More than a year has passed since Moonbirds first exploded onto the NFT scene in April 2022. Just days after launch, the project had already achieved over 100,000 ETH (approximately $300 million) in secondary sales volume. And in less than a week, Moonbirds entered the top 10 highest-grossing NFT collections.
However, as of May 2023, the floor price for a Moonbird NFT is 2.04 ETH. This development invites an insightful discussion of the successes, the setbacks and all the nuanced details in between for this intriguing NFT project.
What are Moonbirds NFTs?
Moonbirds is a collection of 10,000 NFTs launched on April 16, 2022. It was created by a prominent American internet entrepreneur Kevin Rose as part of his recently established Proof Collective – a private members-only collective of NFT collectors and artists. Before joining Moonbirds and becoming a prominent name in Web3/NFTs, Rose had already solidified herself as an internet celebrity, investor, podcaster and news aggregator founder Diggamong other companies.
Although the collection contains a total of 10,000 NFTs, the entire offering was distributed in three main parts. First, 2,000 NFTs were reserved for Proof Collective members to mint prior to the general sale. Since there are a total of 1,000 member passes that are part of the Proof Collective ecosystem, each token eventually resulted in two free NFTs for its owner. This was a great deal if you were one of the few Collective members to own more than one NFT Proof membership pass.
A stock of 7,875 NFTs was released to the general public through a whitelist. This list consisted of the lucky winners of a widespread lottery held by Proof that required potential collectors to have 2.5 ETH (the prize of one Moonbirds NFT) in their registered wallet at the time of entry. Aside from reserves and lottery, the last 125 Moonbirds NFTs were held by the Proof Collective trustees for use in future collaborations, marketing, and more.
So, who made Moonbirds?
Moonbirds was the brainchild of Kevin Rose, although there were certainly a large number of developers and general Proof members who contributed to the final product. One of those members is Justin Mezzellthe co-founder and CPO of the Proof platform, who is also the artist behind the Moonbirds’ signature pixel art style.
Because the thousands of NFTs in the collection contain a wide variety of attributes, hundreds of unique randomized visual features were created by Mezzell and the rest of the art team to yield a series of generative NFTs. These eventually follow in the footsteps of pixel art predecessors like CryptoPunks and CryptoSkulls, as well as PFP powerhouses like Bored Apes.
Proof of membership cards
Proof Collective Passes were minted on December 11, 2021, with each of the 1,000 NFTs initially selling for 1 ETH each. Billed as a membership pass for all things Proof, Collective Passes were marketed to give holders access to a private Discord, early access to Proof podcast episodes, in-person events, and other projects (including Moonbirds).
The bottom price for Collective Passes experienced minor fluctuations throughout the remainder of 2021. After that, it slowly started to climb into the double digits, reaching a minimum price of 30 ETH (about $85,000) in February, before skyrocketing to about 120 ETH (about $350,000) a week after Moonbirds launch day.
The passes also grant access to the Proof Conference, billed as “a three-day event in LA featuring leaders in the Web3 movement.” However, in February 2023, Kevin Rose canceled the Proof Conference, much to the dismay of holders and community members.
“After several weeks of sales data, conversations with potential sponsors and conversations with community members, it is clear that there is currently significantly less interest than expected for an event like this,” Rose said in a statement. “In the end, canceling the conference this year was the best choice.”
The team refunded tickets and hotels with no promise of a rescheduled date.
Utility 101: What Moonbirds offers collectors
Aside from the typical PFP NFT roadmap promises, the Moonbirds collection offers a wide variety of incentives for its collectors.
Possibly one of the most unique and notable of the “utilities” offered to Moonbirds collectors is the ability to spawn or “nest” an NFT. Nesting a Moonbirds NFT involves locking the NFT (making it untradeable) without having to transfer it to a vault for safekeeping.
But why lock up your Moonbird? Because doing this starts a process where your Moonbird NFT will build up extra perks, reach new levels and even upgrade their nest to become more profitable which will in turn bring even more enhanced drops and rewards.
However, many in the community were disappointed to discover that the merch they received was after nine months of striking only socks and fanny packs.
$ Talons Token
In April 2023, the Moonbirds team revealed that NFT holders could earn daily $TALONS tokens by staking their NFTs.
The team has plans to provide numerous benefits to token holders, such as exclusive products, events, collaboration experiences, merchandise, and admission list spots. As it stands, the $TALONS token can only be used within the PROOF ecosystem.
Today’s 1 minute highlight is Moonbirds announcing Mythics and Talons – what you need to know.
PROOF Daily NFT Countdown also includes:
– Market overview
– Moonbirds updates
– $PEPE
– Remarkable salesCheck it out today: https://t.co/dHSAxsFQPu pic.twitter.com/VMVgVBOLSB
— PROOF (🥃,🦉) (@proof_xyz) April 19, 2023
What Are Moonbirds Peculiarities?
Moonbirds Oddities are a unique addition to the Moonbirds NFT collection, serving as a quirky yet intriguing subset. They were unveiled as the first airdrop reward for Moonbird holders who achieved Bronze Nest status after deploying their NFTs for 30 days.
Peculiarities were first depicted as owl pellets, small balls of indigestible food material that owls regurgitate. In the world of Moonbirds, these pellets began to burst open in July 2022, revealing unexpected life forms, namely skeletal rodents. The art is creatively created by Gremplin in his signature pixel art style. As of August 2022, both the Oddities and Moonbirds collections have moved to a CC0 license.
The Future of Moonbirds
On May 29, 2023, Kevin Rose came under fire for comparing the Moonbirds floor to that of Bored Ape Yacht Club in a Twitter space. Discussing Moonbirds’ falling bottom prices, Rose said his collection wasn’t as “bad as BAYC in terms of USD.”
At its peak, BAYC’s bottom price reached 153.7 ETH ($420,430). The floor currently stands at 47.4 ETH ($90,125). Moonbirds’ all-time low was 37.8 ETH ($115,500) and now has a low of 2.05 ($3889). Rose referred to BAYC’s bottom price falling more than Moonbird’s, if we include the US dollars. Some persons argued that it was not necessary for him to make such a comparison.
Sorry bored monkey keepers, but you are more down than we are, so we are up @BoredApeYC pic.twitter.com/xou8ukRyzK
— JayJay (🥃, 🦉) (@_JayJay88) May 29, 2023
Holders (of both Moonbirds and BAYC), as well as the wider NFT community collective expressed their frustration. Kevin Rose then went on one space with ThreadGuy to clear the air. He explained the context and apologized if he had offended anyone.
“We pay close attention to what’s going on across the ecosystem, including other NFT projects,” Rose said. “But I shouldn’t talk about other bottom prices. If I could take it back I would.”
While Moonbirds initially showed a strong start, its popularity gradually declined over time, posing challenges in maintaining its early success. Whether the project can make a comeback remains to be seen as it depends on several factors such as market trends and the project’s ability to adapt and gain traction.