Taproot Wizards Recovers From Tech-Marred Debut, Selling $11M of Bitcoin NFTs

Bitcoin Ordinals project Taproot Wizards saw robust uptake for its inaugural "Quantum Cats" digital-art sale on Monday, despite severe tech issues that delayed the planned mint three times last week.

With almost two hours left for whitelisted buyers to claim the $NFT-like collectibles, at least 2,570 of the series of 3,000 had been claimed, at a fixed price of 0.1 BTC ($4,274 each) – for total revenue of roughly $11 million.

Such proceeds would already exceed the $7.5 million that Taproot Wizards raised last year from investors, amid a wave of enthusiasm for the Ordinals inscriptions, sometimes referred to as "NFTs on Bitcoin." There still a public sale planned for remaining items later Monday, after the whitelist period closes.

The Quantum Cats sale kicked off last Monday but was paused due to technical problems that prevented buyers from completing their purchases, causing frustration and leading to widespread complaints on a Discord channel for the project.

Taproot Wizards officials, led by co-founders Udi Wertheimer and Eric Wall, postponed the resumption of the mint twice more, saying that despite having fixed the issues, more time was needed for additional testing.

"We knew that the demand was high," Wertheimer told CoinDesk told Monday in a Telegram chat. "We’re just pleased we’re able to provide a smooth experience for our community today."

He said the Quantum Cats that were allocated to whitelisted buyers had nearly sold out, declining to provide a specific figure, but noting that there would be "some spots for the open public mint," which is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. ET.

The Ordinals protocol and its "inscriptions" – launched in early 2023 by creator Casey Rodarmor – effectively allows NFTs to be minted and stored on the Bitcoin blockchain.

While the Bitcoin community is somewhat divided on the potential ramifications of the surging minting activity, which at times has created congestion on the network and driven up fees, many crypto experts argue that the trend has brought a newfound energy to the pace of development on the oldest original blockchain.

Read More: Casey Rodarmor: The Bitcoin Artist