{"id":24336,"date":"2025-06-06T18:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T18:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/06\/inside-the-bold-bet-to-revive-moonbirds\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T18:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T18:43:07","slug":"inside-the-bold-bet-to-revive-moonbirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/06\/inside-the-bold-bet-to-revive-moonbirds\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Bold Bet to Revive Moonbirds"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Welcome back to the Now Newsletter<\/a>. I’m Matt Medved<\/strong><\/a>, reporting live from NFC Summit Lisbon.<\/p>\n

This is our third year as a media partner for NFC Summit, and it remains one of my favorite events on the calendar. Unlike larger European conferences that try to cover the entire blockchain spectrum, NFC keeps digital art at the center, with a distinctly art-forward focus that attracts top creators and collectors from around the world.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s highlight? Hosting Beeple\u2019s live Everyday. It was pure chaos, the closest thing I\u2019ve ever seen to a real-life comments section. At the center of the artwork stood a massive digital monolith which Beeple was inscribing in real time with whatever memecoin ticker symbols the crowd could throw at him. Degens clawed their way to the front, waving their phones and barking ticker symbols \u2014 $PEPE, $MOG, $WHO-KNOWS-WHAT \u2014 like it was a sacred ritual. Everyone wanted their shitcoin immortalized in pixels.<\/p>\n

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After a season of building, we\u2019re back to mark a new chapter <\/p>\n

Join us at NYC\u2019s @Pier59Studios<\/a> on June 26 for a special showcase of digital art\u2019s next frontier: immersive works that blur the line between viewer and environment<\/p>\n

Presented with @Projekt_______<\/a> <\/p>\n

RSVP below \u2193 pic.twitter.com\/ooFzHIjyCD<\/a><\/p>\n

— Now Media (@nowmedia) June 6, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This year, I was interviewed on the main stage to introduce our forthcoming Now Media brand reset and announce our “Sculpting Time” exhibition<\/a> debuting during NFT NYC. I also moderated conversations with Seedphrase, Mad Dog Jones, Andrea Chiampo, and a panel on the future of PFPs with OSF (Rekt), Sergio Silva (Meebits), Tyler Guyot (Good Vibes Club), and Vi Powils, the new CEO of World of Women.<\/p>\n

It proved especially timely given the Moonbirds revival \u2014 just days earlier, Orange Cap Games announced its acquisition of the project from Yuga Labs. So we sat down with founder Spencer Gordon-Sand for an in-depth conversation on what comes next.<\/p>\n

Let’s dive in.<\/p>\n

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Can Moonbirds Make a Comeback?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This past week, Orange Cap Games announced its acquisition of Moonbirds, the NFT project originally launched by Kevin Rose\u2019s Proof Collective. The move marked the latest in a string of strategic IP divestitures<\/a> by Yuga Labs, which had acquired Moonbirds last year in an all-stock deal. With the Bored Ape creator narrowing its focus, Moonbirds has now found a new home under the leadership of Spencer Gordon-Sand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gordon-Sand is no stranger to the NFT ecosystem. Through his firm Spencer Ventures, he\u2019s been one of the space\u2019s most active participants \u2014 trading, investing, and providing liquidity across major projects. More recently, he co-founded Orange Cap Games, a crypto-native consumer brand that launched Vibes, a Pudgy Penguins trading card game that helped OCG generate over $1.5 million in revenue. Now, he\u2019s setting his sights on reviving Moonbirds as a standalone IP \u2014 starting with what he calls a \u201chard reset.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this exclusive Q&A, Gordon-Sand joins me to break down how the deal came together, what a Moonbirds comeback looks like in a post-royalty world, and why NFTs still offer a more meaningful kind of fun than memecoins and metrics.<\/p>\n

Matt Medved: How did this acquisition come together, and how long has it been in the works?<\/p>\n

Spencer Gordon-Sand: <\/strong>I’ve known Garga for quite a while. Fun fact\u2014he likes to play Magic: The Gathering. We connected a lot over that. One night, he was at my house ripping Pok\u00e9mon packs and drinking whiskey until like 3 a.m. We’ve been discussing various things in the industry. When he stepped back into the role at Yuga, it became clear he wanted to refocus what Yuga was. You\u2019ve seen him go on this long arc. At that time, it wasn\u2019t like, \u201cYeah, give me Moonbirds.\u201d It was more like, \u201cWhat steps need to happen?\u201d And one by one, he\u2019s been knocking them out \u2014 starting with spinning out CryptoPunks, Meebits, everything. Moonbirds was the one left. It just had to happen.<\/p>\n

It happened on the order of magnitude of months. These types of deals progress like: first you conceptually float it, talk about it \u2014 then it becomes more serious, and you loosely agree \u2014 then you dig into the messy details. Everything about Moonbirds was not clean \u2014 that\u2019s not the word I\u2019d use to describe the world Moonbirds were in when we grabbed them. There were all sorts of questions: Do we just take on Moonbirds? Are Mythics and Oddities coming along? What does acquiring Moonbirds even mean? Socials? Contracts? There\u2019s a whole philosophical exploration of what this transition means, plus the practical and legal layers.<\/p>\n

Yuga previously acquired Moonbirds in an all-stock deal from Proof. What can you tell us about the structure of this acquisition?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right now, we\u2019re not sharing the details of the acquisition beyond what we\u2019ve released in our announcement. One point that\u2019s worth touching on is L2 exclusivity. All it means is: if we\u2019re going to do anything with Moonbirds on an L2, it has to be on ApeChain. That doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t do things on other L1s \u2014 Ethereum, Solana, even TON. It also doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re doing something on ApeChain, we haven\u2019t announced that. It\u2019s just a practical matter that makes sense. Yuga has an L2. They wouldn\u2019t want IP they spun out going to a competitor. That\u2019s fair.<\/p>\n

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The project\u2019s been through a lot. Kevin Rose is a polarizing figure. What role does its history play in its future?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been very nonlinear. It\u2019s been through a lot. Regardless of what you think of any of the players, it\u2019s a storied franchise. You could see it as damaged goods \u2014 but I don\u2019t believe that. The more it\u2019s been through, the more the people who stuck around matter. It\u2019s like a trial by fire. The fact there was still a community is incredible.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re approaching it like a blank slate. The history makes it culturally relevant. Cultural relevance often comes from controversial moments, ups and downs, rebirth. We were actually more excited to take it on because it\u2019s been through so much. When we went into the Discord, people were like, \u201cOh my God, you\u2019re here.\u201d That was the bar. We tweeted from the account \u2014 people were shocked. But those who stuck around are now our biggest advocates.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot the Proof team worked on that never shipped. Files and files of stuff. One hallmark of that team is that they worked on a lot \u2014 it just didn\u2019t always ship. Mythics in particular are incredible. The art is top-tier. It\u2019s clear someone put $100 million worth of time and effort into it. This is a hard reset \u2014 we\u2019re not just executing the prior team\u2019s roadmap.<\/p>\n

But we inherited valuable assets: brand guides, unreleased art, visual directions. That\u2019s rare. Most people starting a brand from scratch wouldn\u2019t have this. So even though we\u2019re starting fresh, we\u2019ve got a big head start.<\/p>\n

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“You could see it as damaged goods \u2014 but I don\u2019t believe that. The more it\u2019s been through, the more the people who stuck around matter.”<\/p>\n

SPENCER GORDON-SAND<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

What does success look like for Moonbirds?<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, is the community happy and engaged? Do they feel like we\u2019re in a better place? Second, can we grow Moonbirds? That\u2019s a broad goal\u2014relevance in crypto, outside of crypto, and how the brand is best used. Right now, our team in Asia is exploring factory capabilities and product directions. Our art team is exploring what we can make. We\u2019re also thinking about expanding Moonbirds\u2019 reach. Historically, the brand only existed on Twitter. That needs to change. Crypto doesn\u2019t just live on Twitter anymore. The world doesn\u2019t live there either. We\u2019re looking at Giphy, Instagram, TikTok\u2014there\u2019s low-hanging fruit to grow the brand globally and off Twitter.<\/p>\n

How do you plan to build a sustainable business while creating value holders?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The good thing is Orange Cap Games already generates revenue. We launched in 2024 and dropped Vibes, the Pudgy Penguins trading card game, in December. Since then, we\u2019ve done about $1.5 million in revenue from physical product sales. The number one rule in crypto? Survive. A lot of NFT projects just ran out of money. You need to keep the lights on. We have a team in Asia doing direct manufacturing. We don\u2019t outsource. That gives us margin and flexibility. So we\u2019ll do activations and product drops that keep us going. Now, how does that relate to holders? First, it lets us stay alive. Second, our goal is to generate both mindshare and revenue. If you spend everything on one, you lose the other. Ideally, your products do both. That\u2019s what Pudgy did well \u2014 physical products that build brand and generate cash. That\u2019s the intersection we\u2019re aiming for.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The post Inside the Bold Bet to Revive Moonbirds<\/a> appeared first on nft now<\/a>.<\/p>\n