While the crypto markets continue to face macro uncertainties and trend downward with BTC volumes drying up, the NFT markets are considerably stable and pulling in more liquidity. We see the top-tier collections like BAYC and Punks hold the floor price really well, whereas a few medium-tier collections like NFT Worlds and Cool Cats corrected a little over the last few weeks.
We have also seen a few NFT collections go on a tear and reach all-time highs. The famous anime-based collection, Azuki, nearly shot up to 40 ETH floor price and gave all holders a free airdrop worth over 10 ETH.
After seeing Azuki’s insane price spike, many of us assumed it would take a while to see another collection repeat the same type of success. But we were wrong. There is now a new collection in town that is looking to break every record in the NFT history books.
Moonbirds collection, launched by Proof Collective, has raked in more than $66 million from initial mint sales and recorded over $268 million in total sales volume. Not only that, but the floor price of this collection also went berserk. It now sits at 21 ETH. That is more than an 800% increase from mint price, and it happened in just two days.
If that doesn’t tell you how hyped this collection was, I don’t know what will. But I happen to believe there is a strong reason why people are going crazy over these pixelated bird figures. And in this article, we plan to deep dive into that aspect and understand what makes MoonBirds so special. Let’s get started.
Moonbirds & Proof Collective
Moonbirds is a PFP NFT collection featuring 10,000 pixelated avatars that showcase a diverse set of attributes and utility-enabled traits. Like every project, the NFT holders get access to a special community and many membership perks. But the difference here is Moonbirds truly gives access to an exclusive community with Proof Collective.
The Proof is a private community of NFT collectors and artists. Some of the most popular collectors and builders in the NFT space are a part of Proof Collective, namely Snoop Dog, Gary Vee, and Beeple. The community collectively owns more than 150,000 NFTs, according to their website. And they also hold a lot of blue chips like CryptoPunks, Meebits, and Bored Apes.
Moonbirds will be the first NFT PFP collection rolled out by the team behind Proof Collective. They have previously collaborated with 20 artists and developed a collection called Grails. Each member of the Proof community was able to mint one Grail NFT for only 0.05 ETH. And those NFTs are now worth nearly 4 ETH. On top of this, Proof constantly provided whitelist spots and free airdrops to community members, which skyrocketed the value of Proof membership NFTs to almost 100 ETH.
They plan to add similar, if not significantly more, value to the Moonbirds collection. The sale kicked off with a high mint price of 2.5 ETH. 2000 out of 10,000 NFTs were allocated to Proof Collective members. They were able to mint two Moonbirds for free. Yes, according to the current floor price, they received nearly 41 ETH worth of NFTs for free. That again reminds us how much value one can derive from being a part of Proof Collective.
The team reserved 125 NFTs for marketing and collaboration purposes. The remaining 7,875 NFTs were for public sale, where people had to register for a raffle, and winners got a 3-hour window to mint, lowering the impact on gas fees.
Proof also limited allowlist winners to mint only one NFT per wallet. As a result, it is not shocking to see more than 6,600 unique owners. For context, the most popular NFT collection, BAYC, has 6,400 owners.
So the Moonbirds collection got off to a hot start and raised a lot of money. But what about the artwork? How are collectors selecting which ones to buy? To answer these questions, we need to understand the special traits and types of MoonsBirds in this collection.
Special Traits of Moonbirds
The attributes of Moonbirds mainly consist of background, beak, body, eyes, eyewear, feathers, headwear, and outerwear. Let’s go over each and see which ones stand out.
Background
There are a total of nine types of background, out of which, five are basic and four are rare. The rares include Cosmic Purple, Enlightened Purple, Glitch Red, and Jade Green. All of them top 20 Moonbirds NFTs hold one of these rare backgrounds.
Rare Backgrounds
Beaks
Moonbirds feature three different types of beaks: small, short, and long. The rarest type among them is long, with less than 1600 NFTs having that particular trait.
Long Beaks
Body
One of the most coveted attributes most collectors check first is body. Moonbirds have over a dozen types of bodies, but only six of them belong to the top rarity tiers. They are Golden, Ruby Skeleton, Cosmic, Enlightened, and Glitch. These traits also happen to earn some of the highest rankings in the entire collection.
Gold Body
Feathers
Feathers and body go hand in hand when it comes to rarity. Some of the biggest sales of Moonbirds happened mainly because of high rarity to body and feather traits. In the case of feathers, there are 17 types, out of which, 10 are basic and 7 are rare/legendary. The above average ones are Bone and Metal. And the ones with less than 1% rarity are Emperor, Professor, Sage, Brave, and Guardian.
Who’s Running the Show
Almost every NFT project that went on to become successful had a kick-ass team with experienced leaders and proven expertise. It is no different with Moonbirds.
Kevin Rose is the founder of Moonbirds and Proof Collective. He is one of the most respected and well-connected individuals in the NFT space. He has been involved in NFTs since the beginning and has invested in numerous projects at an early stage. He is also a venture partner at True Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based VC firm focused on technology startups. As an entrepreneur, Kevin founded the social news site DIGG, the intermittent fasting app ZERO, and the meditation app OAK. He also hosts podcasts PROOF and Modern Finance.
If you got one mastermind at the helm, you need another overseeing operations. And that happens to be Ryan Carson, the Chief Operating Officer of Moonbirds. Before joining Kevin on this NFT journey, Ryan had built a big technology school called Treehouse, teaching students how to code. It was acquired in 2021 after he left the company. He also founded two other startups: Carsonified and DropSend. In total, Ryan has more than 22 years of experience in building tech products and services.
So it is clear why many people have such a high belief in the Proof ecosystem. The creators have top-notch connections and a rock-solid reputation. And that matters more than anything in the NFT space.
What makes Moonbirds PFP Different from Others
The long-term value of any NFT comes from two things: utility and community. You nurture a community and develop the utility. And Moonbirds collection is looking to excel in both areas. It already has a passionate community with Proof Collective, which gets better and more exciting with time.
In terms of utility, Moonbirds NFTs are quite unique. The team introduced an innovative Nesting feature, which incentivizes holders to locking up their NFTs for longer periods. So if you don’t sell and diamond hand your NFT, you will get many additional benefits like “enhanced” drops and rewards. A detailed breakdown of the rewards and their tiers will soon be announced.
Another side of the utility is trait-based. If you own a rare Moonbird NFT, you will get special perks. Now, we don’t know what kind of perks holders will get. But Kevin pointed out on Twitter what those can potentially be.
Of course, there is also the metaverse aspect. It is called the Project Highrise. The proof plans to build a community-first metaverse and give early access to Moonbirds NFT holders. The utility inside the metaverse is still unknown.
It was not shocking to see Proof is also building a metaverse. But what caught my eye was their plans to fully provide IP rights and offset carbon footprint. It is increasing the standards for future NFT projects, similar to how Azuki did with their minting contract.
Next BAYC? Let’s Pump the Breaks a Little!
Twitter folk are already drawing comparisons between Moonbirds and Bored Ape Yacht Club. One is two days old. And the other has constantly been building and delivering value for more than ten months.
We can’t say it wasn’t impressive how quickly Moonbirds took off and hit the 20 ETH floor price. But we don’t know if it will sustain for longer or not.
As we have previously seen, most of the projects that grow too fast come crashing a few weeks or months later. So there is a correction incoming. But in the long-term, do we think Moonbirds can meet the standards of a BAYC? Absolutely! From the team and community to art and utility, Moonbirds has got everything. So if it can constantly add value, it will eventually break out into the top NFT collections of all time.
Born and brought up in India, Karthikeya Gutta is a crypto journalist and freelance contributor for ItsBlockchain. He covers various aspects of the industry with in-depth analysis and research. His passion towards blockchain and crypto ecosystem is mainly because he believes it can really change the world and help millions of people.
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