Known for cute memesits own cute languageAnd huge monuments for beloved pets, the multi-billion dollars Shiba Inu themed meme coin ecosystem is generally a place of cuddly coexistence.
But recent tensions between users in the Solana ecosystem – home to the explosions Dog hat (WIF) meme coin – and owners of the real South Korean dog that inspired the token may have caused some trouble in the animal paradise.
On Thursday, a South Korean Instagram user announced that the Shiba Inu from the “Dogwifhat” meme, named Achi, was in fact their pet — and that to celebrate the dog, they planned to auction off an NFT of the original, iconic photo of Achi wearing a woven hat (which the user claims was knitted for the dog).
The user’s Instagram profile has consistently posted photos of a Shiba Inu in various woven clothing for the past five years, ever since the dog was a puppy; they also posted the famous ‘Dogwifhat’ photo itself in December 2018 – almost an entire year before the photo went viral online. Partners of the Achi NFT auction confirmed with Declutter that the user has been verified as Achi’s real parent.
However, upon announcing the NFT photo auction, several members of the WIF community and other Solana users lamented the fact that the dog’s parents had collaborated with Feisty DAO – a online community with previous experience purchasing and fractionating Shiba Inu-related NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.
The new Achi NFT will be minted as an Ethereum NFT, and that is currently the case offered for auction on Ethereum NFT platform Foundation. The auction ends on Monday; at the time of writing, the piece has a current bid of 50 ETH, or worth over $182,000.
Complaints about the NFT drop – many of which implored Achi’s parents to work with the WIF team on Solana instead – reached the level where pet owners publicly advocated for the barrage to stop.
📈 @NFDtoken increases Achi to 50 ETH pic.twitter.com/yV6kdTzvws
— Foundation 🌐 (@foundation) March 15, 2024
“Please don’t offend [Achi] and us,” the owners wrote in a pinned comment on the Instagram post. “You have no reason to blame us. Please cheer us on.”
Apparently Achi’s owners arrived earlier, though did attempt to collaborate with Solana users, with disastrous consequences. One meme coin that emerged in the wake of WIF’s great success: ACHI, launched late last month with the support and support of Achi’s parents. Shortly afterwards, the token’s creators are said to have taken over the project.
Because of that bad experience, Achi’s parents chose to partner with Feisty DAO, which had successfully launched several NFT sales in the past. Pathtold a Feisty DAO member and facilitator of the Achi NFT auction Declutter.
Declutter contacted Achi’s parents via Instagram but did not immediately receive a response.
While several members of the WIF community clearly felt frustrated that Achi’s parents had not coordinated their NFT launch with the meme coin community, it appears the community has done little or nothing to reach out to the dog’s family whose face shot their token out. a multi-billion dollar valuation.
WIF launched in December; A few weeks ago, Achi’s parents had reportedly never heard of anyone in the WIF community and tried to reach out.
Hello, I am the owner of this dog. Can you contact me?
— achichu (@achichuchu) February 4, 2024
Mihirone of the WIF community members who coordinated the collection of almost $700,000 this week to plaster Achi’s face on Sphere, the massive LED screen-covered arena in Las Vegas, said Declutter that he was unaware of Achi’s owners until last week. However, he believes they are owed something from WIF’s loot.
At the time of writing, WIF’s market capitalization is greater than $3 billion. Achi’s parents’ NFT – from the original photo they took and on which WIF is based – currently has a bid worth around $182,000.
Path, the Feisty DAO member coordinating the NFT photo auction, said that if there was interest from the Solana community in purchasing the photo, he would be happy to consider relisting the NFT on Solana for the auction winners .
Path said he contacted Ansem, a prominent member of the WIF community, to see if the crypto influencer might want to buy the Achi NFT, but Ansem wasn’t interested. Path says he hasn’t heard from anyone else associated with WIF.
Ansem did not respond immediately Declutter reached out for comment.
Edited by Andrew Hayward