NodeMonkes is a 10K collection of Ordinals PFPs released in 2023. The anonymous team behind the project inscribed the characters on the blockchain in February 2023, just a few weeks after the Ordinals protocol launched. However, NodeMonkes was not released until December 2023, months after their initial inscription date. Once they launched, they quickly became a massively popular collection in a matter of weeks. 

NodeMonkes maintained plenty of staying power since their launch. At the time of this writing, they are the second most popular collection on Magic Eden, with a floor price of 0.13 BTC. NodeMonkes aficionados can also lay claim to the collection being the first unique 10K collection on Ordinals – though there is some complexity to the situation. But what else do these characters bring to the table? To understand their cultural role in the Bitcoin ecosystem, let’s take a deeper look at the collection.

History and Concept Behind NodeMonkes

The NodeMonkes art consists of vaguely squashed-looking color blocks that combine to form pixelated monkeys with various traits. The art has become instantly recognizable within the Bitcoin ecosystem. Interested buyers can also use the NodeMonkes website to review their Monkedex, which sorts the collection by rarity and can help potential holders determine what traits they want in their PFP. Some of the project’s inscriptions have references to CryptoPunk aliens, which tend to be popular with collectors and have driven up the value of those specific pictures.

Created by an anonymous duo, the project has no roadmap. What it does have in spades is hype. The NodeMonkes collection came to life with an unusual amount of anticipation. Ordinal collectors prize early inscriptions for their value and historical significance, and the satoshis used for NodeMonkes were inscribed early on. The inscriptions are in the 80K-110K range, making them desirable to holders. Another reason they were so highly anticipated is their claimed status of being the first 10K Ordinals collection – a claim also ascribed by some to Bitcoin Frogs. 

The rules for who can lay claim to the title of first 10,000 PFP collection on Ordinals can be a little bit murky, but there are two collections that are generally in the conversation. Bitcoin Frogs launched in March 2023, while NodeMonkes launched in December. But the trophy boils down to how you define the word ‘first’ – whether you mean the earliest inscriptions or the first collection to be released and minted out. For the most part, when it comes to Ordinals, people go by the inscription date. This would give the title to NodeMonkes, who inscribed their collection in February.

NodeMonkes crew also has a strong community behind them, and it’s common to see slogans like “Send Nodes” on social media. This online community, combined with their commercial value, has led the collection to be among the most successful in the Ordinal ecosystem. 

Development of NodeMonkes

The reason the NodeMonkes team took so many months between inscribing their collection and minting it out was to wait for the Ordinal ecosystem to get more fleshed out. It worked. By the time they launched, there were none of the growing pains that the earliest releases faced. No Google Sheets order books or trades made by trusting people on social media – instead, there were marketplaces built up and native wallets in place. 

Though the collection has been a resounding success, the launch itself was a bit controversial. Initially, the founders said the collection would be a free mint and claimed they’d refused a $5 million offer for the project from venture capitalists. But they later changed their tune, deciding to go with a Dutch auction-based launch. This kicked off on December 21, 2023, with a starting price of .21 BTC. After just four days of trading, the collection surpassed 500 BTC in volume. Their staying power in the Ordinal ecosystem is obvious; despite launching almost a year ago, they are still one of the top collections on sites like Magic Eden.

Projects Associated with NodeMonkes

In addition to the main NodeMonkes, the team also developed a separate project that honors Web3 luminaries with a 400-image collection. This was largely promotional in nature, but it was used to great effect by the team, as the recipients were high-profile members of the crypto community. Their responses to the artwork often were widely distributed to their followers.

By providing these luminaries with honorary NodeMonkes based on their image, the team garnered a ton of eyeballs online and drew valuable attention to the project in critical, early days.

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