MoonCats NFT

The MoonCats NFTs are a collection of 25,440 images created by Ponderware. Minted in 2017, MoonCats were one of the very first NFTs and incorporated on-chain generation, fair distribution, and user customization.

The original development team and the active community continue development of the MoonCat Ecosystem, though there will never be any new MoonCat tokens minted. The original MoonCat website is preserved as an historical artifact.

Moon Cats Website

Moon Cats Twitter

Moon Cats Discord

Buy Moon Cats on Opensea

What Are MoonCats NFTs?

The MoonCats consist of 96 black and white Genesis cats and 25,344 “rescue” cats that come in other colors. Originally created in 2017, the project was put on hold and forgotten about until the spring of 2021. This OG-turned comeback kid storyline gives MoonCats special status within the NFT realm.

MoonCats Lore

The story behind MoonCats is an integral aspect to this NFT collection. The story goes that the cats were at risk of extinction from a solar eclipse. The MoonCats NFT community came together to rescue the cats by giving them space to exist on the Ethereum blockchain. The creators referred to the smart contract as a “spaceship with the latest litter-box technology”. Cute.

The MoonCats could be named once they were adopted on the blockchain. Ponderware integrated a system of irrevocable naming, whereby a MoonCat owner could choose to name (or not) the cat. Once a name was chosen, it was permanently associated with the cat and could not be changed or removed. This resulted in a fascinating array of naming choices. And some NFT collectors prefer unnamed cats, adding a unique variable to this NFT market.

MoonCats NFT History

Originally, the cost to “rescue” most of the MoonCats into an NFT was only the price of the gas. Genesis MoonCats cost more during minting. The first batch of 16 Genesis MoonCats cost 0.3 Ether each to mint, and each subsequent batch of 16 cost 0.3 Ether more than the previous.

Taking into account the variations within the MoonCat NFTs, there were 4 billion potential feature combinations. Of these combinations, the original community chose 25,600.

3365 MoonCats were minted in 2017, numbered 0 through 3364. The first 100 cats are considered to be the most valuable. Cats minted in 2018 were numbered between 3365 and 5683. 71 cats were minted in 2019, and only 3 cats were minted in 2020. March 2021 saw the minting of the remaining cats, numbered 5758 to 25439. These are more affordable and often serve as an entry point to newcomers in the MoonCats NFT community.

Wrapped MoonCats vs Acclimated MoonCats

The original Ponderware creators developed an ERC-721 Wrapper. There are 17,800 Acclimated MoonCats under this wrapper.

When the MoonCats project was rediscovered in March 2021, an independent developer used a 3rd-party NFT Wrapping Service to create more MoonCats. These MoonCats are still legitimate NFTs in the collection.

Acclimated cats provide a royalty from each transaction to the original creators, Ponderware. The Wrapped MoonCats are not affiliated with Ponderware or any future projects from Ponderware.

Types of MoonCats

Some MoonCats are characterized by the real-world felines or characters they resemble. Orange tabbies like Garfield, purple tabbies a la the Cheshire Cat, and “alien” or “zombie” cats in pale blues and greens are popular within the marketplace.

Mooncats Expansions & Accessories

MoonCats were expanded to include an accessories system of on-chain collectibles. MoonCat NFT owners can choose to display (or not) the accessories along with their MoonCat token. Community members can create, buy, sell, and display accessories in the MoonCats Boutique.

Lootprints added Spacecraft accessories to the MoonCat Ecosystem.