Nyan Cat Creator Calls Meme Coins ‘Wild West’, Claims $700K in Fees—But Denies Endorsement
Chris Torres, the creator of the enduring web meme Nyan Cat, is apprehensive about getting concerned on this planet of meme cash, regardless of issuing quite a few NFT collections previously.
The artist instructed Decrypt it’s as a result of he views meme cash because the “wild west.”
Nonetheless, Torres has claimed greater than $700,000 in charges from the Luggage token launchpad. It permits anybody to launch a token on the platform and assign royalties to a consumer on X. The platform has housed numerous tokens sending royalties to Torres, most notably a Nyan Cat token that touched a $12 million market cap on Thursday.
“I’m grateful for what is occurring with that platform. I’ve by no means had this type of help earlier than, and the funds will assist my household quite a bit,” Torres instructed Decrypt. “I am nonetheless respectfully cautious about issues although, in the end I do not know who launched what, who sniped provide, or who to belief. It is positively nonetheless the wild west out right here.”
The Puerto Rican-born artist disclosed that he has redeemed nearly 4,000 SOL, which is at present value simply over $706,000, based on CoinGecko.
However Torres was clear that he doesn’t consider accepting the funds as granting his endorsement to any token or platform—neither is he snug with creating an official token.
“Proper now, I am targeted on the artwork I have been making for over 15 years,” Torres defined. “I do know the coin house might be worthwhile and enjoyable, but it surely’s additionally hectic, and there may be nothing worse than having to choose up the items if one individual decides to mess with a coin. I am not completely against the concept, however I’ve been getting extra achievement from the artwork facet of issues.”
How did Nyan Cat get right here?
Nyan Cat is an 8-bit animation of a cat with a Pop-Tart physique flying by house, leaving a rainbow path behind it.
The meme, primarily based on his personal Russian Blue cat named Marty, was initially posted to a comic book website by Torres in 2011. It was later uploaded to YouTube with a Japanese music referred to as Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya, which grew to become synonymous with the meme.
Since then, Torres has been using the wave of being an artist and has mingled with a number of basic meme creators.
In 2021, he bought a one-of-one NFT of the enduring GIF for 300 ETH, or $690,000 on the time.
On the again of this, Torres claims to have tapped into his OG meme community to assist them additionally promote NFTs. This record included the likes of Keyboard Cat, Dangerous Luck Brian, Scumbag Steve, and extra—all promoting for not less than 5 figures.
Torres additionally helped out the creator of Trollface, often known as Carlos Ramirez, promote his basic meme as an NFT for 42 ETH, or roughly $69,000 on the time.
Lately, the Trollface artist has equally discovered himself amid meme coin mania as a Troll token touched a $200 million market cap on Wednesday.
Nonetheless, the Troll token was created on Pump.enjoyable, which doesn’t simply permit for royalties to be shared with artists, as is the case with Luggage. Regardless of that, a slew of Luggage tokens have additionally been launched in honor of Ramirez. However he has refused to endorse a token, claiming that crypto “diminishes” artwork on account of merchants’ thirst for income.
That mentioned, the Trollface artist dominated out urgent authorized motion in opposition to the tokens. Nyan Cat creator Torres took an analogous stance, claiming that authorized motion is just value an artist’s time in a “critical case” on account of how time-consuming and aggravating it may be.
“As an artist, it is vital to discover a stability between defending your IP and letting one thing exist as a meme,” Torres mentioned. “If the artwork is used respectfully, then there’s by no means been an issue.”
Over time, Torres has collaborated with a number of initiatives to create NFT collections. This features a 2023 Reddit Nyan Cat assortment, which he says brought on the social media website to quickly go offline as a result of variety of individuals trying to purchase the NFTs.
“Most individuals assume I’m not even part of crypto or hate it,” he mentioned. “However I’ve been at it for nearly 5 years and it’s been life-changing for me personally in a great way.”
Torres added that regardless of meme cash being the recent factor proper now, he nonetheless believes that NFTs are a extra pure match for artwork.
“Cash are positively more durable to get into than artwork for a brand new artist,” he instructed Decrypt. “I feel with [NFT] artwork, individuals will deal with the work itself, the way it makes them really feel, and every part lives in a neat assortment that may be considered as a gallery of works. With cash, the second you launch you are anticipated to maintain that chart going up.”
“That being mentioned, [meme] cash might be artwork,” Torres added. “It is all in regards to the execution.”
