Blue Chip NFTs 101 – How Did Moonbirds Conquer The World In A Bearish Market?

The excessive success of Moonbirds is the NFT story of the yr up to now. The assortment opened up so strongly that it archived prompt blue chip standing and a spot on the high of the charts. The marketplace for NFTs is bearish in the mean time, how did the pixeled owls accomplish such a feat? It actually wasn’t simply the artwork, regardless that the Moonbirds have a particular look and possibly make wonderful profile photos AKA PFPs. 

Let’s uncover the story. This one has all of it; a nascent however highly effective group, loopy numbers, web legends, an formidable roadmap, gentle controversy, and, after all, metaverse plans.

Moonbirds: Formal Characteristics

(*101*) are a complete of 10K Moonbirds, they have been issued underneath the ERC-721 customary on the Ethereum blockchain. The mint worth for each was a whopping 2.5 ETH. That signifies that, at present costs, the Proof Collective remodeled $70M on that first day. The insanity doesn’t finish there,  in accordance to CryptoSlam, the Moonbirds have generated $481M in gross sales up to now. That’s 160K ETH from nearly 12K patrons. And for each sale on the secondary market, Proof obtained a 5% reduce.

According to the Moonbirds official website, the group distributed these unique 10K owls as follows:

  • 7,875: Public sale to allowlist winners

  • 2,000: PROOF Collective Members (1,000 passes) every obtain two free mints

  • 125: PROOF pockets for future collaborations, advertising and marketing, and advisors

All events, together with Proof Collective members, have been capable of enter a raffle to be whitelisted for that public sale. Of course, there was controversy, which we are going to cowl. The Moonbird NFT assortment promised the standard, membership to a non-public group and a Discord server, and future but-to-be-revealed utilities. A staking mechanism, cleverly named “nesting” and a future metaverse codenamed “Project Highrise.”

According to the Moonbird’s website, their “unique take on the Metaverse” will likely be “a dramatic departure from the existing ‘never-ending’ worlds that feel like a digital ghost town. Ours is uniquely different, and you’ll have first access as a nested Moonbirds holder.” 

It’s additionally value noting that, “owners of Moonbirds have full commercial art rights for the Moonbird they own.”

ETH worth chart for 04/30/2022 on Oanda | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com

What Is “Nesting” And What Can It Do For You?

Staking is a DeFi staple. It locks belongings and takes them off the market, which advantages all different holders and the undertaking usually. In Moonbirds, the method is known as “nesting,” and “the longer you nest your Moonbird, the more rewards you’ll accumulate.” What rewards precisely? That’s not but clear. And the nesting course of will not be but out there. 

However, the Moonbirds website already lists sure traits. Nesting will likely be “non-custodial (no need to transfer it to another contract) and the holder numbers displayed on OpenSea etc will not be impacted.” Those stats are crucial for NFT tasks. Holders can’t promote their NFTs whereas nesting, however they’ll switch them. “The intent is to allow holders to move their Moonbirds between their own accounts, e.g. if they compromise their wallet via a rogue signature.”

(*101*)’s additionally this imprecise promise, “as soon as your Moonbird is nested, they’ll begin to accrue additional benefits. As total nested time accumulates, you’ll see your Moonbird achieve new tier levels, upgrading their nest.”

Controversy. Of Course.

For the extent of success that the Moonbirds achieved, the controversy round them is fairly delicate. One might argue that the primary two aren’t the Proof Collective’s fault, and the third one is fairly customary follow. Let’s undergo them:

  • Their raffle received hit with a Sybil Attack. That means, an individual or group created greater than 400 wallets to get as many tickets, or probabilities to win a whitelist. They earned greater than 50 spots. This Twitter person unveiled the entire thing:
  • According to The Next Web, they discovered “at least 10 hacked Twitter accounts across countries ranging from athletes to politicians posting scammy links that lead you to a fake Moonbirds website. ”Their purpose was to get the unsuspecting viewers to ship them ETH in hopes of getting a non-existent Moonbird. When pressed, one of many Proof Collective founders stated, “Oh the spam is terrible! We’re doing everything we can to contain it. Lots of bad actors doing their play.”
  • The NFT Ethics account did its greatest to assault the Moonbirds undertaking, however all they might do was accuse the Proof Collective of wash buying and selling to pump up the worth for his or her different NFT undertaking and of gifting these memberships to influencers. “GaryVee (Gennady), his brother AJ, Beeple and some old friends received the Proof collective for free.”

All in all, the controversy is hardly something to jot down residence about. On the subsequent “Blue Chip NFTs 101” we’ll check out the group behind the Moonbirds, the Proof Collective, and their different NFT undertaking. A membership to the influential group. It is likely to be the NFT with probably the most helpful utility so far. 

Feature Image Moonbirds pattern from the official web site | Charts by TradingView