Nyan Cat

2011

Date: 2 April 2011 · Place: Dallas, Texas · Figures: Christopher Torres aka PRguitarman, illustrator · Daniwell-P aka Daniel Asadi, composer of the Vocaloid song · Tags: Loop Video, Pop Tart Cat, NFT Auction 01. Pop Tart Cat With A Rainbow Tail Christopher Torres, a Dallas illustrator posting as PRguitarman, draws a pixel-art cat with a strawberry pop-tart body on 2 April 2011. He posts it to his LiveJournal as Pop Tart Cat. Five days later a YouTube user combines the image, looped on a starfield, with the Vocaloid song Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! by Daniwell-P. The combined upload accumulates 30 million views by year end. The dedicated stream site nyan.cat hosts the loop continuously through the 2010s. 02. Auctioned For Three Hundred Ether On 18 February 2021 Torres auctions a remastered Nyan Cat as a non-fungible token on Foundation for 300 ETH, then roughly 580,000 dollars. The sale is one of the first major NFT auctions of a born-digital meme artifact and helps trigger the spring 2021 NFT boom. Daniwell-P, the song's composer, is credited but not financially included in the auction. Discussion of the omission becomes part of the longer conversation about credit in collaborative meme objects. Sources • KnowYourMeme, 'Nyan Cat' • Christopher Torres, original LiveJournal post (2 April 2011) • The Verge, 'Nyan Cat is being sold as a one-of-a-kind piece of crypto art' (18 February 2021)