‘Friendship ended with Mudasir’, one of the most viral memes to come out of Pakistan, has been auctioned at an online platform by a Lahore and London-based startup Alter for 20 Ethereum tokens — equivalent to $51,776 based on their current market price.
Originally a photoshopped graphic by a Gujranwala man named Muhammad Asif Raza Rana in 2015, the Facebook post had caught fire and hogged global limelight before becoming an all-time great meme.
The post told the tale of Rana finding a new best friend in Salman Ahmad Naqash and taking away the title from Mudasir Ismail Ahmad, who had been Rana's best friend until then. The reasons cited for the switch were alleged selfishness, excessive pride and attitude given by the now former best friend.
"Those who shows (sic) me attitude, I keep them under my foot," Rana had warned in the caption.
The announcement-turned-meme has now been auctioned on Foundation, the world’s largest platform for NFT listings, Zain Naqvi, Alter’s co-founder told SAMAA Digital.
“It is a life-changing moment for the creators,” Naqvi said, explaining that the proceeds of the auction will be shared by the Foundation, Alter and Rana, with the latter getting the largest share.
Despite Rana's public demotion of Mudasir in the pecking order, his live stream on Facebook after the auction showed that they were still friends all those years and such a public falling-out later. "We all are together and we meet at times as well," he said.
Regarding the auction itself, he said: "I am very very thankful to all the bidders who put the big bids on our Friendship Ended message".
Meanwhile, the post now has a whopping 47,000 likes, 27,000 comments and 56,000 shares.