‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ will no longer be deleted from YouTube following NFT sale

A huge video from YouTube history will no longer be taken down as recently feared.

This is after an online auction to purchase ownership of “Charlie Bit My Finger - again” saw the buyer pledge to leave it up for others to enjoy.

The sale to buy the non-fungible token (or NFT) for the clip, which has 885 million views on YouTube, took place earlier this month, with the Davies-Carr family behind the original video announcing that it would be deleted from YouTube once the sale had concluded.

NFTs have already been explored by other YouTube stars, and enable someone to purchase ownership of a digital artwork, such as the now 14-year-old video featuring siblings Harry and Charlie.

Speaking to the news site Quartz, father Howard Davies-Carr said: “After the auction, we connected with the buyer, who ended up deciding to keep the video on YouTube.

“The buyer felt that the video is an important part of popular culture and shouldn’t be taken down. It will now live on YouTube for the masses to continue enjoying as well as memorialised as an NFT on the blockchain.”

The successful bidder for the NFT was 3F Music, reportedly a music studio from Dubai, who purchased ownership for almost $761,000 (£536,293).

Alongside being “the sole owner” of the viral video, 3F Music will also be able to “create their own parody of the video featuring the original stars, Harry and Charlie” - who are now 17 and 14 respectively.