Kevin Rose, co-founder of PROOF and now Yuga-owned NFT collection Moonbirds, has responded to backlash following the sale of $1.2M of his NFT collection in a now-deleted series of posts on X.
The controversial figure – who has changed his profile on X to promote his eponymous interview series ‘The Kevin Rose Show’ – explained that he was “diversifying versus praying a single collection or bag works out”, amid a belief that “classic cryptocurrency will outperform”.
Kevin also transferred CryptoPunk #6419 in a rumoured sale to @mulligan, plus burned two of his ENS domains and revoked the record for his main domains in a move he claims to be in the interests of privacy.
How has the community reacted?
The sales – which included 142 ETH ($562,320) for Fidenza 531, and 151.2 ETH ($598,752) for XCOPY’s 1-of-1 “When Airdrop?” – were picked up almost immediately by the community on March 9, resulting in widespread backlash that was spearheaded by noted Moonbirds holder JayJay in a series of posts on X.
Kevin took to X on March 10 to explain his actions in a set of now-deleted posts, noting that he believes “mass adoption is still further out”, and that he is “still collecting” – although the community fears he’s turning his back on an active role in web3.
This is the latest in what’s been a busy 2024 for the prominent web3 figure, following the sale of PROOF Collective – which includes Moonbirds, Oddities, Mythics, and the Grails exhibition series – to Yuga Labs in February.