Can the dream of "NodeMonkes" 1 monkey = 1 BTC, which has a market value exceeding "Fat Penguin," be realized?

Author: Asher, Odaily Planet Daily

Editor: Qin Xiaofeng, Odaily Planet Daily

As the price of BTC continues to rise, the Bitcoin ecosystem NFT is experiencing a new wave of explosion, with NodeMonkes (referred to as "Node Monkeys" in the Chinese community) standing out the most.

According to the latest data from the NFT sector on CoinGecko, NodeMonkes had a sales volume of 80 in the past 24 hours, with a trading volume of 68.28 BTC (approximately 4.6 million USD); the current floor price is 0.8 BTC (approximately 53,755 USD), with an increase of over 120% in the past week; the total market value has reached 537 million USD, surpassing Pudgy Penguins, second only to CryptoPunks and BAYC.

From its launch to becoming one of the top three NFT projects by total market value (and the only BTC ecosystem project in the top five), NodeMonkes achieved this in less than three months. Why is it so favored and sought after by the community?

The First Native 10K PFP Series on Bitcoin

The design prototype of NodeMonkes first appeared on the Ordinals testnet on December 21, 2022.

As the first native 10K PFP series on the Bitcoin ecosystem, the project was minted from February 14 to February 16, 2023, featuring a total of 111 traits, including 32 bodies, 5 ears, 29 eyes, and 45 heads. This project is also one of the most complete in listing traits and rarity in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Image source: Official Website

The creator of NodeMonkes is nodetoshi (anonymous), referred to as "Shiben Cong" in the Chinese community, who has led the creation of multiple projects. According to investigations by several community members, he is the organizer of BitcoinRocks and possibly the creator of RSIC. Additionally, nodetoshi is one of the earliest three members of the Ordinals founding team and held the highest authority in the early Ordinals DC community—only two people had it, the other being Casey, who left the team due to conflicts.

Regarding the project's fair launch (Freemint), nodetoshi has his own thoughts. To prevent scientists and speculators from rushing in, he personally spent money to airdrop 19,000 RSIC to the most active and loyal non-bot accounts in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

When NodeMonkes was launched, nodetoshi auctioned 8,000 NFTs using a Dutch auction method, starting at a price of 0.21 BTC. After about 30 hours of the Dutch auction, all were sold out when the price dropped to around 0.04 BTC. The remaining NoMonkes included 1,000 for the community, contributors, artists, developers, etc.; another 1,000 were reserved for the founding team, and the relevant wallet addresses have been made public.

Image source: Official Twitter

There were a few small episodes during the Dutch auction of NodeMonkes. Initially, NodeMonkes claimed it would conduct a Freemint; however, the team reconsidered due to the possibility of being monopolized by scientists and speculators (such as memory pool sniping), and changed to a whitelist sale. Subsequently, the team received a massive number of whitelist requests and found that many users impersonated the project or community to request whitelists, leading to the cancellation of the whitelist sale method. Ultimately, after comprehensive consideration, they adopted the Dutch auction, giving pricing power to the community and the market while also avoiding scientists and speculators.

The "Golden Shovel" of the BTC Ecosystem

On January 22, the Rune miner—RSIC was airdropped to a batch of wallets belonging to active players in the Bitcoin ecosystem NFT. In this airdrop, NodeMonkes holders received substantial rewards. According to community feedback, active addresses holding NodeMonkes received up to 5 RSIC airdrops.

After trading began, RSIC also performed impressively, with the floor price breaking 0.01 BTC on the first day of trading, peaking at 0.05 BTC over the next two days, and then stabilizing around 0.03 BTC. Recently, as the overall market conditions in crypto have improved, especially with the continuous rise in BTC prices, RSIC's current floor price remains around 0.12 BTC (valued at approximately 8,000 USD).

Image source: magiceden

With the recent rise in floor prices, NodeMonkes is gaining increasing attention, and it is expected that more BTC ecosystem projects will airdrop to NodeMonkes holders during their cold starts, recreating the former glory of BAYC.

Whales Accumulate, "1 Monkey = 1 BTC" About to be Realized

According to monitoring data from NFTstats.eth on March 4, a whale address starting with fh3csy swept six "Alien" NodeMonkes for a total price of 53.45 BTC, spending approximately 3.35 million USD, with an average price of 8.9 BTC.

Image source: NFTstats.eth

Once the news broke, market buying increased, and later yesterday, the floor price briefly rose above 0.9 BTC, with various communities starting to discuss NodeMonkes, creating a strong FOMO atmosphere:

• "No good news is the biggest good news. Realizing that Nothing > Anything, projects that do nothing are the good projects, possessing infinite imagination. Looking back at BAYC before it announced making games, the floor price kept rising; since it announced making games, the floor price has been on a downward trend, completely cooling off. The Node Monkeys on the BTC chain, with no ecosystem or vision, have the best rising floor price."
• "Looking back now, Node Monkeys changed from the original Free Mint to a Dutch auction, could it be the intention of a big brother behind the scenes? Those who like the Dutch auction method seem to also enjoy top Ethereum NFTs, perhaps there is capital pushing behind it."
• "From encountering countless FUD during the Dutch auction, to the community split essays after listing, to now the spiral of image coins, to now the airdrop winning passively, and now becoming one of the most comfortable small groups in the crypto world. Only by holding NodeMonkes can one make money."
• "Node Monkeys are the hard currency of the Bitcoin ecosystem, exchanging one Node Monkey for 1 BTC is no longer a dream."

Conclusion

Analyzing from multiple dimensions such as community enthusiasm and secondary market trading volume, NodeMonkes is undoubtedly the leader of the current BTC ecosystem NFTs. Meanwhile, the two tags of "the first native 10K PFP series on the Bitcoin ecosystem" and "high-quality golden shovel" continue to elevate the project's popularity and floor price, and it is not far from the community's shout of "1 Monkey = 1 BTC."

In the future, whether NodeMonkes can replace BAYC or even CryptoPunks, we will wait and see.