Queen Elizabeth’s death sparks fury over creation of meme coins and NFTs
Queen Elizabeth II’s death was announced by Buckingham Palace on Friday. While Her Majesty’s passing has ignited an outpouring of condolences and sympathies from around the world, it has also been exploited as an opportunity to make money.
Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s longest-reigning ruler, the nation’s symbol and a majestic presence on the global stage for 70 years, died peacefully at her home in Scotland on Thursday.
She lived to be 96 years old.
The new king, Queen Elizabeth’s eldest son Charles, was quoted by Reuters as saying:
“The death of my dear mother, Her Majesty the Queen, is a time of deep sorrow for me and my entire family.”
Vultures take advantage of the queen’s death
The Queen’s passing is a historic event. It’s also a time for opportunists to make some quick extra cash.
People, who would never miss a chance to take advantage of public attention, started flocking to online marketplaces with more than 40 cryptocurrencies and an NFT on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain of the monarch soon after the announcement of her death.
“Rip Queen Elizabeth”, “Queen Elizabeth Inu”, “God Save The Queen”, “Queen Doge”, “Elizabeth II”, “London Bridge Is Down” and “Queen Inu II” are among the meme coins that were immediately rolled out.
Other meme coins bearing the name of the new ruler, King Charles III, were quickly introduced. DexScreener indicates that at least 40 distinct meme coins have been created in the last six hours.
Final auction for Queen Elizabeth NFT
As this developed, an Ethereum NFT project that has produced dozens of artworks for Queen Elizabeth II over the past two months is holding the final auction for the collection today.
The very last gen1 QueenE (#73) is auctioned at
Mint is closed after that.
Gen2 will follow later.#NFT #Queen #NFTCommunity pic.twitter.com/xhIqYh80nB
— QueenE DAO | Last auction live now (@QueenEDAO) 8 September 2022
QueenE debuted its auctions in early July, presenting a single Ethereum NFT portrait of the late queen as a tribute.
After hearing the news of the Queen’s passing, the project revealed that the current auction for the 73rd Ethereum NFT in the collection will be the last to be issued as part of the original package.
“Rest in Ethereum, forever,” reads the project’s Twitter bio.
Since the unveiling, the most redeemable tokens, “Save The Queen” and “Queen Elizabeth Inu,” have already handled nearly $700,000 and $200,000 in trading volume, respectively.
At the time of writing, the price of QEInu has increased by 23,270% on Binance Smart Chain and 3,707% on Uniswap, while the price of STQueen tokens has increased by 1,515%.
A collection titled “RIP The Queen Official” has already started selling 8,000 pieces of digital art, which was announced less than an hour after BBC news reported the Queen’s death.
Meme Coin Creation Angers The Crypto Community
Meanwhile, not everyone is happy with the Queen’s inclusion on an NFT.
The crypto community, notorious for its morbid sense of humor, reacted negatively to the projects.
Byzantine general, a merchant, stated:
“We have to stop this crypto crap.”
Of course they did… Not even how long when the world found out about her death and they already made a NFT of her… God where is that meteor when you need it?
— 🔞DaAnimeGoatMan 🇺🇦🏳️🌈 (@CartoonistGoat) 8 September 2022
Twitter user DaAnimeGoatMan was clearly pissed, saying:
“Not even how long when the world found out about her death and they already made a NFT of her… God where’s that meteor when you need it?”
ThreadGuy, an NFT lover, claimed, upon learning about the NFT collection:
“You’re going to hell.”
Crypto total market cap at $991 billion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com Featured image from CityAM, chart from TradingView.com
