June 2, 2025 — In a significant shift within the NFT ecosystem, Orange Cap Games has acquired the intellectual property of the Moonbirds NFT collection, along with the Mythics and Oddities series, from Yuga Labs.
The announcement was made by Orange Cap Games (OCG) on May 30, marking a notable pivot for both companies. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition comes just over a year after Yuga Labs took ownership of the collections through its February 2024 acquisition of PROOF, the original creator of Moonbirds. With this move, OCG aims to reinvigorate the once-popular Ethereum-based NFTs by integrating them into its growing portfolio of blockchain gaming initiatives.
“Moonbirds deserve a team whose whole world is the birds,” said Greg Solano, co-founder of Yuga Labs. “There’s no one better than Orange Cap Games to help them reach their potential.” Solano noted that Yuga is now doubling down on its flagship IPs, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and its long-awaited metaverse platform, Otherside.
Despite the change in ownership, Moonbirds is still slated for integration into Otherside. Future on-chain assets created by Orange Cap Games will remain on Ethereum or migrate to Yuga’s Layer-2 ApeChain.
Market reaction was swift—Moonbirds saw a price surge of over 200%, rising to 0.9 ETH following the announcement. However, the collection remains significantly below its April 2022 peak of 38.5 ETH, according to CoinGecko.
This sale is part of a broader trend at Yuga Labs, which has been actively streamlining its operations amid a prolonged downturn in the NFT market. In recent months, Yuga divested several key assets, including the intellectual property for CryptoPunks—transferred to the nonprofit Infinite Node Foundation—and Meebits, which was sold to The Meebit Company, with Yuga retaining a minority stake.
In a similar move last year, the company offloaded its gaming IPs HV-MTL and Legends of the Mara to realign its focus.
While Yuga Labs trims its NFT portfolio, the wider market may be seeing signs of recovery. In May, the number of unique NFT buyers rose by 50% to 936,000, with total trading volume reaching $430 million—an increase of 15% from April, according to industry data.
In parallel developments, Disney also entered the Web3 space on May 30, partnering with Dapper Labs to launch a loyalty program offering monthly digital pins to Disney+ subscribers.
With new entrants and strategic reshuffling underway, the NFT sector appears to be entering a new phase of innovation and consolidation.
