Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, & collectibles
Dear Bankless Nation,
The arrival of the Moonbirds NFT collection has been unlike anything the NFT ecosystem has experienced before.
Indeed, as far as immediate acclaim goes the Moonbirds launch has proven to be the most successful NFT drop the space has seen yet. The activity the project has generated in mere days means it has tons of runway from here, too.
So what’s the collection all about, then? Let’s break down the basics and big ideas for today’s Metaversal.
-WMP
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The Magic Moonbirds
What it is
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Moonbirds is a collection of 10,000 pixelated owl PFP NFTs.
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It’s the official NFT project of, and the first NFT project created by, the PROOF Collective, a private NFT community spearheaded by Digg co-founder and True Ventures partner Kevin Rose among others.
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On Saturday, April 16th, holders of the PROOF Collective Pass NFT kicked off the first 1,000 Moonbirds mints. After these inaugural hatchings, allowlist raffle winners and then waitlisters rapidly minted out the collection at 2.5 ETH each.
The perks of being a Moonbird
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Doubling as membership tokens, Moonbirds offer holders access to the PROOF Discord and upcoming PROOF drops, events, and projects, e.g. an in-progress virtual world currently dubbed Project Highrise.
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Additionally, holders will soon be able to participate in “nesting,” a mechanic in which Moonbirds can be locked in users’ wallets to generate additional rewards.
A debut like no other
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Since launching this weekend the Moonbirds collection has accounted for a whopping +75k ETH worth of trading volume. At the time of this post’s writing, demand had pushed the collection’s floor price to ~19 ETH (a 660% ETH gain from the 2.5 ETH mint cost).
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According to OpenSea, the trading surge has already slotted Moonbirds as the 14th most-traded NFT collection of all time. For example, Moonbirds has generated more volume in less than four days than CryptoKitties has generated in over four years.
Why it matters
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Within one day of launching the Moonbirds mint raised ~$60M in capital for PROOF Holdings, the web3 media company that will build new products for the PROOF Collective community.
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Moonbirds obviously wasn’t the first nontraditional capital raise, though the project’s historically explosive arrival in the NFT ecosystem has led to a bloom of attention around NFTs and NFT royalties as novel means for raising funds.
JPEGs are the tip of the iceberg. Under the surface, NFTs are redefining what it means to invest/ build by democratizing capital raises out from Silicon Valley.
In the same way that Robinhood enabled a new generation of retail investors, NFTs enable a new class of retail VCs.
Daniel Tenner (swombat.eth) @swombat
Moonbirds marks a turning point in NFTs.
It’s not about @moonbirds_xyz specifically. It’s about the whole market.
As an experienced startup person, I can see a pattern emerging here. It has some important implications for the future of NFTs.
Read on to find out more.
👇 https://t.co/9KCPn208Vy
The big picture
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The Moonbirds launch has already earned a spot among the most defining NFT events of 2022. The upstart project’s gusting — i.e. the attention and interest it’s rapidly generated — blows into the bullish tailwinds that are currently propelling the NFT ecosystem through a multi-year bull market. Alas, the show goes on.
Keep an eye on
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The Moonbirds nesting mechanic is slated to launch later this month. Expect to see more and more NFT projects experiment with this sort of rewards system going forward, as it incentives collectors to hold their NFTs.
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Be on guard: there’s a wave of scammers trying to capitalize on Moonbirds buzz by using commandeered verified Twitter accounts to steer NFT collectors to Moonbirds-centric scam sites. If you’re ever in doubt about anything, always cross check any happenings with official project comms.
<div class="tweet" data-attrs="{"url":"https://twitter.com/ahaywa/status/1516025059277742086","full_text":"Explosion of @moonbirds_xyz-themed NFT Twitter scams over the weekend, appears to follow same playbook as Azuki/ApeCoin scams w/ hijacked verified accounts from journalists etc. Twitter told @decryptmedia on 4/8 that it is "actively working on a solution" ","username":"ahaywa","name":"Andrew Hayward","date":"Mon Apr 18 12:05:15 +0000 2022","photos":[],"quoted_tweet":{},"retweet_count":4,"like_count":15,"expanded_url":{"url":"https://decrypt.co/97334/twitter-scammers-hijacking-verified-accounts-fake-azuki-nft-airdrop","image":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6aa2206a-6c5e-4ca3-89ab-b69dbdddef84_1024x512.png","title":"Twitter Scammers Are Hijacking Verified Accounts for Fake Azuki NFT Airdrop – Decrypt","description":"As with the recent ApeCoin scam, the perpetrators of the Azuki scheme are stealing users’ accounts and blasting out a similar NFT token scam.","domain":"decrypt.co"},"video_url":null}”>
Explosion of @moonbirds_xyz-themed NFT Twitter scams over the weekend, appears to follow same playbook as Azuki/ApeCoin scams w/ hijacked verified accounts from journalists etc. Twitter told @decryptmedia on 4/8 that it is “actively working on a solution” 
Going deeper
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Learn more about the background and vision of PROOF and Moonbirds by checking out Carly Reilly’s awesome interview with Kevin Rose, Ryan Carson, and Justin Mezzell for Overpriced JPEGS earlier this month!
Action steps
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🌍 Got some extra time? Read my latest tactic A Beginner’s Guide to Terra in Bankless too
Author Bio
William M. Peaster is a professional writer and creator of Metaversal—a Bankless newsletter focused on the emergence of NFTs in the cryptoeconomy. He’s also recently been contributing content to Bankless, JPG, and beyond!
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Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
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