TL;DR
Some Bitcoin Ordinals collections have been making significant gains, and PFPs are a major part of the space. Important Bitcoin PFP collections include NodeMonkes, Ordinal Maxi Biz, Bitcoin Frogs, Taproot Wizards, Quantum Cats, and Natcats, although the Ordinals space is developing fast, and it remains to be seen how these collections will perform long-term.
Ordinals function like NFTs on Bitcoin, and this month, some Bitcoin PFPs have been popping off, with a lot of hype around what’s still to come in the Ordinals space. That in mind, let’s focus in and find out which are the top Bitcoin-based PFP collections.
Why Are Bitcoin PFPs Important?
If you look at each NFT ecosystem–Ethereum, Solana, or smaller chains–you’ll always find a handful of dominant PFP collections. They become community hubs, and holding is a flex that can bring rewards such as airdrops and whitelist allocations, all of which means key collections might–in the right conditions–gain a lot in value.
On Ethereum, Bored Apes were top of the tree for a long time, but it’s CryptoPunks–which date from 2017 and straddle the worlds of crypto and art–that have proven to hold long-term cachet and an ultra-collectible status.
By comparison, the Ordinals ecosystem may be on the oldest blockchain, but it is itself relatively new, only starting to develop from the start of 2023, and it’s still not clear exactly which Ordinals PFPs will stick around long-term.
NodeMonkes
A 10K collection of pixelated monkeys, NodeMonkes looks like a cross between CryptoPunks and Bored Apes, and claims to be the first 10K collection on Ordinals. Nodes (or are they known as Monkes?) went on sale last December, but were actually inscribed (meaning placed forever onto the blockchain) back in February 2023.
At the time of NodeMonkes’ inscription, the Ordinals ecosystem was just getting started and there wasn’t a lot of infrastructure, nor many participants. By the time NodeMonkes released though, there were resources in place and Ordinals were picking up attention.
First selling at 0.03 BTC, they were trading from around 0.2 BTC at the start of this year, and have now hit a floor price of 0.385 BTC, with some influential NFT collectors and artists flashing their Nodes on Twitter.
Ordinal Maxi Biz
At the center of the space, and 100% tuned in to the Ordinals vibe, there is Ordinal Maxi Biz. The design style looks like an eccentric, scratchily inked version of CryptoPunks, and OMB directly gunned for CryptoPunks when it last year offered whitelist spots to anyone bold enough to burn a CryptoPunk.
There are now three types of OMB PFP–Green Eyes, Red Eyes and Blue Eyes–of which Red Eyes and Blue Eyes are the scarcest and most valuable, with floor prices of 3.5 BTC and 4.25 BTC, respectively (and very few listed), while the floor price on the whole collection is 0.85 BTC.
What’s more, there is another component incoming, as creators ZK Shark and Tony T are planning to release a set of Orange Eyes OMB, although it remains to be seen how these will launch, and how they might affect prices on the collection overall.
Bitcoin Frogs
Remember how NodeMonkes were the earliest 10K collection, as they were inscribed in February 2023 before launching that December? Well, if you alter the criteria for “early”, then Bitcoin Frogs also have a claim, as they were actually launched before NodeMonkes, in March 2024. However, Bitcoin Frogs were also inscribed that month, which is after NodeMonkes were inscribed.
Inscription dates are significant in Ordinals, since every item has an ordinal inscription number clearly marking where it comes in the history of the protocol. And that means although Bitcoin Frogs were on sale first, NodeMonkes have the lower inscription numbers.
By the way, as an example of just how important inscription numbers can be, here’s a neon-flashing animated budgie that sold this week for 24.48 BTC, and the reason it fetched that staggering price is because it’s inscription number two on the Ordinals protocol.
Taproot Wizards
The only PFP collection that is influential despite not yet having been released for sale, Taproots Wizards is a collection of 2,108 Wizards, with designs based on the famous (if you live on the internet) Magic Internet Money meme/ad, which originated in 2013 on the r/Bitcoin subreddit.
As for when Taproot Wizards will be distributed, that’s anyone’s guess, but they are a central part of early Ordinals culture.
Quantum Cats
Taproot Wizards may currently be out of reach, but as an alternative, there’s Quantum Cats, a Taproot Wizards side project that went on sale in February, sold out 3,333 items at 0.1 BTC each, and is now trading from around 0.27 BTC on secondary.
There was also a Quantum Cat 1/1 sold at Sotheby’s for 6.3 BTC, and there was a 1.5 BTC Quantum Cats sale last week, so this one definitely has momentum.
Natcats
A new project continuing the feline theme, Natcats is visually simple but complicated under the hood: these are UNATs (unique non-arbitrary tokens) making use of DMT (digital matter theory) to create generative PFPs using properties from Bitcoin blocks.
Yes, that all sounds very obscure, a feeling that’s reinforced if you skim the technical details, but it’s out at the experimental edges of crypto that you can find interesting potential. Because Natcats are using a novel protocol, they aren’t currently on the usual marketplaces, so to buy them you need to go to the MSCRIBE marketplace, check the UNAT tab, and click Natcats in the filters.
Overall, the Ordinals space is expanding a lot, and if you’re exploring Bitcoin PFPs, then some other notable collections include Pizza Ninjas, Bitcoin Puppets, and–although it has its origins on Solana–there’s also the BTC DeGods collection.
