Bitcoin Ordinals Taproot Wizards Project Plans Long-Awaited Signature NFT Sale
Bitcoin Ordinals Taproot Wizards Project Prepares Long-Awaited Signature NFT Sale
Wizards were recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain two years ago and are now available for purchase.
Jamie Crowley | Edited by Sheldon Reback Updated March 11, 2025, 15:55 UTC Published March 11, 2025, 15:00 UTC
Key points:
- This month, Taproot Wizards will be auctioning off 2,121 NFTs of their unique “magical internet JPEGs.”
- The Wizards team registered on the Bitcoin blockchain two years ago.
UPDATE (March 11, 15:40 UTC): Removed incorrect numbers from the headline. The previous version stated that Taproot Wizards was hoping to raise around $34 million by selling 2,121 Wizards at 0.2 BTC per unit. However, many buyers would only be willing to pay 0.1 BTC due to their participation in the Quantum Cats sale a year ago. The updated numbers are not yet determinable.
Taproot Wizards will auction off its collection of Microsoft Paint-style cartoon wizards this month, following a similar sale last year that raised $13 million.
Taproot Wizards intends to auction off 2,121 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of its unique “magic internet JPEGs,” a reference to the 2013 Bitcoin meme “magic internet money,” later this month, according to an emailed statement. Wizards were added to the Bitcoin blockchain two years ago and are now available for sale.
Last year, the project released a collection of 3,000 Quantum Cats to raise funds for the Bitcoin Improvement Initiative (BIP) OP_CAT. Despite technical difficulties, the collection quickly sold out, raising 300 BTC in the process.
Starting on March 25, Wizards will initially be offered to whitelisted buyers at a price of 0.2 BTC ($16,000).
Any unsold wizards will be put up for auction in the Netherlands. The starting price will be above 0.2 BTC and will be announced closer to the auction date, a CoinDesk representative said in a Telegram message.
OP_CAT was included in the Bitcoin source code by its pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, who later removed it due to concerns that it could expose the network to risks such as a denial of service (DoS) attack.
Developers have been trying to bring it back to implement smart contract functionality in the spirit of Ethereum, significantly expanding the capabilities of the original blockchain.
Taproot Wizards aims to “resurrect OP_CAT through a meme” through initiatives such as NFT sales, as mentioned in the statement. Last month, the project raised $30 million to fund the creation of an ecosystem of applications using OP_CAT.
