Pepe The Frog NFT By Meme's Original Artist Sparks Lawsuit After He Issued 46 Identical Copies Of Artwork

A Pepe the Frog NFT sparked a lawsuit this week after the non-fungible token's seller, Matt Furie (who is the original artist behind Pepe), issued 46 identical copies of the token, leading the value of the original to decrease.

Collector spent more than $500,000 on Pepe the Frog's NFT, which others got for free

Now he has sued, seeking damages and moral damages.

Imagine the judge's face when she found out that the picture was bought for 500k bucks 🙃#PEPEnft #nftcommunity #nft #nfts pic.twitter.com/sTp0GJXmjF

— 🔥Doodles Ape🔥 (@doodlesape) March 18, 2022

Furie, who launched his Pepe-themed crypto art collection last year, sold the NFT of Pepe bathing nude by a waterfall for $536,700 to Halston Thayer. The token Thayer bought was the only one sold at the time, as is typical of most NFTs, and when Furie released the 46 others this week, the value of the original plummeted to just $30,000.

What do you mean my easy to replicate image isn't worth $1MM? https://t.co/N7XLXpjKT6

— Purple Haze van Nederlands (@Youllcoward5) March 18, 2022

I see things are going well for the NFT market 🙃 https://t.co/NM4Wd7vzgH

— Donny (@dgschell) March 18, 2022

This latest bizarre turn in the NFT market comes amid continuing public confusion about what exactly NFTs are and a proliferation of new NFTs being minted (though some report the sector is losing interest overall).

An NFT uses the same technology as cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, meaning that each NFT is unique, one-of-a-kind and inimitable — in a word, "non-fungible." Essentially what Furie did with the Pepe NFT in question was funge it, meaning that now Halston’s image is not one-of-a-kind but one of 46.

“The future of finance” https://t.co/bQM2eCC3Ga

— Stopulist (@Stopulist) March 18, 2022

Boi got funged in the butt https://t.co/8VqePsO9fT

— kevin (the only one you know) (@kevbuddy_) March 18, 2022

Furie has made a business of selling Pepe NFTs with often lewd or humorous imagery, and he is far from the only one. Twitter is awash not only with Pepe but with thousands of other NFTs that often command high prices. As an asset class, NFTs are not very regulated and are an attractive investment for many of the same reasons that paintings and sculptures are: the uniqueness of the NFT seems to promise stability in its value, an assumption that Furie’s actions threw into question for many.

I just listed Pool Party: https://t.co/xROmdd0h8x

These guys know how to vibe and have real fun! Big credits to Matt_Furie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/GIToadz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">GIToadz CryptoBatzNFT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/frogfam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#frogfam</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/pepe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#pepe</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nft?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nft</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nftart?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nftart</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/jaggedsoft?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">jaggedsoft pic.twitter.com/nEGWPCmFJy

— vorksee (@vorkse) March 17, 2022

Maressa × Pepe @foundation!

Reserve: 0.35 $ETH
Buy now: 0.75 $ETH

.https://t.co/BCiX6hbFDT
.#nft #pepefrog #nftcollector
. pic.twitter.com/R7S6rgTnRb

— TheRafa_Arts (All love for art – ALFA) (@NFT_TheRafaArts) March 18, 2022

You might never swap out your Roth IRA for a folder of dank Pepes, but the NFT space seems bound to draw more interest an attention as time goes on.