Pixel avatars are practically doomed for the NFT market success, and it's not just the legendary Crypto Punks, ApeGang, or CyberKongz. In the spring of 2022, the charming owls Moonbirds confidently broke into the top of the OpenSea marketplace and quickly became a blue chip.
The Moonbirds collection of 10,000 Ethereum-based NFTs was launched by PROOF on April 16, 2022, and sold out within 48 hours. Computer-generated pixel images of owls captivated market participants and confidently entered the OpenSea TOP. Even though the hype around moonbirds subsided by the end of the year, the collection ranks 35th in the marketplace rating at press time.
Source: OpenSea
Why did this collection conquer the world and quickly become a blue chip? In addition to the visual appeal and NFT capabilities, which we will discuss below, the impeccable reputation of the creators played a significant role.
PROOF is a collaborative project between tech entrepreneur Kevin Rose and artist Justin Mezzell. Rose has become known as the internet genius who is never wrong. Before founding an organization dedicated to Web3 and NFT, he co-founded the popular social news site Digg and several other companies.
First, PROOF tried its hand at the market by releasing the Proof Collective NFT at the end of 2021. 1,000 non-fungible tokens were used as membership cards and passes to a private Discord server. Their owners received early access to subsequent NFT issues and new podcast episodes.
The next step was the exclusive Grails project, within which each owner of the PROOF Collective NFT was allowed to mint Grail at a ratio of 1:1. At the same time, the artist's identity was kept secret until the completion of minting. Larva Labs, Tyler Hobbs, Alexis Ohanian, and other well-known personalities in the NFT world took part in an unusual experiment.
The Moonbirds collection has become a natural continuation of the market conquest. Unlike previous projects, it was intended for a broad audience. The collection's success allowed PROOF to transform from a startup into a promising Web3 company which attracted serious investors. So, at the end of the summer, it raised $50 million from Seven Seven Six, True Ventures, Collab+Currency, Flamingo DAO, SV Angel, and VaynerFund.
Moonbirds is more than just an avatar
Source: moonbirds.xyz
So, 10,000-pixel owl NFTs have a "richly diverse and unique pool of rarity-powered traits". Each non-fungible token becomes a pass to the closed PROOF Discord club. Here, owl owners will have access to Moonbirds-related drops, events, and projects in development, including Highrise's own metaverse.
"The PROOF-built metaverse will 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. The Moonbirds mint is the beginning," the company says.
The developers offer users not only to own NFTs but also to lock and invest them directly in the user's wallet. This process is called nesting and provides additional benefits that increase over time.
Source: OpenSea
According to the set rules, the duration of the current nesting period and the total nesting time are estimated. Both categories have different bonuses. Details on nesting rewards, metaverse features, and the release of the new Moonbirds Mythics collection await us in 2023.
