The ‘Hot Potato’ wave is coming, sparking a meme movement with a potato worth over $3200.

Get Ready for the 'Hot Potato' Craze A Meme Movement Ignited by a $3200 Potato

Author: Nancy, LianGuaiNews

An ordinary potato with the word “Hot” stamped on it was surprisingly sold for about $3,200 and caught the attention of well-known artists like Jack Butcher and Sam Spratt, even sparking a meme movement called “Hot Potato”.

The story begins with a tweet from the renowned NFT collector Vincent Van Dough, whose NFT works had previously sparked the Pepe the Frog creation trend. On November 2nd, Vincent Van Dough launched a game on Twitter, allowing anyone to participate in an auction with no minimum bid on the NFT minting platform and marketplace Manifold. The auction item was a regular potato with the word “Hot” on it. What makes it special is that the corresponding NFT for this potato would only be held in the wallet for 24 hours and would be automatically destroyed after that time.

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During the game, many people joined the auction, and the bid went up from 0.01 ETH to 1.788 ETH (approximately $3,200 at the time), eventually being won by the well-known crypto trader with the Twitter handle @osf_rekt. Shortly after, @osf_rekt announced that he would resell the potato to a “worthy candidate,” successfully attracting numerous KOLs and celebrities, including popular American idol Usher and artist Matt Kane.

During multiple resales, someone even initiated the “Council of Carbs,” made up of artists eligible to be “Hot Potato” holders. They started a movement of “creating art with received potatoes.” Others “threatened” the community to create more derivative “Hot Potato” JPEGs and GIFs, or else the potato would be destroyed.

Not only that, artists like Jack Butcher, Beeple, and others joined in, with some even calling for the potato to be transferred to Beeple. This added fuel to the popularity of “Hot Potato,” and various memes quickly spread across the internet overnight.

Jack Butcher's derivative artwork

What’s even more interesting is that Vincent Van Dough himself organized a “Potato Travelogue,” transporting the physical potato to @osf_rekt in Paris. This led to a series of whimsical journeys for the potato, including flying in first class, staying at luxury hotels, and being displayed alongside extravagant jewelry. Ultimately, the physical potato was delivered to @osf_rekt’s hands. Artist Sam Spratt also staged a humorous “potato hijacking” skit, adding to the playful atmosphere.

The first class Hot Potato

In fact, the popularity of “Hot Potato” is not because of its inherent value, but the marketing tactics behind it are worth learning from. In the process of building the influence of “Hot Potato” NFTs, in addition to the celebrity effect and common burning mechanism, it also introduces gameplay similar to traditional games like “time bomb”, which encourages holders to sell and transfer NFTs before the price drops or the game ends, and in each sale process, the new owner must pay more fees. This approach undoubtedly brings about a crazy meme self-propagation effect and gradually increases the value of the asset.

Just like the meaning expressed by “Hot Potato”, cryptocurrency assets are like “hot potatoes”, and investors are all trying to avoid being the last “buyer”.

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