One of Pakistan’s most shared memes has now found a buyer. The ‘Friendship ended with Mudasir’ was the subcontinent's most viral meme and has now been auctioned off as a Non-Fungible Token for $51,530 (roughly Rs 38,273,13). The NFTs are becoming a thing like cryptocurrency, it is not interchangeable, but it is still a digital asset. NFTs gives an exclusive right of a digital asset to a person. However, that doesn’t mean that the asset cannot be duplicated, it can be but the rights to own it, remains with the person who buys it.

The friendship breakup meme from Pakistan was originally a photoshopped graphic by a Gujranwala-based man Asif Raza Rana in 2015. Rana had announced his break-up with Mudasir Ismail Ahmad over alleged selfishness, pride and attitude shown by Ahmad. Not only did he announce his break-up with Ahmad, Rana also declared that he has found a new best friend in Salman Ahmad Naqash. The image reads, “Now Salman is my best friend.” While Rana might be grievously hurt with his best friend, his rather public declaration kicked up a meme fest on the Internet on social media.

 

It has been six years since two best friends Rana and Ahmad had a rather public breakup, but Rana's post was not forgotten on the Internet. The sad post, which later became a meme was auctioned off as an NFT for $51,530 by a Lahore and London-based startup Alter on the digital marketplace Foundation. Alter will take a minor portion of the earning while the larger portion will go to Rana, the original creator of the meme. This was Pakistan’s first-ever meme to be sold as an NFT.

“I would never have known that [the post] would go so viral and that it would spread all over the world,” Rana told The Vice. “So many news agencies interviewed us. We’ve even had a cartoon made about us. The people of Poland love it so much. I received Polish visa offers from two or three people. They even wrote my name on the walls there.”

Interestingly, Rana and Ahmad soon extended an olive branch to one another after the post went viral. After his patch-up, Rana posted another picture on Facebook and wrote, “Friendship regain [sic] with Mudasir. Now Mudasir & Salman both are my best friends.” Rana and Ahmad were apparently very close but due to trust issues and alleged selfishness, the duo had headed for splitsville. All’s well that end’s well. Rana not only got this friend back but also the money he got from the auctions