The slap that Will Smith gave to Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars went around the world and continues to be talked about. And how could it be otherwise, the episode has not only fueled countless memes on social networks, but has also inspired a collection of NFTs.
Yes, one of the most embarrassing events in recent show business history has been immortalized on the Blockchain; and, the truth, we can not say that we are too surprised. Under the title Will Smith Slap DAO, the collection of NFTs is now available on OpenSea, the most important portal for the distribution of non-fungible tokens.
This proposal was born as a parody after what happened on Sunday night at the Academy Awards. Moreover, each NFT is basically a meme of the clash between Will Smith and Chris Rock, and it is clear that they have not been too elaborate.
And while these tokens are unlikely to attract a Bored Ape Yacht Club-style level of interest, they might generate enough buzz that their creators can earn a few extra bucks without too much effort. So far the collection has almost 2,000 NFTs and prices range from 0.001 ETH (just over 3 euros) to 69 ETH (more than 210,000 euros). And the striking thing is that the most expensive does not portray the event of the 2022 Oscars, but the slap that Will Smith gave a Ukrainian journalist at the time.
After all, despite the growing popularity of NFTs, this seems like nothing more than another case of opportunism to try to extract as much money as possible from one of the hottest topics of the moment.
Not all of them are NFTs: Will Smith also has his cryptocurrency
And if we talk about opportunism, we also have to mention that a cryptocurrency based on Will Smith has been created. We are talking about Will Smith Inu, or $WSI. Of course, it is a memecoin whose sole reason for existence has been the slap that Chris Rock suffered at the 2022 Oscars.
As has happened with many other similar tokens, its popularity has skyrocketed in recent hours. In fact, at the time of writing this article its value had risen over 950% in the last 24 hours, reaching $0.000003336. But that is not all, since during the last day its exchange volume exceeded 3.6 million dollars.
Clearly we are facing a situation in which we must proceed with care and not be carried away by the illusion of making easy money. On previous occasions, cryptocurrencies have been created based on highly popular themes, which were nothing more than a scam or rug pull. The case of the Squid Game token has been one of the most notorious. Of course, we don't know if we are facing the same thing with the Will Smith Inu case, but it is better to be safe than sorry.
The truth is that there seems to be a place for everything in the world of Blockchain, and that does not necessarily have to be a positive thing. At the end of the day, projects like $WSI and Will Smith Slap DAO do not add value to Web3; on the contrary, they are nothing more than glorified memes that overshadow other initiatives that may have a genuine motivation but end up under the same cloak of suspicion and speculation.
