Moonbirds’ NFT sales surged, making some investors thousands of dollars. Some took on debt to buy at the peak, and they made a loss.

Moonbirds NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have sold for more than $445 million in less than a week on the market. It remains the top-selling NFT collection of the past 30 days, according to CryptoSlam, an NFT data ranking site.

The Moonbirds Collection consists of 10,000 pixelated birds. Since it launched on April 16, its price has skyrocketed. One reason for its surge of popularity is due to the fact that the Proof Collective, an exclusive group of 1,000 NFT collectors, and its cofounder Kevin Rose created it.

However, Moonbirds has experienced major price volatility, like most NFT collections. Since Sunday, the price has dropped 50%. Though it still ranks fourth in terms of sales within the past 24 hours, behind collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and its minimum price is around $101,632, the cost of a Moonbirds NFT has dropped substantially since the weekend. Moonbirds NFTs averaged 44.8 Ether, or $134,000, on Sunday.

Due to recent fluctuations, investors have had very different experiences trying to turn a profit from the collection.

People who received free Moonbirds or bought in at 2.5 Ether, or about $7,500, and sold at the peak made a lot of money. Investors who took on debt to buy Moonbirds at a high price and ultimately sold at a loss did so because of the fear of missing out.

Moonbirds community members, however, have some questions about the project due to some controversy.

Ryan Carson, chief operating officer of the Proof Collective, which owns Moonbirds, announced Monday that he would be leaving the company. It follows skyrocketing Moonbird values, causing confusion among Moonbird owners.

Kevin Rose, cofounder of Proof, started a Twitter Spaces event on Monday to ease concerns, but Moonbirds holders questioned the decision. Rose promised transparency and a future communication policy for Proof employees, particularly when it comes to speculation about the price of NFTs. The Twitter event wasn’t attended by Carson, but Rose said it was his recommendation and there’s no beef between them.