Taproot Wizards Launch Approaching, Will a New NFT Blue Chip Emerge?

After 2 years of long-awaited anticipation, Bitcoin (Ordinals)'s most anticipated new project, Taproot Wizards, is finally set to launch tomorrow. While in terms of influence, the project is undoubtedly the leader in the Bitcoin NFT market, its minting price of 0.2 BTC is completely unbelievable in the current NFT market environment. So, why does this foreign-made NFT project have a minting price of 0.2 BTC? In this market environment, why do NFT players widely support such a massively priced sale?

The Magical NFT Minting Seen through Data

Based on data from cryptoslam.io, we selected all Bitcoin NFT series that had a total volume of over $100,000 in the past 30 days (excluding BRC-20 token volume). The total volume amounted to less than $35 million. This means that excluding long-tail assets, the average daily trading volume of Bitcoin NFTs in the past 30 days was only about $1.15 million.

The total supply of Taproot Wizards is 2121, with 36 distributed as airdrops to early supporters over the past 2 years, 100 airdropped to the most deeply involved supporters, owners of the "Golden Cloak" feature Quantum Cats, and an early raffle for Bitcoin Wizards holders, and 200 reserved for the team. This means that only 1785 Taproot Wizards entered this issuance.

The total whitelist amount is set at 1750. Among these, 828 whitelist spots have a minting price of 0.1 BTC, as these whitelists received a discount for staking 2 Quantum Cats (where one Quantum Cat must have the "Alive" feature and the other the "Dead" feature). Additionally, 922 whitelist spots have a minting price of 0.2 BTC, as these whitelists were actively selected after participating in various Taproot Wizards activities over the past 2 years.

If all 1750 whitelist spots are sold out, the Taproot Wizards team will receive 267.2 BTC in minting revenue, approximately $23.4 million. If there are unsold portions, they will be included in a Dutch auction along with the remaining 35.

Including the minting revenue of 300 BTC from the previous Quantum Cats release by the Taproot Wizards team (equivalent to approximately $13 million at the time of Bitcoin's price), the Taproot Wizards team's minimum minting revenue is expected to reach $36.4 million. According to data from DefiLlama, this would place the Taproot Wizards team at 8th place in the NFT historical minting revenue leaderboard.

With a minting price of 0.2 BTC, roughly equivalent to 8.4 ETH, $17,560, and 127,000 RMB, this is a rather extravagant price in the current NFT market.

Considering that Quantum Cats, priced in Bitcoin terms, has never dropped below its 0.1 BTC release price, theoretically, the cost to mint Quantum Cats by staking and obtaining a discounted whitelist is also 0.3 BTC in Bitcoin terms. Therefore, if we take 0.2 BTC * the total supply of 2121 as the initial market value of Taproot Wizards, Taproot Wizards' opening price will place it at 424.2 BTC (approximately $37.2 million) and rank 21st in the NFT market cap leaderboard.

Coincidentally, the 3 positions in front of this 21st place are all Bitcoin NFTs, namely Quantum Cats (440 BTC, approximately $38.6 million), NodeMonkes (435 BTC, approximately $38.2 million), and Bitcoin Puppets (434 BTC, approximately $38.1 million). Quantum Cats has long been considered Taproot Wizards' "warm-up series," which is not only the current highest total market cap Bitcoin NFT series but has also served as a price reference for Taproot Wizards over the long term.

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, it will be a comprehensive challenge from Bitcoin NFTs to Ethereum NFT leaders.

When was the last time we saw such a frenzy around a new NFT project's minting? In terms of total minting revenue, it should be traced back to the Azuki Elementals at the end of June 2023, where 10,000 NFTs were sold for 20,000 ETH (approximately $38 million). In terms of minting price, it might have to go back even further to the Moonbirds in April 2022, with a minting price of 2.5 ETH (around $7,500).

Why NFT Players Still Remain Bullish?

Securing $37.5 Million in Funding

On November 16, 2023, Taproot Wizards announced the completion of a $7.5 million funding round 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 on social media his previously drafted investment memo for Taproot Wizards, stating, "This is the term sheet I sent to @udiWertheimer and @ercwl back on April 5, 2023, to invest in Taproot Wizards. After reading the (Taproot Wizards) pitch, I wrote this in just 5 minutes to ensure I was early."

And thus, @TO penned a basic investment memo on a piece of toilet paper.

On February 5 this year, Taproot Wizards secured another $30 million in Series A funding led by Standard Crypto, with participation from Cyberfund and Collider Ventures. This funding will be used to advance the development of OP_CAT to drive the implementation of smart contracts on the Bitcoin mainnet.

These funding rounds are quite remarkable. It's worth noting that the OP_CAT opcode is still disabled on the Bitcoin mainnet, although there is a BIP-347 proposal to re-enable this opcode, the timing of its approval and eventual activation remains uncertain.

Udi Wizardheimer, Bitcoin's Ecosystem's Most Notorious Trouble-Maker

Ordinals Protocolist @ordjingle once referred to Taproot Wizards founder Udi Wizardheimer as the "Bitcoin ecosystem's Catfish." An NFT project that had been in operation for 2 years before its official launch and has always been considered a flagship in the Bitcoin NFT space, there is definitely something to be said.

The first public appearance of the Ordinals protocol occurred 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 the time. This event caused a significant stir in the Bitcoin ecosystem, with Blockstream CEO Adam Back, Bitcoin Core developer LukeDashjr, and others suggesting that Taproot Wizards' action led to a rapid expansion of the Bitcoin blockchain size, potentially causing some disruptions to the network and even suggesting that it was an attack on Bitcoin rather than an innovation. At the same time, it brought the Ordinals protocol to the attention of the entire crypto community.

In March 2023, Taproot Wizards officially shared founder Udi Wertheimer's journey on social media: "On the day Silicon Valley Bank announced its bankruptcy and the USDC Panic Day, I decided to launch the Taproot Wizard NFT project and have people record videos of themselves bathing in wizard costumes." Cosplaying as a wizard and then filming oneself bathing became another hot topic within the NFT community, with even Yuga Labs co-founder Gordon Goner personally recording and releasing a bathing video to obtain a Taproot Wizard.

In early 2024, Taproot Wizards released an NFT project called Quantum Cats, known in the Chinese-speaking community as "Quantum Cat." Similar to the official launch of Taproot Wizards, "Quantum Cat" was launched during a period of poor market conditions but never fell below its initial price, and it was immediately considered a blue-chip NFT series in the Bitcoin world. At the peak of AIXBT's popularity, Udi Wizardheimer once again made a move, causing AIXBT to actively seek to own a "Quantum Cat" and then changing their Twitter avatar to the "Quantum Cat" upon acquisition. Of course, the main purpose of "Quantum Cat" was to promote the revival of OP_CAT, which has now received an official BIP proposal number. The "Quantum Cat" community, led by Udi, has played a significant role in this endeavor.

One of the Oldest Bitcoin Memes

The Bitcoin Wizard image first appeared in February 2013 when /r/Bitcoin moderator theymos called for community ad ideas. In just 1 hour, a friend named /u/mavensbot submitted this piece titled "Magic Internet Money Wizard." With its creative art style, eye-catching design, and straightforward cultural slogan, it quickly became the most popular response on the forum.

Later, this image was chosen as the official promotional image for the /r/Bitcoin forum and was featured on Reddit for a period. The simple yet engaging design brought a lot of traffic to the /r/Bitcoin forum, with more and more people clicking through to see what this "not-so-much-like-an-ad" ad was all about and what it represented. Many people got to know, understand, buy, and spread Bitcoin as a result. It's worth mentioning that at that time, Bitcoin was only $287.

In addition to commemorating the classic wizard image of the Bitcoin community, Taproot Wizards also believes that the Taproot upgrade for Bitcoin is significant for Bitcoin NFTs. Therefore, they added the word Taproot to their project name.

It is worth noting that the original creator of the wizard meme, mavensbot, is currently active in the Bitcoin NFT ecosystem. He has a Bitcoin NFT series called Bitcoin Wizards, which the Chinese community refers to as "Little Wizards" to differentiate from Taproot Wizards. He will also release a wizard PFP series with a total of 10,000 and has already created the runic MAGIC•INTERNET•MONEY.

As for why the original creator is "small" while Taproot Wizards is "big"? It's because Udi is truly a marketing genius, and the impact of Taproot Wizards on the entire NFT scene is far greater than that of Bitcoin Wizards.

Conclusion

We have previously delved into Taproot Wizards and Quantum Cats. If you are interested in a deeper understanding, you can refer to:

Why did investors see the Bitcoin "Wizard Culture" in a $7.5 million-funded 4MB doodle?

Analyzing the Bitcoin memeNFT: What is the Bald Wizard Taproot Wizard paying tribute to and expressing?

Bitcoin's "Quantum Cat": Without smart contracts, how does the inscription achieve dynamic changes?

The launch of this NFT project is quite impressive, even when placed in the peak of the NFT craze. In a time when NFTs have long been out of market focus, will Taproot Wizards once again liven up the Bitcoin NFT and even the entire NFT market? We wait and see.