# Yuga Labs Acquires Moonbirds Creator PROOF in Major NFT IP Deal > On February 16, 2024, Yuga Labs announced it had acquired PROOF, the startup behind Moonbirds, Oddities, Mythics, the Grails series and the PROOF Collective. The deal put another major NFT brand under the Bored Ape maker, which planned to fold Moonbirds into its Otherside game, though it sold the Moonbirds IP again in 2025. Source: https://cryptomorrow.com/2024/02/16/yuga-labs-acquires-moonbirds-creator-proof-in-major-nft-ip-deal/ Last checked: 2026-11-11 [Yuga Labs](https://yuga.com), the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, announced on **February 16, 2024** that it had acquired **PROOF**, the startup that created the owl-themed **Moonbirds** NFTs. The deal included Moonbirds and its spin-off collections Oddities and Mythics, the Grails art exhibition series and the PROOF Collective membership group, along with PROOF's staff. Neither side disclosed the price. *Historical news event: 2024-02-16. Retrospective report prepared November 2026.* The acquisition came during a slow stretch for NFT prices. It also showed another way the sector might grow: instead of only trading expensive digital pictures, companies could buy whole collections and the rights to their characters, then try to build entertainment franchises around them. ## A parliament of pixel owls [Moonbirds](https://www.proof.xyz/moonbirds) launched in April 2022 as a collection of 10,000 pixel-art owls, each built from layers of traits. Their simple, readable shapes made them work well as profile pictures and gave them obvious potential for toys, animation and games. PROOF was co-founded by Kevin Rose, the entrepreneur best known for founding Digg, and was backed by a $50 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz in 2022, according to [The Block](https://www.theblock.co/news/web3/2024-02-16-bored-apes-creator-yuga-labs-acquires-proof-takes-over-moonbirds-nft-brand-277905). Moonbirds' trading peak came early. The collection neared $500 million in trading volume in April 2022, its launch month, but had generally done under $5 million a month since, The Block reported, citing CryptoSlam data. In August 2022, PROOF also moved the art into the public domain under a CC0 licence, a choice we covered in [Moonbirds' CC0 debate](/2022/08/04/moonbirds-makes-its-nft-art-cc0-setting-off-a-debate-over-ownership/). ## Why Yuga wanted the birds Yuga said it would start by bringing Moonbirds into [Otherside](https://www.otherside.xyz), its game world built around the Otherdeed land NFTs sold in [the April 2022 Otherside mint](/2022/04/30/otherdeed-land-sale-raises-317-million-and-sends-ethereum-fees-soaring/). "Moonbirds is a collection with great potential and many unifying brand elements with Otherside," Yuga CEO Daniel Alegre told The Block on February 16, 2024. He told [Decrypt](https://decrypt.co/217906/yuga-labs-acquires-moonbirds-proof) the same day that the team was "still working through the exact whats and how things are going to evolve." ![Otherside key art showing a small character in a glowing blue portal surrounded by floating purple rocks](/static/up/2024/02/cm-033-otherside-key-art.webp) *Image: [Otherside / Yuga Labs](https://www.otherside.xyz)* Rose framed the deal as a good fit for collectors. PROOF was "excited to bring Moonbirds into Otherside," he said in a statement quoted by The Block, adding that the companies' "combined resources will allow us to innovate faster and reach more people." Rose agreed to help with the handover and then become an advisor to Yuga Labs. Yuga said it would keep running the PROOF Collective, while the long-term future of the PROOF brand itself was left open. The announcement gave collectors a planned link between two well-known NFT brands. It didn't mean Moonbirds features were already live inside a game on the day of the deal. ## What changes for holders, and what doesn't Buying a company's brand and IP doesn't move individual NFTs out of collectors' wallets. Holders keep their tokens. What changes is who controls the brand, the development roadmap and decisions about merchandise, media and games, subject to whatever licence applies. In Moonbirds' case, the CC0 licence already let anyone reuse the art. That distinction was one of the lessons of the early NFT years. Buyers often talked about "ownership" as one bundle of rights, when the legal and technical reality was more fragmented. Kevin Rose had himself denied a few months earlier that any Moonbirds sale was imminent, Decrypt noted, which shows how quickly these brands can change hands. ![Kevin Rose speaking on stage at Web Summit 2013 in front of a large teal Summit sign](/static/up/2024/02/cm-033-kevin-rose-web-summit-2013.webp) *Photo: Heisenberg Media / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0* ## A later change of direction Yuga's ownership didn't last. On May 30, 2025, it sold the Moonbirds IP, together with Mythics and Oddities, to [Orange Cap Games](https://www.orangecapgames.com), a young studio that makes digital and physical trading card games, [Decrypt reported](https://decrypt.co/323189/bored-ape-maker-sells-moonbirds-gaming-startup). Its first title, Vibes TCG, is themed on Pudgy Penguins. Terms weren't disclosed. Yuga co-founder Greg Solano said the birds "deserve a team whose whole world is the birds." Orange Cap said Moonbirds characters would still appear in Otherside. The sale fit a wider pattern. Yuga had already sold the Meebits IP in February 2025 and handed the CryptoPunks IP to the nonprofit Infinite Node Foundation in May 2025 as it refocused on Bored Apes and Otherside. Moonbirds later began a new chapter with [the BIRB token on Solana in January 2026](/2026/01/28/moonbirds-launches-birb-on-solana-as-its-nft-owls-begin-a-new-chapter/), and Yuga kept building Otherside, including [the Koda Nexus city](/2025/11/12/yuga-labs-opens-koda-nexus-bringing-a-playable-city-to-otherside/). The resale doesn't make the 2024 deal a failure or a scam. It shows how fast strategy can shift when one company holds many brands competing for attention and developers. The appeal of Moonbirds is still easy to see in the art: friendly, recognizable characters with enough variety to feel personal. The open question is which team can build experiences that keep people caring about those owls once the excitement of a big acquisition fades. ## Frequently asked questions ### When did Yuga Labs buy Moonbirds? Yuga Labs announced its acquisition of PROOF, the company behind Moonbirds, on February 16, 2024. The deal also covered Oddities, Mythics, the Grails series and the PROOF Collective. ### How much did Yuga Labs pay for PROOF? The price wasn't disclosed. Yuga Labs declined to say how much it paid for PROOF. ### Who owns Moonbirds now? Yuga Labs sold the Moonbirds IP, along with Mythics and Oddities, to Orange Cap Games on May 30, 2025. Individual Moonbirds NFTs stayed with their holders throughout. ### What happened to Kevin Rose after the deal? Kevin Rose, PROOF's co-founder and CEO, helped with the handover and then became an advisor to Yuga Labs. ## Sources - [Decrypt, February 16, 2024: Yuga Labs acquires Moonbirds creator Proof](https://decrypt.co/217906/yuga-labs-acquires-moonbirds-proof) - [The Block, February 16, 2024: Yuga Labs acquires Proof, takes over Moonbirds brand](https://www.theblock.co/news/web3/2024-02-16-bored-apes-creator-yuga-labs-acquires-proof-takes-over-moonbirds-nft-brand-277905) - [Decrypt, May 30, 2025: Bored Ape maker sells Moonbirds to gaming startup](https://decrypt.co/323189/bored-ape-maker-sells-moonbirds-gaming-startup) - [Moonbirds official page](https://www.proof.xyz/moonbirds) - [Otherside official site](https://www.otherside.xyz) *Featured image: [PROOF / Moonbirds](https://www.proof.xyz/moonbirds)*