Charlie Bit My Finger Video Sold As NFT For Over Rs. 5 Crore

The famous Charlie Bit My Finger” video — one of the most viral clips on YouTube — has fetched its creators a staggering $7,60,999 (roughly Rs. 5.54 crore). The auction to sell the homemade clip as a non-fungible token (NFT) saw a close bidding war between two anonymous bidders — 3fmusic and mememaster. The former, finally, outbid the latter to not just get the NFT but also an opportunity to meet the two British boys and re-enact the video, which had nearly 880 million views until last week. It will now be permanently deleted from the platform as was discussed before the auction took place.

At least 11 accounts took part in the auction before we saw an extremely exciting round between mememaster and 3fmusic. The latter eventually won with the $760,999 offer. NFTs are unique digital assets that a person can buy or sell, using blockchain technology, the same concept behind most cryptocurrency. They can be anything from collectible sports cards to digital sneakers. No two NFTs are identical.

In the famous 56-second video, Harry (the elder boy) and Charlie (the younger), who are now 17 and 15, respectively, are seen sitting on a sofa. Charlie bites Harry's finger and he laughs and says, "Charlie bit my finger." A few seconds later, he once again offers Charlie his finger and the latter bites it again, this time with a bit more pressure than Harry anticipated.

The video went viral and captured the hearts of people all over the internet. The family says it was shot as a part of catching random moments while the two boys were growing up. And while they had posted it on YouTube only for friends and family to watch, the video went viral in no time, also becoming the most-watched viral clip on the platform.

The creators had chosen a special occasion — May 22 — for the auction. On that day, it will be 14 years since the video was uploaded on YouTube.

Watch the video here:

After the auction, the Davies-Carr family, who had auctioned the clip as an NFT, in a statement to ABC News, said that they planned to meet the winner and re-enact the video in person. "An important element to this auction, for Harry in particular, is that we will also be donating to carbon offset costs of mining bitcoins," the family said. "The rest of the money coming out of the auction will then go to a college fund for the boys," the family added.

The iconic video is the latest to become part of an NFT mania. Disaster Girl Zoe Roth, famous as the little girl smiling while a house in the background burned in a popular Internet meme, made almost $500,000 (roughly Rs. 3.7 crore) by selling an original copy of the meme as an NFT. The picture clicked in 2005 shows a four-year-old Zoe Roth standing in the foreground, smirking almost devilishly while a house appeared to be on fire in the background. Roth went on to become one of the most viral meme faces on the internet. No matter what the tragedy, the disaster girl, as she is referred to now, was seen everywhere.

Before Roth, it was Seth Phillips — the man who stands with signboards protesting against relatable issues — who decided to convert some of his works into a collection of NFTs and auction them. His unique Instagram account (@Dudewithsign) that has photos of him standing with these funny, relatable placards about annoying day-to-day problems has piqued the attention of many users online. Phillips, who has over 7.5 million followers on Instagram, decided to make the most of his digital assets — him posing with his placards — by turning them into his very own collection of NFTs.