The highly anticipated first collectible series “Quantum Cats” of the Bitcoin Ordinals project Taproot Wizards has been delayed due to technical issues during the sale, leaving users frustrated and forcing the project to face an embarrassing setback.
The planned sale of approximately 3,000 Quantum Cats was in commemoration of a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) called “OP_CAT,” with each cat priced at 0.1 BTC (approximately $4,300), which means that if the series sells out, Taproot Wizards could raise up to 300 BTC ($1.29 million) in funding.
The series was scheduled to open for a two-hour whitelist sale at 1 am Taiwan time on Tuesday, but due to some issues, it has been postponed to Friday. Taproot Wizards stated that despite the minting website not functioning properly, nearly 1,000 Quantum Cats have already been minted, with sales totaling around 100 BTC ($430,000).
The Discord channel of Taproot Wizards is filled with user complaints, and co-founder Udi Wertheimer later apologized to potential buyers in an X Spaces audio room, acknowledging the minor issues and stating that it was not the experience people expected.
Taproot Wizards announced that the whitelist minting for the Quantum Cats series will be postponed to 1 am to 6 am Taiwan time on Friday (2nd), with the public minting starting at 7 am.
The first piece of the Quantum Cats series, “Genesis Cat,” sold for a high price of $254,000 at the art auction house Sotheby’s earlier this month.
For Taproot Wizards, this sale marks a rocky start. The company raised $7.5 million in a seed funding round in November last year, reflecting high expectations for the project focused on the rapidly growing Ordinals collectibles space.