In brief
- Ethereum NFT project Moonbirds revealed plans to launch a Solana token, BIRB.
- The IP has seen a resurgence of activity and interest after being acquired by Orange Cap Games earlier this year.
- The original Moonbirds NFTs have surged in price in recent months, and again on Thursday.
Recently resurgent Ethereum NFT project Moonbirds has unveiled its next major step: the launch of BIRB, an ecosystem token set to debut on Solana.
The plans were announced at the Moonbirds Birbhalla side event alongside Token 2049 in Singapore, where O.G. supporters and new holders gathered. A teaser post on X suggests the token will launch “soon(ish).”
The pixelated owl collection has been through multiple hands of ownership since launching in 2022. Originally created by Kevin Rose’s Proof Collective in 2022, the collection soared at launch, generating $280 million worth of trading volume in just two days—but crashed due to community backlash as broader NFT hype collapsed.
Yuga Labs, the parent company of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, acquired Proof and the Moonbirds brand in February 2024, but left the IP largely dormant. Renewed optimism followed this May when Orange Cap Games—a gaming and IP development studio led by Spencer Gordon-Sand—acquired the collection.
The acquisition and new updates appear designed to inject new life into the project, especially by tying it into Solana’s popular meme coin ecosystem.
The move reflects a broader trend of so-called “culture coins,” or tokens issued by major NFT communities over the past several months to deepen engagement and unlock new utility. Some collections that peaked during the 2021-22 NFT bull run and were later dismissed have managed to revive interest through token launches.
From PENGU tied to Pudgy Penguins, ANIME from Azuki, DOOD from Doodles, to MOG and MILADY tied to internet-native meme movements, culture coins have become a way for communities to both gamify participation and create liquid, tradable extensions of their brand identity.
Market reaction to the Moonbirds announcement has so far been positive. Secondary market NFT sales spiked after news broke, pushing the collection’s floor price up to 4 ETH, and currently 3.45 ETH at the time of writing—about $15,450 worth.
The NFTs were trading for less than $1,000 worth of ETH earlier this year, before the Orange Cap acquisition. Moonbirds NFTs peaked at a floor price—that is, the cheapest listed asset on a marketplace—of almost $86,000 worth of ETH back in 2022 after the initial mint.
Traders appear to be betting that BIRB, if designed with clear utility, could cement Moonbirds’ relevance following the recent resurgence. In terms of long-term plans for the token, nothing has been announced, but Gordon-Sand cryptically wrote on X, “Timing is everything.”
In a previous interview with Decrypt, he said, “We have a lot of cool stuff we are working on, but we have [never] made specific commitments about it in public, and that’s very much on purpose.”
Even so, don’t expect a surprise token drop—the official Moonbirds account on X noted that there will be “ample time given in the lead up to the launch with more details communicated ahead of time.”
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