How Moonbirds Will Fare Out Compared to Bored Ape Yacht Club?
NFT Collectibles "The Why" Series - Part 1
The NFT collectibles have been headline-grabbing for the past few months, as we see more and more Instagram and Twitter profile photos have been updated with their respective holdings of NFT.
What makes each of the collections intriguing is the fact that these collections keep gaining in valuation and the rate that each new collection gains valuation seems absurd.
Before we dive into the respective NFT collections to understand what is the true reason that is driving the hype and crazy valuations, there are some of the terms that are widely used within the NFT space.
There are two types of NFT collectibles, namely the 1/1 NFT and PFP NFT, in which PFP is short for the profile photo.
In this NFT Collectibles, “The Why” Series, we will be looking at some of the top few blue-chip NFTs to understand why these NFT collections are so popular.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)
These ape NFT are no stranger to most of us. Bored Ape Yacht Club or short for BAYC is a collection of 10,000 disinterested-looking apes developed by Yuga Labs.
Each BAYC has its own traits and some of these traits are not widely present in most of the BAYC which creates the rarity ranking among the 10,000 apes, with the rarest BAYC being the BAYC #7495.
This NFT collection helps to drive the NFT craze in 2021. Owning a Bored Ape is now the epitome of NFT coolness for many akin to owning a limited edition Rolex watch. With celebrities like Justin Bieber & Eminem or athletes like Serena William joining in the hype, it is no wonder that BAYC starts becoming the NFT household name.
The Team behind BAYC
Yuga Labs is the team behind the creation of BAYC, with the team members’ pseudonymous names being Gargamel, Gordon Goner, Emperor Tomato, and No Sass. It is very common in the Web3 crypto space that the team uses pseudonymous names rather than their own name. On Feb 5, 2022, BuzzFeed revealed (the crypto term “doxxed”) the names of the BAYC founders, and that created a mixed reaction online. Greg Solana, 32, a writer and editor who goes by “Gargamel” and Wylie Aronow, 35, used the pseudonym “Gordon Goner” but the other two team members who are the tech guys, the “No Sass” & “Emperor Tomato” chose to reveal themselves a few days later.
While they are the core team behind BAYC, they are not the artist that created the ape of BAYC. There were 5 artists that helps to create the BAYC, with the lead artist goes by the pseudonym name of Seneca who is not part of Yuga Labs, with each of these artists compensated for about $1million over.
How Did BAYC Gain So Much Attention Initially?
BAYC was launched on April 29, 2021, with each priced at 0.08 ETH (about $190 at that time). In contrast to what we have known about BAYC now, the initial sales were slow. It wasn’t until the renowned NFT trader with Twitter handle name “Pranksy” tweeted that he has bought 250 apes and after that, everything changed with BAYC sold out 12 hours later.
Well-known people like Gary Vaynerchuk and Shawn Yue were some of the early adopters of the BAYC NFT, in which in the subsequent months, more celebrities joined in the hype, making BAYC the “Celebrities Favored NFT Collection”.
What does it mean to hold a BAYC?
Bored Ape Yacht Club, as the name indicates, is an exclusive group for the BAYC owner. By owning a BAYC NFT, the holder gets access to an exclusive Discord server, where all the crypto enthusiasts, celebrities, or other prominent people would gather and share information.
With Twitter allowing NFT holder to flaunt their NFT as a Twitter profile picture, this creates the niche of “oh, you & I belong in the same group” perception and mentality once a Twitter user with a BAYC profile photo saw another Twitter user with a BAYC profile photo.
But it does not stop there. Owning a BAYC NFT entails you with more NFT collectibles, which Yuga Labs gave (and potentially will be giving) more of other collections for free.
Holding a BAYC or even a MAYC NFT is not the same as say buying a Mona Lisa. What’s enticing about owning a BAYC NFT is the right for the NFT holder to commercialize their NFT.
Say you’re holding BAYC #2087, then you are entitled to commercialize in any format of BAYC #2087, including producing a film for it. This is akin to having the commercial right to Dumbledore character from Harry Potter if you have Dumbledore NFT, so you’re entitled to all the royalty from the Harry Potter book, Harry Potter films, merchandise, and even the commission from the latest Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore film.
Commercial Use. Subject to your continued compliance with these Terms, Yuga Labs LLC grants you an unlimited, worldwide license to use, copy, and display the purchased Art for the purpose of creating derivative works based upon the Art (“Commercial Use”). Examples of such Commercial Use would e.g. be the use of the Art to produce and sell merchandise products (T-Shirts etc.) displaying copies of the Art. - extract from BAYC terms & condition
What’s Next for BAYC?
Almost a year after the launch of BAYC NFT, Yuga Labs has launched the ApeCoin and is scheduled to launch its very own metaverse today on Apr 30, 2022. Given the trajectory shown by Yuga Labs, we can expect more to come as the launch of metaverse will open up even more possibilities for the BAYC holders and NFT space.
As the $APE token can and has been used beyond the world of Web3, perhaps there is more that we can anticipate from BAYC & the team.
Moonbirds
The hottest topic in the NFT space right now is the Moonbirds NFT collection. Given that the Moonbirds collection has only been launched for two weeks, its floor price (31 ETH) has surpassed the likes of Azuki (24.4 ETH).
One of the biggest perceptions right now towards the Moonbirds collection is that it seems absurd to have that kind of collection & that perhaps it is a fad or driven by the FOMO trend.
But with The Sandbox, one of the most prominent Metaverse, coming into the game purchasing the rarest Moonbirds #2642 for 350 ETH ($1,026,777 at that time) and another Moonbirds #9619 for 64.9 ($190,393 at that time) on April 23, 2022, perhaps there’s more to Moonbirds.
Moonbirds Collection
Moonbirds is a 10,000 utility-enabled PFPs of owl that has a unique pool of rarity-powered traits. It has become one of the highest-grossing NFT collections.
Each Moonbird entitles holders to private discord membership, free NFT airdrops, and even additional benefits the longer the holder holds them. In contrast to how BAYC is designed, where let’s say Person A buys a BAYC on the 1st of April and Yuga Labs is set to airdrop the ApeCoin on the 2nd of April, Person A is entitled to the ApeCoin.
Whereas with Moonbirds, holders are only entitled to the benefits if they hold their Moonbirds long-term. This is what the team calls Nesting. The longer you “nest” your Moonbirds, the more benefits you unlock and you can eventually upgrade your Moonbirds.
As this is a newly launched function, we will only be able to see what the rewards look like.
Who’s Behind Moonbirds?
Moonbirds is the fastest collectible to reach the blue-chip status, overtaking Azuki, which was the darling of the new NFT launched earlier this year that quickly gain the blue-chip status.
Moonbirds collection was launched on 16 April 2022 by Proof Collective, a team led by Kevin Rose (or known as KRO), Ryan Carson & Justin Mezzell.
Kevin is a well-known figure within the Web3 spaces are the two podcast projects i.e. Proof ( focuses on NFT-related topic) and Modern Finance (focuses on the blockchain-related topic). He has a strong track record as a current partner at True Ventures, a venture capital firm, and has founded a few companies namely Digg, Zero, and Oak. He is also an angel investor in companies such as Twitter and Uber and was previously a general partner at Google Ventures.
Proof Collective NFT was Kevin and his team’s first NFT collection that cemented the team’s entry into NFT, in which this collection is only for private members 1,000 dedicated artists, and collectors. This collection was sold out for 1 ETH. The holder of this collection gets access to the Proof’s private Discord for information and education about NFTs, early access to the Proof podcast, in-person events, and other exclusive collaborations.
Proof Collective team has been leveraging on the NFT-gated membership platform, first with the Proof Collective NFT and recently with the Moonbirds NFT. In this platform, only members with NFT will be given access to the platform & in this platform, they share opportunities amongst themselves and even receive access to whitelists from other members.
The Proof Collective team has been rewarding the Proof Collective NFT holders in various ways prior to the launch of Moonbirds. When Moonbirds were launched, each Proof Collective NFT holders get 2 Moonbirds per Proof Collective NFT.
What’s Next for Moonbirds?
That is not all for Moonbirds. The Proof team is looking at building an ecosystem of community, education, and product, with Moonbirds as one of the projects under the Product pillar.
One of the upcoming exciting roadmaps for Proof is the metaverse called Project Highrise. In the Proof podcast, Kevin mentioned how he envisioned Project Highrise to be more exciting and innovative from what we have seen with the current metaverse, where Project Highrise would be like the merge of GeoCities and SimCity.
By prioritizing the Proof Community, the Proof team is looking at organizing more Proof Meet-ups IRL & an NFT conference in 2023.
Why Did Moonbirds Gain So Much Attention?
There are a few reasons why Moonbirds able to gain huge attention since it was launched two weeks ago.
1. Kevin Rose
Kevin is a prominent figure within the NFT space. Given the huge followings of 1.6 million followers Kevin has on Twitter, and as he has been dropping hints about Moonbirds and the future roadmaps for Proof as early as Mar 4, 2022, in an interview with Zachary Dash, this helps to create the hype for Moonbirds.
The openness and consistent communication on the roadmap, current planning, and even on the news on the departure of the COO of Proof helps in providing a sense of security to potential buyers that Moonbirds is not a potential rug pull project and in fact, all these information makes them excited for what is coming next.
2. Proof Collective community
There are about 1,000 community in the Proof Collective discord, where these are the people who truly believe in the vision by Kevin and his team. Since Proof Collective was first started 3 years ago, these people are the early believer of NFT and crypto as it is believed that this community holds over 600 Bored Apes and many other bluechip NFT’s. With the launch of Moonbirds, each of the people within the community is given 2 Moonbirds and these enthusiasts helps to spread the word-of-mouth of Moonbirds that helps in marketing the Moonbirds.
3. Proof Podcast
The podcast that Kevin holds has more than 100,000 subscribers. Proof podcast dive deep into the NFT world, discussing with some of the NFT artists & icons, and looking deep into the up-and-coming NFT projects.
In the Mar 29, 2022 podcast, Kevin discussed the launch of Moonbirds and the future roadmap for Proof. This creates high anticipation for Moonbirds from the Proof podcast subscribers.
Moonbirds Versus BAYC
Transparency
The BAYC team members’ identity was initially kept anonymous until it was revealed by Buzzfeed. While it is common practice in the crypto space to keep one’s identity hushed, it is, however, quite refreshing to see the Moonbirds team be so transparent with their identity.
Communication
The BAYC team relies on their non-anonymous CEO, Nicole Muniz to interact with the wider audience and social media like Twitter. The Moonbirds team however relies heavily on their founder & the Proof podcast as the founder has huge credibility under his belt in the NFT, crypto and start-up space. The consistency & speed in addressing some of the issues are the key that Moonbirds team does well. In the recent case where we can see the communication on the COO leaving Moonbirds just days after Moonbirds was launched was handled well while BAYC did succumb slightly on the issue dealing with the lead artist of BAYC not well compensated.
NFT Utility
While BAYC is the pioneer in normalizing the utility usage for NFT, Moonbirds has addressed one bottleneck in NFT where NFT is constantly traded rather than held for the long term.
The Community
Although BAYC was created much earlier than the Moonbirds, with a list of celebrities and A-list people holding onto its collection, however Moonbirds team has a strong community that is traced back to early 2021. By putting the priority on holding on to NFT for the long term, Moonbirds create a higher barrier of entry for people to join them & limited supply in the market which may create the false scarcity that eventually drives its valuation higher. The inclusivity of all the key core members including artists helps to ensure a strong core team that will pledge their loyalty to Moonbirds.
First Mover Advantage
Given that both companies are equally ambitious in their roadmap, but given that BAYC is the pioneer in the NFT space and perhaps has the first-mover advantage, it is still too early to dictate how each will unfold in their journey to create their own ecosystem.
While it is easier to pinpoint which is the hottest NFT right now, it is more important to understand what’s beneath the NFT - which is the team, direction & roadmap that the team will embark on.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any of the projects mentioned in this article at the time of writing.