Moonbirds: The NFT collectible that broke all records in one weekend

Moonbirds is PROOF Collective’s NFT series, and within 2 days of official minting, these pixel birds set some impressive records. Moonbirds consists of 10,000 utility-enabled PFPs, developed as a collection of avatars from PROOF Collective. The series was launched on April 16, and only a few days later, the secondary market floor price reached 19.59 ETH.

Summary:

• PROOF Collective is a very influential and rich community of NFT collectors and artists
• Members of PROOF get 20% of the Moonbirds supply because they each have to mint 2 Moonbirds
• Moonbirds NFT nesting or staking is said to bring rewards to users
• Secondary market volume reached $191 million or 66,000 ETH in just 48 hours
• Moonbirds outsells Azuki and CloneX in more than a week in hours
• The value of Moonbirds driven by PROOF Collective's tight-knit community

To better understand Moonbirds NFTs as a phenomenon in the blockchain space, it's important to take a step back and look at the team behind the project. Created as PROOF Collective's official PFP series, Moonbirds has this important connection.

What is PROOF Collective?

PROOF Collective is a small but very influential and quite rich community of NFT collectors and artists. As a closed society, details about this high-end NFT club are rare. However, the official PROOF website shared that current 1,000 pass holders have over 150,000 NFTs in their collection.

What's more, a large portion of the membership portfolio includes over 800 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs and over 5,000 Art Blocks collectibles. In other words, PROOF members are both rich and collectible.

It is important to note here that 1,000 NFTs does not mean 1,000 unique PROOF Collective members. Take artist Trey Ratcliff as an example. He currently owns 4 PROOF Collective NFTs with a combined reserve price of more than $1.16 million.

What is the relationship between Moonbirds and PROOF?

Moonbirds is a collection of profile picture NFTs created by the PROOF team to represent its members. Importantly, the Moonbirds collectible is ten times larger than the original PROOF Collective pass item. The idea behind this is to allow a new group of NFT collectors to take advantage of the exclusive PROOF Discord channel and events.

Importantly, each PROOF Collective NFT has a place to mint two Moonbirds NFTs. This means that 20% of the Moonbirds collection is reserved for PROOF Collective members. Nonetheless, nearly all remaining Moonbird NFTs went to collectors outside of the PROOF Collective via the permissionlist mechanism. A total of 125 Moonbirds NFTs entered the PROOF library for future collaborations and marketing activities.

What can holding Moonbird NFT bring to collectors?

One of the greatest benefits of holding a Moonbird NFT is the aforementioned access to the exclusive PROOF Collective Discord channel. This is an opportunity for new collectors to join the conversation and enter a coveted private club.

In addition to exclusive Discord access, Moonbirds holders have the opportunity to lock up their NFTs in a staking-like process. The creators call this locking mechanism nesting. Once a Moonbird NFT is locked and nested, it provides additional benefits to its owner. Importantly, the longer an NFT is nested, the more rewarding it will be for its owner.

As most things will prove, the reward mechanism and roadmap of the Moonbirds project are confidential. Still, the official Moonbirds website highlights the lucrative rewards that minting will bring to holders.

2 days of record-breaking Moonbirds

The 10,000 Moonbird NFT officially launched on Saturday, April 16th. While not impressive at first glance, over the next few hours, Moonbirds became one of the highest-grossing projects in NFT history.

At the time of writing, the secondary market volume for Moonbirds collectibles has exceeded 66,000 ETH. At the current price of ETH, this amount is worth more than $191 million in dollars. Remember, this amount builds up in less than 48 hours.

An important detail that has attracted a lot of transaction volume for Moonbirds since its launch is the floor price of the series. The public minting price of Moonbirds is 2.5 ETH, while PROOF Collective members are free to mint and only need to pay the gas fee related to the transaction. Indeed, for 10,000 NFT collectibles, that's a pretty high entry price. The more impressive feat, however, was the way the series was first sold on OpenSea.

On April 16, the average selling price of Moonbird NFT was around 10 ETH. A sharp increase compared to the minting price of 2.5 ETH, and a more lucrative income stream for holders of PROOF Collective who mint free. Impressively, the floor price has continued to rise and is currently at 19.59 ETH, or roughly $56,870.

Of course, not all Moonbirds are sold at floor prices. Looking at the top sales on the Moonbirds Single Dapp page, we can see that some of these NFTs have sold quite a bit in the series. The 10 most expensive Moonbirds sold so far have all exceeded 90 ETH, with the most expensive one changing hands for 135 ETH or $412,850.

Brief comparative analysis

To put these impressive stats in perspective, let’s take a look at some other trending projects in the NFT space right now. CloneX and Azuki are two of the most traded collections on the market, both gaining popularity in 2022. According to a DappRadar report, CloneX generated around $120 million in trading volume in the first week of the secondary market. Remember, Moonbirds far surpassed that figure with $191 million in less than 48 hours.

Azuki is another high-value project in the NFT space right now. According to a report from DappRadar, the series recorded $122 million in trading volume two weeks after listing on the secondary market. Once again, the Moonbirds surpassed that number in a matter of hours.

As you can see, the Moonbirds have outgrown the biggest names in the industry after only a few days of birth. It's a terrific performance and sets the bar high for future collections. More importantly, the floor price of Moonbirds has surpassed CloneX and Azuki.

Why is the floor price so high?

In the world of NFTs, the value is determined by the owner of a given collection. Usually, when a new series is minted, there are a lot of "flippers" looking to make a quick buck and make a small profit off the most recently minted NFT. However, the Moonbirds situation is far from the usual or ordinary.

The public minting price of this series is 2.5 ETH, which is quite high. However, the high minting price is somewhat to be expected given the association with the exclusive PROOF Collective project. An even more impressive feat is how the community rate their Moonbirds NFT. When the series was first launched on the market, the floor price was set at around 8 ETH. This is unprecedented for a collection of this size.

However, mentality and community played a big part in this record-breaking performance. Collectors who want to acquire Moonbird NFTs are mostly tempted by the idea of becoming part of the PROOF Collective. This is a group of highly regarded artists and collectors who demand exclusivity. Usually, this exclusivity is achieved on the basis of sufficient wealth. In this sense, the way an already wealthy community values its assets is very different from what has been seen before in the general NFT space.

Moonbirds is an impressive phenomenon that shows that PFP collectibles can easily sell into the millions in a matter of days. All it takes is the right support. DappRadar will continue to monitor the PROOF and Moonbirds collections as they will be by far the most traded and highest earning assets in the NFT space.