a dime for their work, and it's always just resonated with me.”

Craven minted his Bad Luck Brian NFT last week, which is currently up for auction as of today, and also had similar thoughts on #memeconomy. To him, the recent digital art movement has been a way to discover new art and support the creators behind it, while also giving fans a chance to own an authentic piece of internet history that brought them joy.

Among these, collaborations with meme-oriented digital artists have also been on the rise. One such artist is Twerky Pepe, who’s created a slew of Pepe the Frog variants in the form of NFTs. This Friday, the first collab between Twerky and Torres is going up, with more on the way.

🌌Introducing🌌

An #NFT collab that's out of this world….

🐸 TwerkyPepe</a> X <a href="https://twitter.com/NyanCat?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">NyanCat 🐈‍⬛🏳️‍🌈

✨Friday, 3/12✨https://t.co/CwaAZTIgcj@withFND 💎#Memeconomy pic.twitter.com/KmBKTjTBnC

— ☆Chris☆ (@PRguitarman) March 8, 2021

While some have called this recent NFT hype nothing more than a passing fad, Craven thinks this movement will forever alter art and the dynamic between artists and their fans.

“The NFT movement will forever change the way we enjoy art and support artists,” Craven told us. “Currently, it is almost impossible for amazing artists to display or sell their artwork through traditional means. The new movement allows thousands of artists to promote their work and provides them with have a platform to support their passion for art.”

The first week of #Memeconomy is now underway, and Torres told us that the second week is currently being put together to have even more meme creators in the days ahead. So, if you’re curious to see more, check out #Memeconomy on Twitter to stay updated on the latest releases.