Taproot Wizards Launch Imminent: A New NFT Blue-Chip on the Horizon?
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Taproot Wizards Launch Imminent: A New NFT Blue-Chip on the Horizon?
What makes this foreigner's NFT project worth a mint price of 0.2 BTC?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthors: Cookie, Jaleel Jia Liu
After a long two-year wait, Taproot Wizards—the most anticipated new project on Bitcoin (Ordinals)—is finally launching tomorrow. While it's undoubtedly the leading NFT project in the Bitcoin ecosystem by influence, its mint price of 0.2 BTC is simply unimaginable under current NFT market conditions. So what makes this foreigner-made NFT project worth a 0.2 BTC mint price? And why do NFT enthusiasts still generally expect success for such a high-value sale in today’s market environment?
A Look at the Numbers: The Unbelievable NFT Mint
Based on data from cryptoslam.io, we selected all Bitcoin NFT collections that generated over $100,000 in total trading volume over the past 30 days (excluding BRC-20 token volumes), and found their combined volume totaled less than $35 million. In other words, excluding long-tail assets, the average daily trading volume for Bitcoin NFTs over the past month was only about $1.15 million.
Taproot Wizards has a total supply of 2,121 units. Of these, 36 were gradually airdropped over the past two years to early supporters; 100 were airdropped to deeply engaged community members, holders of Quantum Cats with the "Golden Cloak" trait, and winners of an early raffle for Bitcoin Wizards holders; another 200 were reserved for the team. This leaves only 1,785 Taproot Wizards available in this public release.
The total number of whitelist mints is set at 1,750. Among them, 828 have a discounted mint price of 0.1 BTC—granted to users who staked two Quantum Cats with specific traits ("1 alive + 1 dead"). The remaining 922 whitelist spots carry a full mint price of 0.2 BTC and were allocated to active participants who consistently engaged in Taproot Wizards activities over the past two years.
If all 1,750 whitelist mints sell out, the Taproot Wizards team will receive 267.2 BTC in mint revenue—approximately $23.4 million. Any unsold whitelist spots, along with the remaining 35 tokens, will enter a Dutch auction-style public sale.
Adding in the 300 BTC ($13 million at the time) raised from the earlier Quantum Cats sale, the Taproot Wizards team stands to earn at least 364 BTC (~$31.9 million) from minting alone. According to DefiLlama data, this would place the Taproot Wizards team at #8 on the all-time NFT mint revenue leaderboard.
A 0.2 BTC mint price equates to roughly 8.4 ETH, $17,560 USD, or 127,000 RMB—an extremely high price point in today’s NFT market.
Considering that Quantum Cats have never dropped below their initial mint price of 0.1 BTC when measured in BTC terms, the theoretical cost of staking Quantum Cats to gain discounted whitelist access amounts to 0.3 BTC in BTC-denominated value. Therefore, using 0.2 BTC × 2,121 as the total supply-based valuation, Taproot Wizards would debut with a market cap of 424.2 BTC (~$37.2 million), placing it at #21 on the NFT market cap rankings.
Interestingly, the three projects immediately ahead of it at #18–#20 are all Bitcoin NFTs: Quantum Cats (440 BTC, ~$38.6 million), NodeMonkes (435 BTC, ~$38.2 million), and Bitcoin Puppets (434 BTC, ~$38.1 million). Quantum Cats has long been seen as a "warm-up series" for Taproot Wizards and remains both the highest-market-cap Bitcoin NFT collection and a key pricing reference for Taproot Wizards.
If the opening price doubles, Taproot Wizards would surpass Solana’s top NFT Mad Lads to reach #7 on the market cap list. As for the top six positions—that would mark Bitcoin NFTs directly challenging Ethereum’s blue-chip NFT leaders.
When was the last time we saw such a massive new NFT mint? In terms of total mint revenue, the closest comparison might be Azuki Elementals in late June 2023, which sold 10,000 NFTs for 20,000 ETH (~$38 million). In terms of per-unit mint price, the last comparable event may go further back—to Moonbirds in April 2022, which had a mint price of 2.5 ETH (around $7,500 at the time).
Why Are NFT Enthusiasts Still Generally Optimistic?
$37.5 Million in Funding Raised
On November 16, 2023, Taproot Wizards announced a $7.5 million funding round led by Standard Crypto, with participation from Geometry, Collider Ventures, StarkWare, UTXO Management, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Masterkey, and Newman Capital.
@TO, partner at Bitcoin Frontier Fund, shared on social media a draft term sheet he sent earlier for investing in Taproot Wizards: “This was the term sheet I sent to @udiWertheimer and @ercwl on April 5, 2023, to invest in Taproot Wizards. After reading the pitch, I drafted it in just five minutes to secure early allocation.”
In fact, @TO reportedly wrote the entire investment proposal on a piece of toilet paper during a bathroom break.
Then on February 5 of this year, Taproot Wizards secured an additional $30 million in Series A funding, again led by Standard Crypto, with Cyberfund and Collider Ventures participating. These funds will support the development of OP_CAT, advancing the realization of smart contracts on Bitcoin’s mainnet.
This level of funding is astonishing. Remember, the OP_CAT opcode remains disabled on Bitcoin’s mainnet. Although there is now a BIP-347 proposal to re-enable it, it's still uncertain when—or even if—it will be approved and implemented.
Udi Wizardheimer: Bitcoin’s Most Skilled “Stirrer of the Pot”
@ordjingle, creator of the Ordinals protocol, once described Taproot Wizards founder Udi Wizardheimer as “the catfish of the Bitcoin ecosystem”—a force that stirs things up. For an NFT project to exist for two full years before launch and still be regarded as the leader in Bitcoin NFTs speaks volumes.
The Ordinals protocol first gained mainstream attention within crypto thanks to Taproot Wizards, who on February 1, 2023, filled an entire Bitcoin block with a single 4MB image.
This image created the largest block and transaction in Bitcoin history at the time. It caused significant controversy across the Bitcoin community. Blockstream CEO Adam Back and Bitcoin Core developer LukeDashjr criticized the move, arguing it caused rapid blockchain bloat and potential infrastructure issues, calling it an attack rather than innovation. Yet, it also brought the Ordinals protocol into the global crypto spotlight for the first time.
In March 2023, Taproot Wizards shared founder Udi Wertheimer’s personal journey on social media: “On the day Silicon Valley Bank collapsed and USDC depegged, I decided to launch the Taproot Wizard NFT project and asked people to record videos of themselves bathing while dressed as wizards.”
Cosplaying as wizards and filming bath sessions quickly became a viral trend in the NFT space. Even Gordon Goner, co-founder of Yuga Labs, recorded and posted his own shower video to claim a Taproot Wizard.
In early 2024, Taproot Wizards launched the Quantum Cats NFT collection, known in Chinese-speaking communities as “Quantum Cats.” Much like the upcoming Taproot Wizards launch, Quantum Cats debuted during a bearish market phase but never fell below its mint price, quickly gaining recognition as a blue-chip Bitcoin NFT. At the height of AIXBT’s popularity, Udi Wizardheimer made another bold move—prompting AIXBT to publicly request ownership of a Quantum Cat, which upon receiving, changed their Twitter profile picture to one. Crucially, Quantum Cats’ primary goal was to push for the revival of OP_CAT, which has since received official BIP proposal status (BIP-347). The Quantum Cats community, under Udi’s leadership, played a pivotal role in this effort.
One of Bitcoin’s Oldest Memes
The wizard imagery originated in February 2013, when /r/Bitcoin moderator theymos solicited creative ad ideas from the community. Within an hour, a user named /u/mavensbot submitted a piece titled *Magic Internet Money Wizard*. Its imaginative art style, eye-catching design, and straightforward cultural slogan quickly made it the most popular entry.
The image was later adopted as the official promotional graphic for the /r/Bitcoin subreddit and ran as ads on Reddit for a period. Its simple yet catchy design drove significant traffic to the forum, drawing curious users wondering what this “unconventional ad” meant. Many discovered, learned about, bought, and spread Bitcoin because of it. Notably, Bitcoin was trading at just $287 at the time.
Beyond honoring this iconic wizard meme from Bitcoin’s history, Taproot Wizards also emphasizes the significance of Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade for Bitcoin NFTs, hence incorporating “Taproot” into the project’s name.
Notably, the original creator of the wizard meme, mavensbot, remains active in the Bitcoin NFT space. He has launched his own Bitcoin NFT series called Bitcoin Wizards, referred to as “Little Wizards” in Chinese circles to distinguish it from Taproot Wizards. He plans to launch a 10,000-unit wizard PFP collection and already owns the Rune MAGIC•INTERNET•MONEY.
So why is the original creator “small” while Taproot Wizards is “big”? Because Udi is a marketing genius—Taproot Wizards holds vastly greater influence across the broader NFT world than Bitcoin Wizards.
Conclusion
We’ve previously analyzed Taproot Wizards and Quantum Cats in depth. If you’d like to learn more, please refer to:
Funded $7.5M for a 4MB doodle—why are investors betting on Bitcoin’s "Wizard Culture"?
Explaining Bitcoin memeNFTs: What is the bald wizard Taproot Wizard referencing and expressing?
Bitcoin's "Quantum Cats": Without smart contracts, how can inscriptions achieve dynamic changes?
The launch of this NFT project would be astonishing even during the peak of the NFT boom. Now, at a time when NFTs have largely faded from market attention, will Taproot Wizards reignite excitement—not just for Bitcoin NFTs, but for the entire NFT market? We’ll have to wait and see.
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