Chris Torres, the maker of the iconic Internetmeme Nyan Cat, is afraid to get involved in the world of Meme coins, despite the fact that he has published a number of NFT collections in the past.
The artist told Decrypt It is because he sees meme coins as the ‘Wild West’.
Nevertheless, Torres has demanded more than $ 700,000 in reimbursements of the Bags -Tokslancingpad. It allows everyone to launch a token on the platform and to allocate royalties to a user on X. The platform has housed countless tokens that send royalties to Torres, in particular a Nyan Cat token that a market capitalization of $ 12 million has touched on Thursday.
“I am grateful for what happens to that platform. I have never had this kind of support before, and the funds will help my family a lot,” Torres said Decrypt. “However, I am still respectfully careful with things, in the end I do not know who has launched what, who cut the offer, or who I should trust. It is certainly still the Wild West.”
The artist, born in Puerto Rican, revealed that he has exchanged nearly 4,000 sol, which is currently worth a little more than $ 706,000, according to Coeningecko.
But Torres was clear that he is not thinking of accepting the funds as to grant his approval to each token or platform – and he is not comfortable to create an official token.
“At the moment I am focused on the art I have made for more than 15 years,” Torres explained. “I know that the coin space can be profitable and fun, but it is also hectic, and there is nothing worse than having to pick up the pieces if a person decides to mess with a coin. I am not completely against the idea, but I have been fulfilled more of the artificial side of things.”
How did Nyan Cat come here?
Nyan Cat is an 8-bit animation from a cat with a pop-tart body that flies through the room, leaving a rainbow path behind it.
The meme, based on his own Russian blue cat named Marty, was originally placed in a strip place by Torres in 2011. It was later uploaded to YouTube with a Japanese song called Nyanyanyanyanyanyanyanya, who became synonymous with the meme.
Since then, Torres has been driving the Gulf of an artist and has mixed with various classical meme makers.
In 2021 he sold a one-of-one NFT of the iconic poison for 300 ETH, or at that time $ 690,000.
On the back of this, Torres claims to have tapped in his OG MEME network to help them also sell NFTs. This list contained the will of keyboard cat, breakdown Brian, Scumbag Steve and more – all selling for at least five digits.
Torres also helped the maker of Trollface, known as Carlos Ramirez, sell his classic meme as an NFT for 42 ETH, or at that time around $ 69,000.
Recently, the Trollface artist noticed himself in the same way in the midst of Meme Coin Mania as a Troll -Token hit a market capitalization of $ 200 million on Wednesday.
However, the Troll -Token is made on pump. Fun, so that royalties cannot be easily shared with artists, as is the case with bags. Nevertheless, a whole series of bags -tokens have also been launched in honor of Ramirez. But he has refused to endorse a token and claims that crypto art is “decreasing” because of the thirst from traders to profit.
That said, the Trollface artist has excluded legal steps against the tokens. Nyan Cat maker Torres took a similar position and claimed that legal steps are only worth the time of an artist in a “serious thing” because of how time-consuming and stressful it can be.
“As an artist, it is important to find a balance between protecting your IP and letting something exist as a meme,” Torres said. “If art is used respectfully, there has never been a problem.”
Over the years, Torres has collaborated with various projects to create NFT collections. This includes a Reddit Nyan Cat collection from 2023, of which he says that the social media site went temporarily offline because of the number of people trying to buy the NFTs.
“Most people think that I am not even part of Crypto or hate it,” he said. “But I have been working on it for almost five years and it has changed in a good way for me personally.”
Torres added that, despite the fact that meme coins are currently the hot, he still believes that NFTs are a more natural fit for art.
“Coins are absolutely more difficult to enter than art for a new artist,” he said Decrypt. ‘I think so [NFT] Art, people will concentrate on the work itself, how it feels them, and everything lives in a neat collection that can be seen as a gallery with working. With coins, the moment you launch, you are expected to keep that graph up. “
“That said, [meme] Coins can be art, “Torres added.” It’s all about implementation. “