Though crypto and blockchain isn’t legal in the country like Pakistan yet Pakistanis have been able to capitalize huge amount of money into Ethereum funds by selling a famous meme “Friendship ended with Mudasir”. The very first NFT for Pakistan comprising this globally famed meme was sold at a price of 20 units of ETH, equivalent to US$ 53,000.
When it comes to the adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain, countries like Pakistan lag enormously behind the rest of the world. The use of crypto isn’t legal in Pakistan nor is it termed “illegal” officially. However, the central bank of Pakistan i.e. the State Bank of Pakistan has refrained from the banking sector of Pakistan to ensure distance. However, the popularity of crypto is gaining huge momentum in Pakistan. People like Waqar Zaka are considered pioneer Pakistanis who are putting in great efforts to bring crypto into Pakistan and legalize it. Zaka is still contesting a case before a Pakistani High Court in which proceedings are still going on.
But contrast to Pakistan’s crypto stance, there has been some development with regard to crypto products in Pakistan. Recently, an NFT was sold at a price of 20 ETH units, approximately US$ 53,000. The news of the first Pakistani NFT sale was duly covered by local print and electronic media of the country.
The news report suggested that an NFT was sold from the Pakistani soil containing a globally famous meme. The sold meme was owned by a person residing in Gujranwala, Pakistan – a city hub of multiple industries. It was informed that the NFT was developed by a tech company called Alter which is a company based in Lahore as well as in London. The founder of Alter is Zain Naqvi who personally handled the NFT and put it in the auction on World’s Friendship Day. As regards the auction, it was reported that the auction house was an international auction house called “Foundation”.
Naqvi stated that not only this was the first NFT of Pakistan but instead the sold meme was also the first viral meme of Pakistan. Before this meme, none of the memes coming from Pakistan made their way to the global trending. In this meme, the owner namely Muhammad Asif created an image with the help of adobe photoshop editor. The title of the image was “Friendship ended with Mudasir: Now Salman is my best friend”. The meme became an instant hit when it was initially posted on Facebook on 13th September 2015. Very soon after its uploading on the Facebook platform, the meme acclaimed 47k likes in few days and got 27,000 comments. Not only this but this very meme was shared almost by 56,000.
Now finally the meme has been sold through an NFT and the owner of the meme has earned a huge amount of money in Ethereum. This is a life-changing journey for Asif, who might have edited the picture for fun only.
