Since the highly anticipated Moonbirds NFT mint launched last weekend, the Ethereum-based collection has seen north of US$200 million in sales. However, the debut project from the PROOF collective seems to be stirring the pot:
Moonbirds has joined the ranks of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks in near-record time, becoming the top-selling collection with 10,000 pixelated birds raking in sales of approximately US$281 million just days after minting.
But what is it makes these birds so popular?
How’s This for PROOF?
The Moonbirds project is the product of tech entrepreneurs Kevin Rose and Ryan Carson, and is the first project from the PROOF collective, a private NFT community led by the pair. The community consists of 1,000 members including big industry names such as Beeple and Gary Vaynerchuk. Membership of the community grants access to a private Discord chat, collaborations and special events.
However, both the mint and success of this collection are not without controversy. Concerns of rarity snipping – the act of project leaders using insider knowledge to buy rarer NFTs – are circulating. Beyond this, there are complaints of potential raffle manipulation and frustration over the 2.5 ETH minting price:
Only 7,875 NFTs were released by PROOF via an allow list formed through the raffle process. Another 2,000 were free mints for PROOF collective NFT holders. Membership of PROOF can be purchased for just over 97 ETH (about US$300,700).
Mixed Reactions to Other NFT and DeFi Launches
Earlier this month, Star Trek fans were making news for their contempt towards the launch of a Star Trek NFT collection. The launch was considered “tone-deaf” by fans and contrary to the franchise’s spirit – if not directly opposing Star Trek’s values, illustrating that the content of an NFT collection should always suit the intended audience.
One project that has been far better received this month is Opulous. The new blockchain-based music platform has seen the value of its token – OPUL – rocket up 175 percent following the announcement of DeFi staking, S-NFT sales, and CEX listings.