An online art dealing couple have made a virtual killing selling “girlfriends” in the form of NFTs to lonely cryptobros.
That’s right. Not only is the cryptocurrency world promising laypeople plain-sailing riches via hazy, complicated schemes and anonymous dealers, but also digital manifestations of a female partner.
The business – named Bull Market Girlfriends – was founded by husband and wife team, Kristina K. and Martin Lavoie during 2021’s NFT boom, and currently offers a range of “Girlfriend” digital portraitures, including beauty queen girlfriends, devilish girlfriends and alien girlfriends.
“The project is led, designed, and executed by a woman. Beautiful women have always been the subject of art since cave drawings,” K and Lavoie told Motherboard.
“They are inspiring. This is not meant to be diminutive, but empowering.”
Meet Girlfriend #146⁰
There will be a raffle to mint her in our Discord. You can join us there: https://t.co/N1skGBW2pb pic.twitter.com/GinEpaQKtq— Bull Market Girlfriends | BMGF (@bullgirlfriends) January 31, 2022
Empowering or objectifying, the Bull Market Girlfriends collection has been a hit for the couple, having already sold an estimated $A1.9 million worth of girlfriends to the contact-starved masses, as of October 2021.
The couple told Indy 100 they’d even recently penned a deal with Lindsay Lohan – of whom some portraits are based on, as well as an “amalgamation” of other women.
The portraits are currently available on NFT trading platform, OpenSea, with the cheapest work, “Girlfriend #86” worth a humble 2.2 ETH (Ethereum), or $A7939, while the most valuable Girlfriend, “Beauty Queen #1” (featured image) is fetching a king’s ransom of 888 ETH, or $A3.2 million.
So, what is the value in paying out the nose for an immobile and inanimate – though, no-less beautifully illustrated – girlfriend, when tried-and-true socialising is always a far cheaper option?
“Why not have a girlfriend and try to make a profit at the same time?” NFT Girlfriend owner, “Jake” told Indy 100.
“I have all the power in the relationship and it’s very reassuring for a guy like me that doesn’t have quite the same dominance with real-life women.
“It’s a nice feeling to know that you can literally own the most beautiful digital representation of a girlfriend, and she’s all yours for as long as you want to keep her.”
The parasocial consequences are glaring.
Then again, after years spent indoors it’s little surprise people would desperately seek connections in various time-saving and cognitively sparing manners. Anything other than the universally maligned Zoom call.
While K and Lavoie have capped the series at 2500 NFTs, time will only tell if the NFT Girlfriend craze will remain as temporary run-off from government-mandated social isolation, or a burgeoning social and technological craze.
