A Bitcoin ordinals project said it aims to raise over $34 million from an art collection of Microsoft Paint-style cartoon wizards following a similar sale last year that raised $13 million.
Taproot Wizards plans to auction 2,121 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of its signature “magic internet JPEGs,” which harken back to a 2013 bitcoin meme: “magic internet money,” later this month, according to an emailed statement. The Wizards were inscribed on the Bitcoin blockchain two years ago and are now being made available for sale.
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The project last year sold a collection of 3,000 “Quantum Cats” to raise support for the Bitcoin improvement proposal (BIP) OP_CAT. Despite being marred by technical issues, the collection quickly sold out, raising 300 BTC in the process.
Starting on March 25, the Wizards will initially be offered to buyers on a whitelist for 0.2 BTC ($16,000), with any not taken being sold in a Dutch auction. The starting price will be higher than 0.2 BTC and revealed closer to the auction, a spokesperson told CoinDesk in a Telegram message.
If all 2,121 NFTs sell for 0.2 BTC, the project would raise around $34 million based on bitcoin’s current price of around $80,000.
OP_CAT was included in Bitcoin’s original code by pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto, who subsequently removed it due to concerns that it could expose the network to risks such as a denial-of-service (DoS) attack.
Developers have been attempting to bring it back in order to allow Ethereum-style smart-contract functionality, thus significantly adding to the utility that is possible on the original blockchain.
Taproot Wizards’ goal is to “meme OP_CAT back into existence,” through initiatives such as the NFT sales, it said. Last month, the project raised $30 million in funding for the building of an ecosystem of applications using OP_CAT.
