Moonbirds Cross 3 ETH on Token Speculation

Non-fungible token collection Moonbirds has been one of the digital collectible market’s standout performers over the last quarter. The collection crossed the 3 ETH threshold this morning after a tweet from Mike Dudas, a crypto investor and co-founder of The Block, said that holders can expect a “token soon.”

The collection, which was originally launched by Kevin Rose in the Proof ecosystem in 2021, has a colorful past, perhaps best represented by its floor price volatility — the price of a Moonbirds NFT reached 40 ETH shortly after its mint in 2022, and fell as low as 0.5 ETH earlier this year.

Moonbirds’ floor price reached as high as a 3.25 ETH, or $14,500, this morning, and the NFTs are currently changing hands for 3.12 ETH.

Moonbirds collection info. Source: OpenSea

While Moonbirds have been trending over the last couple of months, this morning’s impulse move may have been driven by the recent X post from Dudas, a vocal investor in the collection.

Dudas posted on Aug. 11: “@moonbirds are the @pudgypenguins of this cycle (pudgy will continue to grow, they’re at the next leg of their growth cycle). The moonbirds thesis is dead simple: cto, strong leader, same investors, great ip, fervent community, real world products, token soon.”

Pudgy Connection

Pudgy Penguins are known for their incredible price run from 2023 to 2024, where the collection surged from roughly 1 ETH, when it was acquired by Luca Netz, to an all time high of 34 ETH leading into the PENGU token launch in December.

In May, Orange Cap Games, a digital IP company that is known for its involvement in the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem, acquired the Moonbirds project from Yuga Labs.

Orange Cap Games developed the Pudgy Penguins physical trading card game, and its founder, Spencer Gordon-Sand, is known for acquiring 144 Pudgy Penguins ecosystem NFTs from the Three Arrows Capital (3AC) collection in 2023 when the fund was going through its liquidation process.

Gordon-Sand has been an outspoken advocate for NFTs, and Pudgy Penguins in particular, throughout the NFT bear market, and is also known as one of the largest Blur Season 1 airdrop recipients.

Moonbirds itself hasn’t confirmed or denied that it will launch a token, though in a recent interview, Gordon-Sand declined to comment on the matter. The Defiant reached out to him for comments on Dudas’ tweet, but hasn’t heard back by press time.