Moonbirds, Explained: Proof Collective’s NFT and Nesting
by corporate trash
4/25/2022
Moonbirds from Proof Collective exploded onto the NFT scene in April 2022, shattering one-day secondary sales volume records on Ethereum. With 49,000 Ethereum volume in a single day after selling out at 2.5 Ethereum, Moonbirds broke the Mutant Ape Yacht Club single day record of 41,000 Ethereum.
In a single day, the NFT space was truly sent into Moonbird mania. Since then, the project has done a total of 114,000 Ethereum ($335 million) in sales volume.
The NFT project is from Proof Collective, whose founding team has strong credentials with tech startups in the Web2 world. They have since generated tens of millions of dollars of revenue to fund their Web3 vision, and are implementing innovative staking dynamics (nesting) to reward their community as their first step.
The Moonbirds team is taking lessons from other top-tier NFT projects and is improving them to create a tight-knit, investment-focused community.
The Proof Collective Founders and Team
Proof Collective started as a small, limited NFT membership collection targeted at hardcore NFT collectors and investors. There are 1,000 NFTs, and they sold out on December 11, 2021, at a Dutch auction price around 1 Ethereum. The floor is now 118 Ethereum, rising even after the Moonbirds minting.
The collective has connected artists and NFT collectors using several drops, including GRAILS, their genesis drop. Holders of the Proof Collective pass were allowed to mint two Moonbirds for free.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the Proof Collective is the team themselves. These co-founders include:
- Justin Mezzell, artist who has worked with Google, Disney, Facebook, and more
- Kevin Rose, founder of Digg and former angel investor
- Ryan Carson, founder of Treehouse and Dropsend (leaving the Moonbirds team to create his own NFT fund, 121g)
- Ryan LeFevre, storied engineer
The Proof Collective team working on Moonbirds is currently hiring many more people in order to properly build and scale their product.
What are Moonbirds?
Moonbirds is a 10,000 PFP NFT collection that acts as a second-tier membership to Proof Collective. The allowlist for all of the public mints was randomized through premint.xyz, open to all wallets with 2.5 Ethereum. Mint then began on April 16, 2022.
For the mint raffle, there were 8,000 available mint spots, since 2,000 went to Proof Collective members (the 1,000 Proof NFT holders got 2 Moonbird spots each). The Proof team said on the Bankless NFT podcast that 55,000 applicants submitted to be in the Moonbirds drawing, which is an overwhelming amount of demand, though it’s believed that many people gamed the system and submitted multiple wallets.
There was a minor issue during the public mint — with the Moonbirds remaining after allowlist minting — where a 10-second delay occurred between the mint button and the contract going live, meaning lots of gas was wasted by hopeful minters.
The Proof team ultimately decided to refund this entire $380,000 in Ethereum gas fees, even though some of these minters were surely bots.
The team also put the staggering $60 million funds from primary sales directly back into the project, further showcasing its dedication to reinvesting into the Moonbirds community. Holders of Moonbirds have full commercial rights to the IP of their NFT, similar to many other top NFT projects.
The highest on-chain sale to date of a Moonbird is for 150 Ethereum on April 20, 2022, for a golden bird with Legendary Emperor feathers.
Moonbirds NFT Traits
Moonbirds traits are purposeful and will have utility both IRL and digitally. For example, it’s been mentioned that those who hold Moonbirds with hoodies will be sent high-quality hoodies after nesting for a certain amount of time. All nesters will eventually get stickers with their bird’s image and number on it from Moonbirds, after nesting for a certain period.
The Proof team had an advisory board while designing attributes, in order to properly represent and create a diverse community.
There are 8 different trait categories for Moonbirds NFTs:
- Background
- Beak
- Body
- Eyes
- Eyewear
- Feathers
- Headwear
- Outerwear
Cosmic, Glitch, Jade, and Enlightened are the rarest body traits, each with only six in existence. Legendary Feather types are also very rare traits, each with 25 or less existing.
Moonbirds Nesting Explained and Rewards
Nesting is a “soft staking” mechanism where you lock up your Moonbird without transferring it out of your wallet. Moonbirds nesting recently went live on their site — nest.moonbirds.xyz — and over 8,000 Moonbirds are currently nesting. Moonbirds holders will be rewarded based on how long they hold the NFT in nesting and don’t list or sell it.
For example, Bored Ape Yacht Club holders were able to claim the same amount of $APE no matter how long they held the NFT. By contrast, Moonbird holder rewards will compound depending on the length of time you hold it and do not list it. Some of the rewards will require a minimum nesting time to redeem.
Tiers are also part of nesting, meaning there will be bronze, silver, and gold levels for rewarding long-term holders. Moonbirds will start nesting in a straw nest, then upgrade to bronze nests after 30 days of nesting.
The nesting resets if the Moonbird is listed or sold, and the new buyer will be set to square one with a straw nest.
TL;DR – Moonbirds
The Moonbirds team is just getting started, but already has a strong community and high floor price to create momentum. The team has constantly talked about building products for the NFT space, and it seems they are already moving on that front.
They are working on many innovative products, including inventing a way to prove you own an NFT without directly connecting your wallet. Their goal is to be a top five PFP project (they can check that one off the list), and aim to support that by holding one of the biggest NFT conferences in the world this year.
Moonbirds is another example of a secondary-tier membership NFT to a “blue chip” which already seems to be on its way to becoming a blue chip on its own.
As more people seek to enter the NFT space, they will likely want to enter at lower entry points, making some of these second-tier membership NFTs more attractive than ever. Only time will tell if Moonbirds will continue fly to the moon.