What are Moonbirds and how do they work? Guide to the NFT Collection Many believe that 2021 was the year of the explosion in popularity of non-fungible tokens, and their mainstream introduction.
Even though NFT sales fell in 2022 overall, the hype is not over. The trend appears to have changed from a fragmented marketplace to one in which blue-chip projects and high-end ones take center stage. And while some projects like the Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Azuki, and others, continue to shadow a lot of the new arrivals, the Moonbirds NFT collection that launched in April 2022 caught the entire community’s attention.
What are Moonbirds NFTs and how do they work?
Moonbirds are a collection of 10,000 non-fungible tokens issued under the ERC-721 standard on Ethereum’s network that took flight on April 16th, 2022. According to the official website, Moonbirds NFTs represent “utility-enabled PFPs that feature a richly diverse and unique pool of rarity-powered traits.” The project is essentially a blue-chip PFP program, but Moonbirds have access to many other perks. Each Moonbird can be used to gain membership to a private club and receive additional benefits for the length of their ownership. This is known as nesting. A Moonbird can be used to access an NFT-gated Discord service. Users will be able to access private Moonbirds channels, which offer information about upcoming drops, community events and nesting, as well as other details. The collection came at a cost of 2.5 ETH per piece and includes 5% royalty payments on secondary sales. According to the official website, Moonbirds owners also have full intellectual property rights. The floor is up to 36 ETH at the time of writing, less than one week after the mint. This was in anticipation of nesting functionality being released.
What is Nesting?
Beyond their pixelated design that has stood the test of time within the cryptocurrency community (see CryptoPunks), Moonbirds are built so that they can be locked up and nested without leaving the user’s wallet. As soon as the Moonbird is nested, it will begin accruing further benefits, and as the total nested time stacks up, users will see their NFTs achieve new tier levels — hence, upgrading their nest. Nesting is currently not possible at the time of writing. However, the team has made promises to nest in the quickest time possible.
Who Created the Moonbirds
Speaking of the team, let’s dig a bit deeper into the people behind Moonbirds. PROOF is responsible for the collection and are also behind the PROOF Collective project and the Grails project. Justin Mezzell (both well-known NFT figures) founded the organization. Rose posted a YouTube link after the mint revealing that PROOF plans to turn into a respected media company using the proceeds. In any case, PROOF Collective is also a gated community that’s only accessible to those 1,000 people who own a PROOF Collective NFT, the current floor price for which sits at a whopping 140 ETH or around $420K at the time of this writing. PROOF Collective is an exclusive group of 1,000 NFT collectors, artists and others. Holding the PROOF Collective NFT comes with various benefits — one of which was the ability to mint two Moonbirds during the launch.
Moonbirds NFTs Launch: Controversy & Beyond
Moonbirds, as with any hyped launch, also brought some controversy. To unpack, it’s important to note how the collection was minted. First, all PROOF Collective NFT holders (mentioned previously) were guaranteed two birds of mints. There are now 2,000 Moonbird NFTs. Second, 7,875 Moonbirds were given to winners of a raffle. This is where many of the controversies begin. A well-known cryptocurrency researcher Zachxbt revealedSome bot users created more than 400 accounts for Sybil Attack the raffle. Many in the community argued that there’s no reason for this not to happen, although it surely left a sour taste for fair users who were unable to mint because of this. The team reserved the last 125 birds for distribution.
Why do people buy moonbirds?
Moonbirds have been the NFT’s hottest story for the past week, it goes without saying. The collection has seen a trading volume of over 100,000 ETH in the six days since their issuance, just short of $300,000,000, exceeding all other collections for that time period. There are many reasons for the huge interest. Art is certainly one of them. Moonbirds are unique, and some are rarer than others. This led to the sale of 265 ETH for this Moonbird NFT. Their interesting design, coupled with the reputation of PROOF Collective and the massive attention the project garnered before the mint, resulted in tremendous hype around it, which in turn creates further catalysts for Moonbirds’ price.
OpenSea: How do I buy Moonbirds NFTs?
OpenSea makes it easy to buy Moonbirds NFTs. To do so, you need to find the collection — this is the only official OpenSea link. Once you are done, connect a Web3 wallet. These popular choices include MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet. Once your wallet is connected, you will need to purchase ETH or WETH (Wrapped Ethereum). Coinbase Wallet includes a fiat-to crypto on-ramp which makes it simple to buy crypto. MetaMask also has similar functions. Then, navigate to the Moonbird NFT you want and click on the buy button. Selling follows a very similar process, but if you want to learn how to buy and sell NFTs on OpenSea and everything there is to know about the process — don’t hesitate to check out our in-depth guide on the matter.
