Odaily Exclusive Interview with Moonbirds Head Spencer: From World-Class Fencer to NFT Revivalist

Author｜jk

Odaily recently conducted an exclusive interview with Spencer, the current head of Moonbirds, to delve into this legendary figure’s journey from fencer to NFT investor to NFT brand revivalist. Spencer was not only once one of the largest holders of Pudgy Penguins, but was also chosen to take over Moonbirds from Yuga Labs and lead its revival. In this in-depth conversation, he shared his unique insights into the NFT market, Moonbirds’ future vision, and how to identify undervalued opportunities in a bear market.

During the interview, I was most impressed by Spencer’s quick-witted insights and responsiveness, each of which was imbued with a wealth of alpha perspective. His depth of understanding of product strategy was impressive, encompassing everything from the technological innovation cycle to the evolving value of IP, from consumer psychology to brand positioning. Let’s take a look at what he had to say about the NFT market and Moonbirds in 2025.

Q: Let’s start with an introduction! Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?

Spencer: My experience is quite unique, with a rather circuitous path. Early in my career, I was a competitive fencer on the US Fencing Team, representing the US at World Cups and Grand Prix events in foil. During my time fencing, I began working at an edtech startup and was later promoted to the executive team, where I secured millions of dollars in contracts and orchestrated several venture capital rounds. I left that company to study economics at the University of Chicago, and after graduation, I held executive positions at several startups.

After the pandemic hit, I transitioned into venture capital, focusing on seed and early-stage investments. During this time, I reconnected with cryptocurrency and, upon seeing NFTs, thought, “This makes sense, like using crypto for venture capital.” I invested early on in Bored Apes, RTFKT, Cool Cats, and several other projects. Within eight months, my portfolio grew by approximately 8,000%. During that time, I also connected with a number of people and raised a fund. When FTX collapsed, the majority of the fund was in cash, and I actively deployed capital during that period. It was during this period that we became one of the largest holders of Pudgy Penguins.

From that point on, I closely followed the Pudgy Penguins team through every venture round and helped their executive team think through their product strategy. Then, in 2023, when Luca was looking for a new product category after plush toys, we suggested, “You should make a trading card game.” The team quickly approved, and we were asked to help them design and build the product, now known to the public as Vibes TCG. This experience truly solidified our decades-long love for this product category, and it’s been a privilege to see both the web 2 and web 3 communities truly embrace it.

During this process, we thought, “What if we did this for our own IP?” Soon after, we were offered the opportunity to acquire Moonbirds from Yuga Labs. We ultimately bought Moonbirds and are now in the process of revitalizing it to bring back the real Birbs.

Q: Let’s talk about Moonbirds: What are your short-term and long-term visions for Moonbirds?

Spencer: Our short-term vision at the time of the acquisition was simple: to make Moonbird ownership cool again and solidify the brand’s culture. With so much lore and history already behind Moonbirds, we believed revitalizing it wouldn’t be difficult.

For me, the 2021 NFT bull run was my most enjoyable time in the crypto world . I had so much fun. I think many people feel the same way. Moonbirds reached its peak during that time. For many, Moonbirds carries mixed memories—both the fondest and, perhaps, the most painful, as you had to watch its decline.

In the short term, our priority is to make owning Moonbird fun and cool again . I think the previous management team’s problem was that they didn’t release products, activations, or experiences frequently enough, leaving them with a glut of content and high costs. So, after we took over, we wanted to release as much content as possible in the first 70 to 90 days.

We took a sprint approach to making it cool again, focusing specifically on the rebranding of “Birb” (BIRB) and “Birbish.” It’s kind of a brand refresh. I think the “moon” part of Moonbirds is more in line with the crypto trend of the last cycle, as there aren’t many moon-related projects in crypto these days. We really want to bring this voice to a younger audience, as Gen Z is clearly driving more narratives these days.

Therefore, we’ve been systematically transitioning our brand from Moonbirds to Birb and Birbish. This change in our profile pictures reflects the new style, which is edgier, more anime-like, and more memetic. What Birb and Birbish do so well is that they blend seamlessly into everyday speech and language. Becoming part of language and expression is the fundamental basis for the spread of memes.

Q: When you acquired Moonbirds, the NFT market was not performing well. Did you discover any key opportunities that others might have missed?

Spencer: Absolutely. I think there’s a fundamental shift happening in the cryptocurrency space. In previous cycles, technology was the primary driver of growth—better incremental technology emerged, and whoever had better technology won.

But we haven’t seen much technological innovation over the past four years, and the existing technology is already excellent. This isn’t discussed enough. The technology is indeed excellent. This is common in adoption and innovation curves—after a few years of rapid growth in an industry like cryptocurrencies, technological innovation is no longer the driving force. Companies with slightly better technology no longer have a differentiating advantage.

We see companies winning in crypto today relying on factors like influence and mindshare, which are largely driven by IP. Historically, IP has been a driving force globally. So, NFTs are on-chain IP. Frankly, there aren’t many truly outstanding crypto-native IPs, and Moonbirds is one of them. While I’m biased, I think it’s the best. Regardless of my opinion, it’s at least one of the top NFT brands—that’s hard to argue with.

If you agree that the next wave of cryptocurrency adoption will come from culture and IP, it has to be NFTs. Nothing else in cryptocurrency can do this in the same way.

Why are so many new adoption cycles coming from external sources—from the public market, from new user groups? They’re entering in a different way than before. For these audiences, it’s important to have content that they can understand and digest. This is why we’ve historically focused on physical collectibles. We believe this is a great bridge between these two worlds.

For new users who are new to cryptocurrency, saying “there are these birds on the blockchain” may not be enough to attract people. But saying “take this physical birb” and then explaining that it comes from the blockchain IP is much more effective in telling the story.

Q: What was the biggest challenge when taking over Moonbirds?

Spencer: When we took over Moonbirds, things had already changed a lot in terms of NFT trading volume and our position within it. But the problem was that NFTs just weren’t popular, and they still weren’t at the levels they were in 2021. We had a brand that had been essentially dormant for a long time. How could we revitalize it? How could we make it relevant again?

I don’t even want to talk about past challenges, because there are so many ongoing ones. One of the biggest challenges is that we’ve made it cool again in crypto. I think Moonbirds is cool again in crypto. But it only lasts for a while; crypto doesn’t stay in the same hot spot for long.

So the key question is: how do you convert success within the crypto world into success outside of it? And then how do you bring that success outside of it back into the crypto world? I think this back-and-forth is really important.

Right now we’re super focused on, “How do we leverage this momentum to succeed outside of crypto, outside of our bubble?” One interesting thing about Moonbirds is that it really only exists as a brand on Twitter. There’s no Instagram, no other platforms.

One of the strategies we’re developing is, how do we really break out outside of Twitter? I think that’s going to be key over the next 12 to 18 months.

Q: You are one of the largest Pudgy holders; what lessons do you plan to learn from Pudgy’s activation strategy that you plan to eventually apply to Moonbirds?

Spencer: There’s a lot to learn. A lot of what’s happening in the industry today was pioneered by Luca (Pudgy Penguins creator Luca Netz), and I have a lot of respect for what he did and is doing. He basically defined the playbook that most people follow today for viral growth.

One of the things that Luca advocated for a lot, and I agree with him, is the physical collectibles theory. Having things sitting on people’s desks in their homes is really important, and it bridges Web 2 and Web 3.

One thing Luca does well is being the first to adopt cutting-edge practices outside the crypto world. What are marketing trends? How do you market any product? How do you build a product?

One of the most interesting things Luca did was that Pudgy’s Instagram page wasn’t an encrypted page at all, it was just an IP page.

In terms of success in crypto, I think Luca’s best skill is timing. In crypto, when you do something is almost more important than what you do, which is interesting.

What we learned was this sprint mentality: create buzz within the crypto community, leverage that to secure collaborations outside of it. Create buzz for collaborations outside of it, leverage that to secure more collaborations within the crypto community. This back-and-forth sprinting style is what Pudgy excels at.

Where we think about differentiation is that these are completely different brands, targeting different consumer groups. Pudgy is very family-friendly and geared towards children, while Moonbirds is targeting an older, more progressive audience. This isn’t the direction it’s historically been headed, but it’s the direction we’re moving in.

When you start reaching the 12 to 14 year old age group, they are not watching children’s content, they are watching upwards. So we are targeting the 14 to 35 year old range. To me, the main trend in consumer products is not mass adoption as most people think, but “affordable luxury.”

We’re seeing a younger customer base for major luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada, and they’re spending less per purchase. This is why challenger brands like Popmart exist. Today’s younger generation can’t afford to buy a house, and they don’t save for it, so they have disposable income. While it’s not unlimited—not the kind you’d spend on a $1,000 T-shirt—it might be enough to buy a $150 T-shirt.

The focus isn’t on selling the most items, but on providing the best experience for consumers. Pudgy focuses on the mass-market adoption of toys at Walmart, but our approach is slightly different—a bit older, more like a brand that’s not quite luxury, but not exactly ordinary either. It needs to be edgy in a fun way. The hardest thing for a brand to do is be fun. That’s what we’re striving for, and hopefully we’ll succeed.

Q: Do you envision a crossover between the Moonbirds and Pudgy or BAYC?

Spencer: We haven’t announced any collaborations yet. I have a good relationship with Luca and Garga, and they’re both on our investor list, so it’s not out of the question that we could do something together in the future. But there aren’t any plans to announce anything yet.

We’re working on a lot of different partnerships. For us, the ones we really care about are partnerships outside of the crypto community. I think that’s where the real growth is. We’ve found that simply winning the mindshare of a crypto-native audience isn’t enough to grow a brand.

If you grow your brand outside of crypto, your brand will also grow inside crypto, because people inside crypto want to see growth outside of crypto, but if you only grow your brand inside crypto, people outside crypto won’t care.

So we concluded that actively developing outside the crypto community is the right strategy. We work with many Web 2 brands, serving as a bridge for them to enter the crypto field and also as a bridge for us to go beyond the crypto community.

A key shift is how many brands truly care about crypto audiences. I remember four years ago, during the last cycle, it was controversial for brands to engage in crypto-related activities. Now, not engaging in crypto-related activities is controversial.

That’s why crypto-native IP is such a powerful bridge—it’s something these brands understand. Physical products are also something these brands understand. I always describe Moonbirds as a platform for growth, collaboration, and activation. It’s a powerful platform that allows us to collaborate with other powerful platforms both inside and outside the industry.

Q: Older Moonbirds owners are looking for clarity and utility. What do you think they should expect this year in terms of the roadmap or milestones?

Spencer: I was very clear from the beginning of the acquisition: I think one of the biggest mistakes NFT projects make is to make very specific but distant promises. Our core principle is that we will basically tell everyone when something happens.

One of the reasons we do this is because you don’t want to be locked into something that becomes a huge burden or commitment, especially when it’s no longer relevant. This means that every time we deliver anything, we have to create excitement.

We’re not making specific promises for the next period of time. But that doesn’t mean we’re not doing anything. Look at what’s happened—that’s why I think people are paying more attention to us now. When we first bought Moonbirds, I made it clear on various podcasts and interviews, “I’m not telling you to buy in big time,” and people weren’t excited. But then we started releasing things.

One of the important things we did early on was airdrop campaigns, where we provided our NFT holders with airdrops from other protocols. This was a great way to demonstrate direct and immediate utility to them.

But you shouldn’t hold Moonbird just for third-party airdrops. You should hold it because you want to be a part of the journey, whatever that journey may be. And I’m here to tell you that I’m working hard every day to make that journey as amazing as possible.

You don’t have to take my word for it; just look at our journey over the last 70 to 90 days. I think the number of activations alone speaks volumes. We have a rapidly growing community, people are talking about us every day, and the mindshare growth is tremendous. That’s because we’re becoming relevant and bringing all of these pieces together.

The real goal—and that’s always the answer—is to grow the platform. We can do cool and fun activations like Telegram stickers, Monad testnet tokens, and the Towns airdrop. All of that comes from the platform we have—a platform that combines my platform, Moonbirds’ platform, and the stronger emerging platform that emerges when we combine them.

I hope today I don’t have all the answers to what specific opportunities will arise in the next six to 18 months, because our goal is to be in a position to seize whatever opportunity arises.

But ultimately, you should own Moonbird because you enjoy it, and want to be with us and the community. If you don’t genuinely enjoy it, there’s no reason to own it. But if you want to do these things, want to participate in all the cool projects we’re working on, I’m not going to tell you in advance. I’m not going to say, “Now is the time, you have to own it by this date.” That’s not our style.

By the time you realize you should have it, it’s too late for the thing you want. So you just have to believe there’s something cool coming. If it does, then all the birds will eat.

Q: Your company is called Orange Cap Games. Do you envision Moonbirds getting into gaming, apparel, or other industries in the future?

Spencer: The “Games” part of Orange Cap Games comes from the fact that our first product was a game, but Orange Cap is more than just a game studio. One of our strengths is that we have a complete physical product manufacturing team in Asia, which is a key differentiator between us and other companies.

When it comes to how to use Moonbirds IP, there are many different aspects to the answer. I wouldn’t deny any of the ones you just mentioned, but none of them have been announced yet. How to activate and use Moonbirds IP is an open question.

One thing we can be sure of is that we’re not going to say, “Moonbirds IP is only relevant for this one thing.” It’s going to be a combination of several different things, and we’ll double down on the ones that are most successful.

Today, Moonbirds IP exists in Telegram stickers – one of the things we did after the acquisition. Are we a Telegram sticker company? No, this is just one of the products derived from Moonbirds IP.

Our goal is to make the best games, the best stickers, and the best versions of any product.

I think there are two types of activations: One is immediately available, like all the airdrops we’ve received, because they’re digitally native and don’t require manufacturing time or lead times. The other type is the activations we’re planning for 6, 12, or 18 months, which require lead times, and many of them are currently underway. But we don’t announce things until they’re ready.

Q: How do you see the Moonbirds community changing now compared to when you first took over? Is there anything you want to say to them?

Spencer: The Moonbirds community is amazing. When we acquired Moonbirds, I wasn’t sure how many people were still there, but a lot of people came out to support it and were really engaged.

I think the defining characteristic of the Moonbirds community is that they are all very forward-thinking people who are at the forefront of technology. This is the crowd that Moonbirds attracted when it first launched, and I think it still is.

One of the most important things we needed to do, and have been doing, with Moonbirds is to make it feel cutting-edge again, because that’s what draws everyone in and makes it fun.

When we received the Towns airdrop, our community was already using Towns. We were the third-largest group in the Towns community in terms of staked Towns tokens. This was quite impressive, as no other NFT community even made the top 25.

The beauty of the Moonbirds community is that they’re real people, real product users, genuinely interested in what’s going on. That’s why we have such a strong partner pipeline, because people recognize that. Finding real signal on Twitter is hard these days; there’s so much noise. But the Moonbirds community really engages.

Q: What is the biggest mistake you’ve made or seen as an NFT investor? How do you ensure that this mistake isn’t repeated today as a project leader?

Spencer: I think the biggest mistakes NFT founders have historically made are making overpromises before they are actually ready to launch, and overreacting to market fluctuations, or assuming that market movements represent their own movements.

People can get emotional about macro fluctuations in cryptocurrencies. I think it’s important to stick to your planned path, don’t over-promise on the wrong things, and don’t make your entire project dependent on one activation.

The only thing you can rely on is the growth of the platform. As long as the platform lasts, you’re fine. Therefore, putting all your platform eggs in one basket is a mistake. Instead of betting everything on one big activation, you should activate the platform in a variety of ways and double down on what works. This also allows you to be more agile and seize opportunities faster.

Q: From a macro industry perspective, where do you think we are now?

Spencer: This is not a bear market, it’s definitely a bull market, I think that’s obvious.

One of the most important things about any market is where the new capital inflows are coming from. A lot of the new capital inflows are coming from public markets right now. The changes in the regulatory environment in the U.S.—which is much more cryptocurrency-friendly—have really opened the floodgates for a lot of different types of capital.

I think the structural support behind cryptocurrencies in this cycle is much stronger than in previous cycles. So even if there is a pullback at the end of the cycle, I don’t think the pullback will be that severe, and I think more people are waiting to buy the dip.

When FTX collapsed, people were genuinely worried that the industry was doomed. The same thing happened when Silicon Valley Bank collapsed. But with the involvement of major institutions like BlackRock, the massive trading of ETFs, and the opening of retirement accounts—I don’t think anyone realistically thinks this industry could end.

I think we’ve gotten through that. People look at the charts and say, “We’ve had 98% of pullbacks in bear markets”—I don’t think that’s the case this time. I think this market has a lot of runway left, at least until the end of the year, and possibly even longer.

I believe this is a cycle of structural support for ETH and Bitcoin. Over time, this must expand to more assets. When we start to see more long-tail assets gain structural support—which I believe is inevitable—the best strategy is to look for companies that exist today but aren’t participating in the structural support, and will eventually do so.

Being a US-based company and meeting many of the required standards is actually a huge advantage, as it gives you greater exposure to these opportunities. We’re very involved in the public markets. My fund, Orange Cap Capital, is one of the best in the space by any metric—DPI, IRR, or anything else. We’re a liquid crypto fund focused on NFTs, and not only did we not fall 98%, we actually saw a significant increase, even outperforming all other funds, including some that only buy Bitcoin. This proves that we really know what we’re doing.

This article is sourced from the internet: Odaily Exclusive Interview with Moonbirds Head Spencer: From World-Class Fencer to NFT RevivalistRecommended Articles

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