Clarifying the "Chill Guy" meme plagiarizing ideas from Vietnam
The crypto community is spreading information that the "chill guy" meme Chill Guy copied ideas from Vietnam, but in fact it is not.
The memecoin wave in the second half of 2024 has produced many names with capitalization reaching the billion USD mark just after a short time of launch, including MOODENG, GOAT, PNUT, NEIRO, ... Another prominent name is CHILLGUY, a memecoin inspired by the image of the "chill guy" famous on TikTok since mid-November, as reported.
At its peak, CHILLGUY reached a capitalization of nearly 650 million USD and was listed on major exchanges such as Bybit, KuCoin, MEXC, Bitget, Gate.io.
However, the memecoin has been embroiled in a dispute with the artist who created it, Phillip Banks, who believes that cryptocurrency projects using his Chill Guy image are violating copyright and threatens to take legal action, leading to arguments between him and members of the crypto community, forcing the artist to delete the original post and leave social media.
Phillip Banks' post threatening to sue for copyright of the Chill Guy meme on X, now deleted
On December 24, a new controversy broke out on social media when rumors spread that the artist Chill Guy had plagiarized his work, with the evidence given being surprisingly Vietnamese in origin. Specifically, the image that was spread was the cover of a magazine with an image of a boy standing in a "relaxing guy" pose, next to a pet dog with a head design identical to the Chill Guy meme.
The crypto community has therefore continuously attacked Mr. Phillip Banks, continuing to criticize this person.
Reverse image search shows this came from a Vietnamese book 6 years ago
The artist who claimed to have the rights to #chillguy is a fraud
Send the #OGchillguy pic.twitter.com/0aODGjVgAP
— DD (@onchainbookie) December 25, 2024
But it turns out that's not the case. According to the account @BehindBlueEye5 on X, the image used as evidence is the cover of the newspaper “Students Laughing” issue 52 of 2024, with the series code 883.
Meanwhile, according to the source from the Thieu Nien Tien Phong and Nhi Dong Newspaper, the latest publication of Student Laughing being sold online is issue 51 of 2024, with the series code 882.
Student Laughing issue 51 of 2024, series code 882
Therefore, it can be affirmed that the image used against the artist Chill Guy is a Vietnamese school newspaper publication, but was created in the last week of 2024, after the Chill Guy meme appeared in October.
Philip Banks himself also spoke out to deny the accusation of plagiarism from the community, as well as pointing out that Student Laughing in the past also used the image of Disney's Mickey Mouse.
CHILLGUY price is still affected by unexplained rumors, down 7% over the past 24 hours.
