What’s the ‘choose rich’ crypto meme all about?

Nifty co-founder Nick O’Neill, aka NFT Nick, created the memetic catchphrase ‘choose rich’ to assert his wealth and attract attention from money-seeking social media users. Unfortunately for him, it looks to have backfired as, like many aspirationally rich influencers, NFT Nick’s wealth is mostly self-described.

In a comical turn of events, Crypto Twitter discovered O’Neill’s countless exaggerations and lies about his wealth. In the process, users have co-opted the catchphrase and inverted its meaning entirely.

For context, the phrase ‘choose rich’ is a reference to the film The Wolf of Wall Street, in which Leonardo DiCaprio — speaking as disgraced trader Jordan Belfort — says, “I choose rich every time.” However, the phrase never gained any meaningful traction until O’Neill fumbled his own attempt to kickstart its adoption.

Community noting NFT Nick’s lies

NFT Nick claims to own a ‘fleet of Ubers’ and a chauffeur. In reality, however, that ‘chauffeur’ is probably a taxi or rideshare service.

In another flashy video he posted, the bottle of champagne he’s flaunting likely cost somewhere in the region of $85 — not his claimed $5,000.

He also insulted some people who doubted his claims about paying $3,000 for high-end tea service at an upscale hotel in New York. The problem? That price was nowhere to be found on the menu.

Community notes attached to his X (formerly known as Twitter) posts indicate that he probably paid no more than $450 for that tea service.

NFT Nick also fired back at investigative journalist Coffeezilla for saying his penthouse was probably rented. He posted an unconvincing retort from the penthouse that he claims to own.

Read more: We now know when Elon Musk got scared and sold Tesla’s bitcoin

Stop trying to make ‘choose poor’ happen

NFT Nick’s flub is reminiscent of Mean Girls character Gretchen Wieners’ attempts to get ‘fetch’ adopted as a slang term. In the film, her friend repeatedly implores her to “Stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen.”

In the same way, Crypto Twitter has clicked the Like button millions of times and posted thousands of disparaging comments about O’Neill’s catchphrase. His lies and exaggerations about his wealth are now common knowledge.