Key Takeaways
- Orange Cap Games has acquired the Moonbirds NFT IP from Yuga Labs as the latter refocuses its business strategy.
- This is Yuga Labs’ third NFT IP sale in 2025, following earlier divestments of CryptoPunks and Meebits.
- The future of Moonbirds under Orange Cap Games remains unclear, but integration with blockchain and gaming appears central.
Yuga Labs, the cryptocurrency company most famously known for its Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, has sold the Moonbirds NFT intellectual property to Orange Cap Games in a deal that mirrors the company’s strategic priorities in evolution.
The sale, whose financial terms have not been made public, is Yuga’s third IP transaction of 2022. Earlier this year, Yuga sold the intellectual property rights for Meebits and CryptoPunks, which represents a significant shift away from diversifying within NFTs.
Originally acquired by Yuga Labs in early 2024 as part of a broader purchase of creator Proof, the Moonbirds IP was once a flagship project within the Ethereum NFT space.
However, with Yuga now doubling down on its core initiatives, most notably the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem and its metaverse project, the decision to divest seems in tune with a more focused long-term vision.
Orange Cap Expands NFT Gaming Portfolio Aggressively
Orange Cap Games is a new player in the blockchain gaming market, but recently took over the Moonbirds brand. The studio, known for its hybrid approach to physical and digital experiences, just launched its trading card game based on Pudgy Penguins on the Ethereum layer-2 network.
The acquisition of Moonbirds is a sign of increasing ambition to expand its IP portfolio as well as its presence in the NFT-powered gaming space.
While Orange Cap hasn’t explicitly said what it will do with Moonbirds, the brand assets it may create in the future could run on Ethereum’s mainnet or ApeChain, Yuga’s affiliated layer-2 network. The Moonbirds assets will still be featured in Yuga’s Otherside metaverse, so there will be some consistency between the two firms.
NFT Market Evolution Continues
Moonbirds, which launched in April 2022 at the height of NFT fever, saw remarkable early sales with over $280 million in transactions in its first weekend. Although Proof had sparked significant early interest and raised a lot of money, the subsequent decline of the NFT market hit its creator hard.
Community engagement dropped, and momentum fizzled. The 2024 acquisition by Yuga was considered a breath of fresh air for the project, but it has recently passed into new hands again.
The Moonbirds sale caps off a big trend of 2025: acquisition or realignment around core assets by the major players. As Yuga Labs shifts its focus back to its core projects, other companies like Orange Cap Games are taking on the challenge of breathing new life into classic NFT brands.
The brand’s resurgence depends on Moonbirds’ ability to captivate the audience again, and that will depend on the creative and technical prowess of Orange Cap in this swiftly changing digital world.
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