After a long wait of 2 years, the most anticipated new project in Bitcoin (Ordinals), Taproot Wizards, is finally set to launch tomorrow. Although the project is undoubtedly the leader in the Bitcoin NFT market in terms of influence, its minting price of 0.2 BTC is completely unbelievable in the current NFT market environment.
So, what makes this foreign NFT project worth a minting price of 0.2 BTC? In this market environment, why do NFT players remain generally optimistic about such a large sales amount being successful?
Data shows this incredibly magical NFT minting.
Based on data from cryptoslam.io, we selected all Bitcoin NFT series with a total transaction volume exceeding 100,000 USD in the past 30 days (excluding BRC-20 token volume). The total transaction volume was less than 35 million USD, meaning that excluding long-tail assets, the average daily transaction volume of Bitcoin NFTs in the past 30 days was only about 1.15 million USD.
The total supply of Taproot Wizards is 2,121, with 36 being airdropped to some early supporters over the past two years. 100 were airdropped to the most deeply engaged supporters, holders of Quantum Cats with the 'golden cloak' feature, and winners of a very early lottery for Bitcoin Wizards holders. Additionally, 200 are reserved for the team, meaning only 1,785 Taproot Wizards are available for this issuance.
The total number of whitelist spots is set at 1,750, of which 828 whitelist spots have a minting price of 0.1 BTC. This part of the whitelist received a discount because they staked 2 Quantum Cats (the features of the 2 Quantum Cats must be 1 'alive' + 1 'dead').
Additionally, there are 922 whitelist spots with a minting price of 0.2 BTC. This part of the whitelist consists of active users selected after actively participating in various activities of Taproot Wizards over the past 2 years.
In the case where all 1,750 whitelist spots are sold out, the Taproot Wizards team will receive 267.2 BTC in minting revenue, approximately 23.4 million USD. If there are unsold spots, they will enter the Dutch auction mode along with the remaining 35.
Including the minting revenue of 300 BTC from the previously released Quantum Cats, which was approximately 13 million USD at that time, the revenue obtained by the Taproot Wizards team through minting will reach at least 36.4 million USD. According to data from DefiLlama, this will place the Taproot Wizards team at 8th place in the total historical minting revenue leaderboard for NFTs.
The minting price of 0.2 BTC is approximately 8.4 ETH, 17,560 USD, or 127,000 RMB, which is an extremely exaggerated price in the current NFT market.
Considering that Quantum Cats has never dropped below a mint price of 0.1 BTC in Bitcoin terms, theoretically, the cost of minting using the discount whitelist obtained by staking Quantum Cats is also 0.3 BTC in Bitcoin terms. Therefore, with a total supply of 2,121 at a minting price of 0.2 BTC, Taproot Wizards will open with an initial market cap of 424.2 BTC (approximately 37.2 million USD), ranking 21st in the NFT market cap leaderboard.
Coincidentally, all three of the first 21 are Bitcoin NFTs, namely Quantum Cats (440 BTC, approximately 38.6 million USD), NodeMonkes (435 BTC, approximately 38.2 million USD), and Bitcoin Puppets (434 BTC, approximately 38.1 million USD).
Quantum Cats has long been regarded as the 'preheating series' of Taproot Wizards. This series is currently the highest market cap Bitcoin NFT series and has long served as a 'price reference' for Taproot Wizards.
If the opening price doubles, Taproot Wizards' total market cap ranking will surpass Solana NFT leader Mad Lads and reach 7th place. As for the top 6, they are a comprehensive challenge from Bitcoin NFTs to Ethereum NFT leaders.
When was the last time we saw such a crazy new NFT project minting? If we look at the total minting revenue, we would have to trace back to the end of June 2023 with Azuki Elementals, which sold 10,000 NFTs for 20,000 ETH (approximately 38 million USD).
If we look at minting prices, we might need to trace back even further, to April 2022, with Moonbirds, which had a minting price of 2.5 ETH (approximately 7,500 USD).
Why do NFT players remain generally optimistic?
Raised 37.5 million USD in financing.
On November 16, 2023, Taproot Wizards announced the completion of 7.5 million USD in financing, led by Standard Crypto, with participation from Geometry, Collider Ventures, StarkWare, UTXO Management, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Masterkey, and Newman Capital.
Bitcoin Frontier Fund partner @TO shared his previous intention to invest in Taproot Wizards on social media, 'This is a list of terms I sent to @udiWertheimer and @ercwl for investing in Taproot Wizards on April 5, 2023. After reading the (Taproot Wizards) promotion, I wrote it down in just 5 minutes to ensure I acted quickly.'
Thus, @TO completed a basic investment intention letter on a roll of toilet paper.
On February 5 of this year, Taproot Wizards received another 30 million USD in Series A financing, led by Standard Crypto, with participation from Cyberfund and Collider Ventures. This funding will be used to advance the development of OP_CAT, thus promoting the realization of smart contracts on the Bitcoin mainnet.
This financing is quite incredible. It is important to note that the OP_CAT opcode is still disabled on the Bitcoin mainnet. Although there is already a BIP-347 proposal to re-enable this opcode, it remains uncertain when the proposal will be approved and ultimately implemented.
Udi Wizardheimer, the most capable 'troublemaker' in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Ordinals protocoler @ordjingle once described Taproot Wizards founder Udi Wizardheimer as the 'catfish of the Bitcoin ecosystem.' An NFT project, from its inception to formal launch, has operated for 2 years and can still be regarded as the leader in Bitcoin NFTs. There must be a story behind this.
The first major breakout of the Ordinals protocol happened when Taproot Wizards filled an entire block on the Bitcoin mainnet with a 4MB image on February 1, 2023.
The image above created the largest block and transaction in Bitcoin history at that time, causing a significant stir in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Blockstream CEO Adam Back and Bitcoin Core developer LukeDashjr believed that the actions of Taproot Wizards caused the Bitcoin blockchain size to rapidly expand, which could also lead to abnormalities in some facilities and even indicate an attack on Bitcoin rather than innovation. It also brought the Ordinals protocol into the spotlight for the first time in the entire crypto circle.
In March 2023, Taproot Wizards' official social media shared the founder Udi Wertheimer's journey: 'On the day Silicon Valley Bank announced bankruptcy and USDC panic, I decided to launch the Taproot Wizard NFT project today and have people record videos of themselves taking showers while wearing wizard costumes.'
Cosplay as a wizard, then take a shower and record a video, which subsequently became another hot topic in the NFT circle. Even Yuga Labs co-founder Gordon Goner personally recorded and released a shower video to obtain a Taproot Wizard.
In early 2024, Taproot Wizards launched an NFT project called Quantum Cats, referred to as 'Quantum Cats' in the Chinese-speaking community. Like the formal launch of Taproot Wizards, the 'Quantum Cats' sale also took place during a period of poor market conditions but never fell below its issue price and was considered a blue-chip Bitcoin NFT series from the start.
At the height of AIXBT, Udi Wizardheimer made another move, leading AIXBT to proactively propose to own a 'Quantum Cat,' and after obtaining it, he changed his Twitter avatar to 'Quantum Cat.'
Of course, the main purpose of 'Quantum Cats' is to promote the revival of OP_CAT. This matter has already received a formal BIP proposal number, and the 'Quantum Cats' community has played a significant role under Udi's leadership.
One of the oldest memes in Bitcoin.
The image of Bitcoin wizards first appeared in February 2013 when /r/Bitcoin's administrator theymos solicited creative ideas for community advertisements. Within an hour, a friend named /u/mavensbot submitted this piece called (Magic Internet Money Wizard), featuring a creative painting style, eye-catching image design, and simple yet direct cultural slogans that quickly became the most popular response in the forum.
Later, this image was selected as the official promotional image for the /r/Bitcoin forum and was displayed on Reddit for a while. The simple and mind-numbing design brought a lot of traffic to the /r/Bitcoin forum, with more and more people clicking in to see what this 'not-so-much-like-advertisement advertisement' was trying to express and represent. Many people learned about, understood, purchased, and spread Bitcoin because of this, and it is worth mentioning that at that time, Bitcoin was only 287 USD.
In addition to commemorating the classic wizard image of the Bitcoin community, Taproot Wizards also believes that the Taproot upgrade of Bitcoin has significant implications for Bitcoin NFTs, which is why they included the word 'Taproot' in their project name.
It is worth mentioning that the original creator of the wizard meme, mavensbot, is currently also active in the Bitcoin NFT ecosystem. He has a Bitcoin NFT series called Bitcoin Wizards, which is referred to as 'Little Wizards' in the Chinese-speaking community to distinguish it from Taproot Wizards.
He will also release a wizard PFP series, totaling 10,000, and has already created the rune MAGIC•INTERNET•MONEY.
As for why the original creator is 'small' while Taproot Wizards is 'big'? Because Udi is indeed a marketing genius, and the influence of Taproot Wizards in the entire NFT circle far exceeds that of Bitcoin Wizards.
Conclusion
We have previously conducted an in-depth analysis of Taproot Wizards and Quantum Cats. If you are interested in learning more, you can refer to:
Why is a 4MB doodle raising 7.5 million USD? Why is capital interested in Bitcoin 'wizard culture'?
An article analyzing Bitcoin memeNFTs, what does the bald wizard Taproot Wizard pay tribute to and express?
Bitcoin 'Quantum Cats': How does the inscription achieve dynamic changes without smart contracts?
The launch of this NFT project is astonishing, even if placed in the peak period of NFTs. Will Taproot Wizards once again bring excitement to Bitcoin NFTs and the entire NFT market, which has not received much attention for a long time? We shall see.
#TaprootWizards #ordinals #QuantumCats
Content you care about on OpenSea.
Browse | Create | Buy | Sell | Auction
Follow and collect on OpenSea Binance channel.
Stay updated with the latest news.