In brief

  • Paris Hilton auctioned a painting of her cat in the form of a non-fungible token.
  • The artwork was sold on Ethereum-based auction platform Cryptograph for 40 ETH.
  • The winner also previously bought paintings made by Roger Ver and Vlad Zamfir.

Paris Hilton, a famous heiress of the eponymous hotel network, has auctioned off a digital painting of her cat for 40 ETH—worth around $17,000—on recently launched Ethereum-based auction platform Cryptograph.

“Paris’ Cryptograph is a hand drawn portrait of one of her cats named Munchkin,” Cryptograph explained, adding that “This is Paris’ first ever NFT and so the fact that it is a portrait of a Kitty is some would say rather appropriate given how NFTs and Crypto Kitties are so synonymous.”

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As Decrypt reported, Cryptograph allows famous personalities to auction their digital artworks—also called cryptographs—in the form of unique non-fungible tokens (NFTs) stored on the Ethereum blockchain. And they contribute to charities in the process.

“Every Cryptograph that is sold on our platform supports a charitable cause and every time a Cryptograph is bid on or transacted, it automatically raises money for its charity, creator, and for our company Perpetual Altruism,” Cryptograph co-founder Hugo McDonaugh previously told Decrypt.

Starting on August 12, the auction for Hilton’s painting warranted only four bids, ranging between two and 40 ETH. The winner, a pseudonymous user called Adirolls, won the auction on August 15. Prior to this, he also bought artworks made by Bitcoin.com founder Roger Ver and Ethereum Foundation researcher Vlad Zamfir for 7 ETH (around $3,000 today) and 25 ETH ($10,800), respectively.

The first cryptograph was created and sold by Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, for 77.35 ETH ($33,300 today) on July 11. At the time, Adirolls also tried to buy it for 70 ETH ($30,200 currently) but was outbid.

The profits from Hilton’s auction will now benefit three charities focused on feeding and housing the vulnerable: Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Meals on Wheels and Backpack Bed for Homeless.

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Notably, this is not the first Paris Hilton’s foray into the crypto space. In a now-deleted tweet from September 2017, she claimed to be “Looking forward to participating in the new @LydianCoinLtd Token” sale, adding “ThisIsNotAnAd” hashtag.

All the while Gurbasksh Chahal, the founder of the Signapore-based LydianCoin, was already facing jail time.

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