Dogwifhat original pink beanie sells to memecoin launchpad founder for $800K — far less than $4.3M iconic photo NFT sale

The physical knitted beanie associated with the iconic photo of Achi, the Shiba Inu dog behind the Dogwifhat memecoin, sold via auction on Bitcoin Ordinals marketplace Ord City for 6.8 BTC ($794,074) on Thursday night.

The winning bid came from "Finn," the pseudonymous founder of Solana memecoin launchpad Bags, on behalf of the platform, beating strong competition from two other bidders in particular during the 48-hour event.

"I'm excited to announce that Bags has made its first acquisition," Finn said on X following the auction, adding the hat to the Bags avatar. "We've acquired a $1B hat for just $0.7M. Get ready for what's coming next."

The auction had to be paused at one point during the proceedings after a slew of fake bids were submitted, including one for an impossible amount of bitcoin, equivalent to the total 21 million BTC supply. "We massively underestimated your degeneracy," Ord City said in response, raising the auction's collateral requirement to rectify the issue.

Bags' model enables token deployers to share trading fees with users on X. Finn claimed he used the fees received from one such Bags-deployed token called "BUY THE HAT" to help fund the winning bid, adding that he would "make sure the hat goes back to the community in some way" — potentially linking the token to the hat.

The token has gained more than 700% over the past 24 hours, rising to a market cap of $7.8 million, according to DEX Screener.

The Dogwifhat meme became popular on platforms like Reddit and Twitter in 2020, inspiring the Solana-based WIF cryptocurrency of the same name in late 2023. The pink hat, originally handcrafted as a Christmas decoration, was first photographed on Achi in November 2018, and the image went viral when uploaded to Instagram. To verify the authenticity of the hat, Ord City provided high-resolution photos and a video detailing the meme's origin and the hat's provenance from Achi's owners.

"This hat has been a lucky charm for us and a piece of internet culture that has traveled across chains, timelines, and communities, carrying our story along the way," the owners posted on X, congratulating Finn on the winning bid. "It has sparked conversations, inspired memes and connected people who share the same love for the dog wif hat. We hope it brings you and everyone around you the same luck, fun, and serendipity it brought us."

Iconic Dogwifhat photo's $4.3 million NFT sale

Though substantial, the winning bid for the knitted hat falls far short of the amount the owners raised from the sale of the Dogwifhat meme's original iconic photo as an NFT.

Following a three-day auction on NFT marketplace Foundation in March 2024, crypto trader Gigantic Rebirth Ventures ultimately made the winning bid of 1,210.8 ETH , worth around $4.3 million at the time and $4.7 million at current prices.

Dogwifhat is currently trading at $0.92, up 3.2% over the past 24 hours. Following a collapse in memecoin hype, the token is down over 70% since peaking around the time of the NFT sale, though it still commands a market cap of nearly $1 billion.