Nyan Cat NFT Sells for 300 ETH

“I’ve basically opened the door to a whole new meme economy in the crypto world,” Nyan Cat’s creator said.

An age-old question of how to monetize memes appears to have found an answer. This afternoon, the storied internet sensation, Nyan Cat, sold for 300.00 ETH (about $590,000) in an online auction. It wasn’t the .gif file that was sold, which is still reproducible and found everywhere online, but a cryptographic hash of the psychedelic image on the Ethereum blockchain. 

Chris Torres, who created the meme 10 years ago, confirmed the sale and his role in it over email. This was his first experiment with nonfungible tokens (NFTs), a type of digital asset that has taken the crypto scene by storm recently. NFTs, like Bitcoin, are provably scarce and uniquely identifiable. They’ve found application in the world of digital art, as well as more earth-bound industries. 

“I am still relatively new to crypto in general, but I see its full potential,” Torres said. The sale took place on the crypto art platform Foundation, which launched just two weeks ago. The auction was open for 24 hours, with bids starting at 3 ETH.

In recent weeks, a number of historical NFTs have sold for hundreds of ETH, like one Crypto Punk variant priced at over $1 million. The NFT-based art market, which has surged with the crypto markets, is now worth over $100 million, with success seen by crypto-native and traditional artists alike. 

This article originally appeared on CoinDesk.