A chubby penguin Non-fungible Token worth 1 million RMB, to become the new "big brother"?

Pudgy Penguins are only one step away from catching up with CryptoPunks.

Author: Leek, Foresight News

On December 16th, according to OpenSea data, the floor price of NFT Pudgy Penguins has surpassed 34 ETH, now trading at 34.2 ETH (approximately $137,000), with a 24-hour increase of 22.5%; its sub-series NFT Lil Pudgys has surpassed 4 ETH, now trading at 4.24 ETH (approximately $17,000), with a 24-hour increase of 20.9%.

It is worth noting that the Pudgy Penguins series has seen astonishing gains in this bull market, according to OpenSea data, its floor price has risen from around 11ETH to 34ETH in the past month, equivalent to about 980,000 RMB; and its market value has reached 300,000 ETH, as of the time of writing, approximately 1.19 billion dollars.

Image Source: OpenSea

After the bull market of cryptocurrencies, various sectors began to rotate, and the NFT sector is also slowly starting.

On December 6th, Pudgy Penguins, a NFT blue-chip project, announced that it will release its token PENGU within 2024. The total supply is 88.88 billion, and it will be launched on the Solana blockchain. Igloo, the parent company of Pudgy Penguins, also stated that in addition to launching on Solana, the PENGU token plans to adopt multiple chains, including Ethereum and Abstract.

Specifically, 25.9% of the tokens will be allocated to the Pudgy community, 24.13% to the rest of the community, 12.35% for liquidity, 11.48% to partners (partially unlocked after 1 year, linearly unlocked after 3 years), 17.8% to the team, 4% for public sale, 0.35% to FTT holders, and 4% for Proliferation.

After the announcement, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins series started to surge, breaking through the 20ETH mark within two days from 14ETH. Then it broke the historical high of 23ETH and kept refreshing the records. Its sub-series, Lil Pudgys, also rose to a new historical high of 2.45 ETH.

Meanwhile, the floor price of the former leading NFT project Bored Ape Yacht Club has dropped to 19.88 ETH, and the floor price of another pioneering NFT project CryptoPunks, owned by the same company, has also dropped to 38.49 ETH, about to be surpassed by Pudgy Penguins.

The Pudgy Penguins series has also had its lows up to this day. It was initially launched by Cole Villemain and three other colleagues in 2021, featuring adorable cartoon penguin characters. There are a total of 8,888 unique NFTs, which quickly gained popularity since its release in July 2021, becoming a hot collectible in the NFT market at that time.

However, the project experienced significant controversy in its early stages, as the founding team faced community scrutiny over fund management and project direction, and even fell into a crisis of trust at one point. In 2022, amidst a overall decline in the NFT market, the popularity and floor price of CryptoPunks also decreased. However, everything turned around when a new team led by internet entrepreneur Luca Netz took over.

In April 2022, Luca Netz purchased the project for 750 ETH ($2.5 million). He restructured the project’s leadership and announced a new growth plan. Under Luca Netz’s leadership, Pudgy Penguins has made significant recovery in floor price and overall brand image.

By rebuilding community trust, launching branded peripheral products, and empowering NFT holders, Luca Netz has successfully regained market attention for Pudgy Penguins, not only achieving a price rebound but also expanding its brand influence into the real world. In May 2023, Pudgy Toys were launched and are available for purchase at Target and Walmart stores as well as on Amazon, making Pudgy Penguins the best-performing NFT series in the bear market. Its floor price reached a historical high of 23ETH in early 2024.

However, the NFT series has a long history of releasing new tokens.

In March 2022, Bored Ape Yacht Club, the leading NFT, announced the issuance of coins, with 14% airdropped to the community. As of the time of writing, the Ape token is priced at $1.6, far from the historical high of $28 at the opening.

On the morning of March 30, 2024, another NFT series mfers founder announced the launch of the meme coin MFER and airdropped it to mfer holders. Later that day, the price of MFER skyrocketed to over $0.03. As of the time of writing, the price of MFER is around $0.026.

Will other NFT leaders also choose to launch new ‘Tokens’ to boost prices?

On December 16th, Azuki NFT anonymous researcher Waleswoosh posted on the X platform, ‘What would the market be like if blue-chip NFT project CryptoPunks released PUNK tokens?’

CryptoPunks parent company Yuga Labs co-founder Garga.eth (Greg Solano) responded, ‘Wow! I never thought about that.’