The highly anticipated first edition series “Quantum Cats” of the Bitcoin Ordinals project Taproot Wizards was hindered in sales due to technical issues, leaving users frustrated and forcing the project to face an embarrassing delay.
Approximately 3,000 Quantum Cats planned to be sold were meant to commemorate a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) called “OP_CAT”, with each cat priced at 0.1 BTC (about $4,300), meaning that if the series is fully sold, Taproot Wizards could raise up to 300 BTC ($1.29 million) in funds.
The series was scheduled to open for a two-hour whitelist sale at 1 a.m. Taiwan time on Tuesday (30th), but due to certain 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, generating sales of approximately 100 BTC ($430,000).
The Discord channel of Taproot Wizards is filled with user complaints, and Taproot Wizards co-founder Udi Wertheimer later issued an apology to potential buyers in an X Spaces audio space, acknowledging these minor issues as not the experience people were expecting.
Taproot Wizards announced that the whitelist minting for the Quantum Cats series will be postponed to 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. Taiwan time on Friday (2nd), with public minting starting at 7 a.m.
The first piece of the Quantum Cats series, “Genesis Cat,” was sold at auction house Sotheby’s earlier this month for a high price of $254,000.
For Taproot Wizards, this sale marks a challenging start. The company raised $7.5 million in a seed funding round in November last year, reflecting high expectations for projects focused on the rapidly growing Ordinals collectibles field.