Few can compare.

The Moonbirds NFT project is a rare example of how careful marketing and planning can reap record-breaking rewards. Just five days into its launch, the collection hit $364 million in sales. It overtook sales of pioneer projects like CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club & Mutant Ape Yacht Club in its opening week.

But what exactly are Moonbirds NFTs? The story behind the rise of the collection involves colossal shifts in power and dominance across the NFT space.

The Moonbirds NFT collection boasts an impressive seven-day volume of roughly 2,936 ETH ($5.6 million) as of writing. And what's more, the collection remains one of the top-10 best-selling NFTs, and it's an Ethereum-based NFT collection that adheres to the ERC-721 standard.

This last facet is crucial, since ERC-721 is what makes NFTs “non-fungible,” unlike crypto tokens like Ethereum (which follows the ERC-20 standard). In other words, ERC-721 standard makes each token in a smart contract unique and brings forth a collection of assets while ERC-20 represents tokens that are interchangeable.

As a unique profile picture (PFP) project with valuable perks, Moonbirds stands out from the crowd, and are easily recognizable by their eye-catching designs, featuring pixelated owls.

Moonbirds is the brainchild of PROOF collective, an organization of 1,000 members who own PROOF NFTs. American Entrepreneurs Kevin Rose and Justin Mezzell founded PROOF to create "unique experiences" for collectors to connect with artists to "own and champion" their art, according to PROOF’s website. Rose is widely known for founding Digg (news aggregating platform), and more recently became a well-known NFT collector and influencer. Mezell is the illustrator and designer behind the entire Moonbirds collection.

The project got a big boost when Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian invested $10 million though his VC firm Seven Seven Six in April of 2022. Other notable NFT holders include Gary Verynerchuk, Beeple (the artist Mike Winkelmann), and Comedian Jimmy Falon. Moonbirds then went on to dominate the NFT news cycle for months.

To buy Moonbirds NFT, you need to first buy ETH through trading platforms like Coinbase or Gemini. From these platforms, you’ll be able to transfer the ETH to your wallet. Choose a hardware or software wallet based on your convenience. Once you have a wallet setup with ETH tokens, you are all set to buy your Moonbirds NFT.

Moonbirds NFTs are available for trade on OpenSea — the largest NFT marketplace in the world.

Launched on April 16, 2022, Moonbirds saw instant success thanks in part to the notoriety of those who founded, invested, and bought Moonbirds NFTs. Incredibly, the project also generated $280 million in secondary sales.

Another significant reason for its success is the PROOF ecosystem. A small group of 1,000, PROOF had garnered a sense of exclusivity. Moonbirds NFTs were seen by many as the ticket to be a part of this elite group.

During the collection's highly anticipated market debut, PROOF members could mint not just one, but two Moonbirds tokens. So, out of the 10,000 NFTs, 2,000 went to the existing PROOF members.

The team conducted a raffle to reserve 7,875 NFTs from the entire collection. Unfortunately, there were reports of a Sybil attack on the raffle, which comprised its fairness. A Sybil attack is when a bad actor masquerades as multiple entities simultaneously to carry out nefarious objectives, like gaining an illegitimate advantage in a network. In this case, some experts suggested that there was a flaw in the minting process and alleged that some investors had deployed bots to generate more than 400 separate account addresses.

Many upset NFT fans decided to opt out of the raffle following these reports. Despite these early hiccups, Moonbirds NFTs had a 24-hour trading volume of $110 million.

Owning a Moonbirds NFT unlocks a plethora of benefits. Being a PFP project, holders get unique avatars that are customizable. It also acts as an access card into the PROOF ecosystem where holders become “Collectors” on the PROOF platform unlocking exclusive access to digital events and live meetups.

Holders also become members of the Lunar Society, which aims to bring “creative entrepreneurship” into the Moonbirds and Mythics’ community, according to PROOF's website. There is also the opportunity to gain future NFT drops like Oddities and Mythics and the perks that come with it.

Of all the benefits, Nesting is the most popular and exciting one. Nesting is the opportunity for holders to stake their NFTs, affirming their commitment towards the broader community. While nesting, the NFT will be locked up in the holder's wallet and cannot be traded in the marketplace. Holders get rewarded for nesting their Moonbirds NFT for extended periods of time. And the rewards can range from hoodies to the option of changing the background color of the NFT.

Each NFT has a “nest streak” attached to it to display the number of days it has been nested continuously. Once an NFT hits the minimum nesting streak, a level is unlocked along with certain rewards. For example, everybody starts with a straw nest, which gets upgraded to a bronze nest after 30 days of continuous nesting, and so on. Even if an NFT is “unnested,” it continues to hold on to its tier although the streak will be reset.

Moonbirds holders received Oddities NFTs, which were represented by pixelated images of owl pellets. Oddities offer a creative take on an owl’s inability to digest the bones and feathers of its prey. It usually regurgitates the leftovers of its meal after absorbing the nutrients in the form of pellets.

Oddities is the easiest entry point into the PROOF ecosystem, and gives holders access to PROOF discord and Codename Highrise, the next big thing for Moonbirds. However, they aren't a companion NFT to Moonbirds, and there's no nesting feature for rewards.

Mythics is a PFP collection of 20,000, and will be the latest opportunity to plug into the PROOF ecosystem. You can acquire a Mythic by either burning an Oddity, or nesting a Moonbird. Mythics NFTS are non-pixelated illustrations of owls that have already captured the attention of many thanks to uncommon creative design.

PROOF Collective aims to build Moonbirds into a brand that goes beyond its NFT credentials. They’ve made major moves to compete with leading PFP collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club. For example, in August 2022, PROOF raised $50 million in a Series A funding round, joined by a16z, Seven Seven Six, VaynerFund, and many more.

In January 2023, PROOF signed with UTA (United Talent Artists) to expand its base beyond Web3. This was a push to become a “global brand," according to a tweet from Rose. Of course, this would happen with the help of a strong team of 1,400 who are well versed in everything entertainment from music to sports and much more. This partnership along with the millions of dollars raised could lead to more appearances for Moonbirds in conventional markets.