Honey Badgers is a generative 10K PFP collection of Ordinals inscriptions, designed by @Akva556 (hereafter ‘Akva’) and artist @DesenhistaRedn (aka ‘Rodrigo’). Each of these digital collectibles features artwork of a distinct, pixelated honey badger with unique characteristics. The Honey Badgers were among the earliest collections in the space. They began their mint in February 2023, just a few weeks after Casey Rodarmor launched the Ordinals protocol.
Depending on how you qualify the term “first” – a question that has spawned controversy online – the Honey Badgers even have an argument to say they were the first 10K Ordinals collection, having started their mint before any other original artwork collection of their size. And if you’re one of the people who argue that NodeMonkes should hold that crown for finishing their mint first? Honey Badgers don’t care.
The Concept Behind Honey Badgers
The honey badgers art is – as its name implies – full of badgers with unique characteristics to distinguish them from one another. The honey badgers come in different colors, each have special traits and are meant to represent the fearless spirit of the Bitcoin ecosystem and community. Artist Rodrigo hoped the pixelated art style would evoke nostalgia, writing on X that pixel art always reminds him of “the dream [he] had as a kid of making [his] own video game.” This led him to design the badgers in full body poses so he could incorporate action shots. Many of the other artistic choices came from community members, who suggested specific traits for various badgers.
But the broader choice to use honey badgers as a name and concept requires a bit more explanation to fully understand. The whole thing starts with a viral 2011 YouTube video called “The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger (original narration by Randall).” The video features documentary-style wildlife footage of honey badgers hunting jackals and eating cobras while a narrator fires off chaotic lines like “honey badger don't care” and “honey badger don’t give a shit.”
The honey badger (and its general lack of shits given) ultimately became a popular meme among Bitcoiners, who compared the animal to the cryptocurrency for both being fearless and persistent. Adding to the lore was Roger Ver, an early promoter in the Bitcoin ecosystem, who at one point was paying for a billboard Bitcoin ad on the Santa Clara Lawrence Expressway that featured the words, “The Honey Badger of Money.”
The History of Honey Badgers
Akva got his start in Ordinals early, after learning about the theory in a Stacks layer community post just after the protocol launched. He was excited by the energy and ambition of these open-minded Bitcoiners, but found himself initially disappointed with the creativity of the earliest collections. Akva felt that many of the first projects were copies of those developed on other blockchain platforms.
This inspired him to step up and develop his own Bitcoin-native project. The collection has been described as “an experiment to see if a native NFT community can emerge and thrive on the native Bitcoin ecosystem.” The founders wanted to prove wrong the Bitcoin maximalists who believe that Bitcoin should only serve as a currency and should not focus on developing other use cases.
According to Akva, the goal of the Honey Badgers was to build something that was fun, original and (most importantly) affordable. Akva turned to a longtime friend of his – Rodrigo – to build alongside him. It took just a shockingly short five days from the concept being born to them beginning their mint.
The Development of Honey Badgers
As noted earlier, Honey Badgers has one of several claims to the title of first “original” 10K collection. The controversy is this: Honey Badgers started inscribing at #81,557 and were the first such collection to begin. However, they did not finish minting out until #1,029,518 – roughly two months later. Because NodeMonkes completed their inscriptions “first,” many consider them to be the first 10K collection. Some members of the Honey Badgers community contest this viewpoint, highlighting that Bitcoin itself is not done being mined and that doesn’t stop people from considering it the first chain.
The mint itself was highly affordable, costing 69420 satoshis (for the lulz) and gas fees. With those fees, it was roughly 0.001 BTC, which equated at that time to roughly $22 USD. Each minter received a 1-1 airdrop, bringing the net effective price to $11 USD.
Because the collection was so early into Ordinals, there wasn’t really a wealth of processes available for their launch. They utilized a unique minting process through Lightning, with help from Deezy’s @dannyndiekroeger. There are no roadmaps for Honey Badgers, and no promised utility. Its sole stated purpose is to provide a place for the community to gather and a symbol of the resilience that underpins crypto culture. All metadata in the collection lives on-chain.
To judge the financial success of the collection, you need look no further than inscription number eight, which sold in December 2023 for a record 10.4 BTC. This sale, and the continuing resilience of the community, proves the Honey Badgers collection’s staying power.
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