As evidence of the ever-present desire for digital art embedded into the original blockchain, investors who purchased the recently created "Quantum Cats" NFT-like graphics from the Bitcoin Ordinals project Taproot Wizards were already selling them on Tuesday for over double the original price.
While the main mint ended on Monday with a set price of 0.1 BTC per Quantum Cat, the lowest price that could be found on Tuesday on the NFT marketplace Magic Eden was 0.243 BTC ($10,481).
Magic Eden reports that the first owners of the Quantum Cats saw 115 BTC worth of trading volume within hours of delivery. There were around 507 photos that were still up for grabs.
On Monday, the initial minting of 3,000 Quantum Cats came to a finish, and the series sold out. From its maiden collection, the Taproot Wizards initiative could have made almost $13 million.
That came after a week of stress due to technical difficulties with the Taproot Wizards minting website, which frustrated users and prompted many to voice their displeasure in the project's Discord channel. Several delays ensued after the first day's stoppage of the procedure.
Buyers were unfazed, as seen by this week's results, which significantly surpassed the $7.5 million that the Taproot Wizards, spearheaded by Udi Wertheimer and Eric Wall, managed to raise from investors last year.
The project has been successful because of the interest in Ordinals inscriptions, which are often called "NFTs on Bitcoin." Developed by Casey Rodarmor and released in early 2023, the Ordinals protocol and its "inscriptions" make it possible to issue and store NFTs on the Bitcoin network.
While Bitcoin is the oldest and largest blockchain by market value, earlier rounds of NFT hype centered on Ethereum and other blockchains that were perceived as more programmable.