The organizers behind the crowdfunding campaign that raised nearly $700,000 in March to put the mascot of Solana memecoin Dogwifhat (WIF) on the Las Vegas Sphere remain confident the advertising deal will go ahead despite the lengthy wait.
Mihir — one of the five organizers listed on the official "sphere wif hat" website — told Cointelegraph he was “90% confident” the campaign to emblazon the mascot on the Las Vegas sphere for an entire week, will be going ahead.
Mihir said representatives from the Sphere had crafted new “crypto-specific” terms after hearing of the campaign, adding that there had been internal meetings to develop their crypto-related policies in response to the initiative.
“We are [still] working with them to fit their criteria and requirements,” he added.
He declined to comment further on the specifics of the discussions with the Sphere due to concerns that it may impact ongoing talks or promote unnecessary speculation on the price of WIF.
Mihir added there was a small chance the deal could still fall through, owing to doubts around requirements the WIF community or partnering companies could not agree to, but said so far, this “had not been the case.”
A spokesperson for the Sphere declined to comment.
Dogwifhat backers waiting since March
Contributors who put funds toward the crowdfunding initiative have taken to X in recent weeks, with some raising concern over a lack of communication from organizers about progress and how their donated funds would be handled should the discussions fall through.
Mihir said all funds would be repaid to all donors if negotiations were to fail for any reason, noting a public message he made in the official Dogwifhat Telegram group posted on June 18.
“The Sphere is still being worked on. These things take time and we’re volunteering our time working for the meme,” he wrote.
“If it was canceled, we would let you know immediately and all funds will be returned.”
Mihir also said he “wished to dispel the rumor” that the team may not allowed to use the official image of the Wif mascot — a dog named Achi — due to copyright reasons.
“The image may or may not have been copyrighted, but we're working with the owners of the dog on other initiatives, and they are happy about the meme,” Mihir said.
On March 18, pseudonymous crypto trader Gigantic Rebirth, also known as GCR, snapped up a one-of-one NFT of the original image of Achi for $4.3 million.
Mihir noted that he and other Sphere Wif Hat team members remain in contact with Achi’s owners, adding that the owners even loaned them a re-make of the original pink knitted hat from the image.
Related: Dogwifhat jumps 16% — WIF price eyes more gains as Solana ETF hype grows
The organizers of the crowdfunding campaign include prominent crypto trader Ansem and four other pseudonymous members of the WIF community, whose Twitter handles are publicly available on the official campaign website.
WIF currently stands as the 54th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, despite having fallen more than 62% from its all-time high of $4.83 on March 31.
At the time of publication, WIF is changing hands for $1.85 and touts a market capitalization of $1.85 billion, an increase of well over 1,000,000% from its launch in late November last year.
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