Web3 Goes To Cash In On Queen’s Death With NFTs And Queen Elizabeth Inu Meme Crypto Token
Moments after Queen Elizabeth II was announced by Buckingham Palace, crypto gamblers, NFT street vendors and Web3 enthusiasts quickly moved to cash in on the world’s attention.
Shortly after the official announcement of her passing around 6:30pm in London, OpenSea and crypto exchanges were flooded with thousands of newly minted Queen-themed non-fungible token (NFT) artwork and a sea of Queen-related cryptocurrencies.
The NFTs listed on OpenSea for auction included digital stamps featuring the Queen’s profile, photographs of the Queen and pixelated Queen artwork with brilliant red eyes. Meanwhile, more than 40 new cryptocurrency tokens were launched on decentralized exchanges on BNB Smart Chain and Ethereum under names such as Queen Elizabeth Inu, Save the Queen, QueenDoge, London Bridge is Down and RIP Queen Elizabeth.
Some might call it distasteful. Others may make money.
The Queen Elizabeth Inu token on BSC-based PancakeSwap had the most significant valuation gain in the last 24 hours, according to Cointelegraph, with an increase of 28,506%. Meanwhile, the Elizabeth token saw a similar jump, though not quite as meteoric, up 8,442% with $2.7 million worth of trading volume in just under 12 hours.
The Queen Elizabeth Inu and Elizabeth coins only have about $17,000 and $204,000 in liquidity behind them, according to Cointelegraphsuggesting that they may lack financial support or be subject to a pump-and-dump scheme.
“Rest in Ethereum, forever”
Within hours of the Queen’s death, the RIP Queen Elizabeth project went on sale on OpenSea with 520 NFTs in the collection, while RIP The Queen Official generated 8,000 digital artworks, each unique with different algorithmically generated mouths, eyes and backgrounds.
One of the most notable Queen Elizabeth NFT projects is QueenE, which was first launched in early July by Web3 builder Fabio Sevá and the pseudonym mladen.eth. It was designed to launch algorithmically generated NFT pieces of the queen for the rest of her life.
After the Queen’s death was announced, the project said that the current 73rd QueenE NFT auction would be the last. They teased another future “Gen2” collection, but didn’t reveal any other details.
On the website of the NFT auction, the project creators wrote a eulogy for the queen, calling her “a strong woman, faced with a power and position that she never wanted, but took in her hands and used with grace and justice.” The final QueenE Gen1 NFT sold for 2,730 ETH, or about $4,623, according to exchange-rates.com, making it the highest price anyone has made for a piece in the collection.
But shortly after ending the final Gen1 auction and promising not to release any more NFTs in the collection, the QueenE creators released one more at 4:30am ET – an NFT of the Queen as a pixelated skeleton. The piece is currently priced at 0.05 ETH.
“Rest in Ethereum, forever,” reads the project’s Twitter bio.
“New lows”
People were quick to hit back at the Web3 community for its lack of taste surrounding the Queen’s death.
A Reddit user on crypto-hating online forum r/Buttcoin took a screenshot of a tweet made by crypto fund Bitcoin Capital founder MaxKeiser saying “Queen’s dead. #Bitcoin never dies, calling it “new lows.”
Another user named Spooky9999999 called out crypto owners for minting the new coins, writing “callous crypto greed strikes again.” Meanwhile, others joked about the future of the new coins. “ElizabethMoonCorgiRocketCoin is the future world currency. Central bankers are trembling as we speak,” comments Chuckolater.
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