Pudgy Penguins and Their Growth Amid Crypto Winter

Resume

• Pudgy Penguins is an adorable NFT collection known for its unique features and vibrant community involvement.
• The rarity and distinctiveness of each Pudgy Penguin contributes to its value and appeal in the marketplace.
• The project faced challenges from its original founders, but found redemption under new leadership.
• Recent developments include significant funding, the launch of physical toys and high-profile NFT acquisitions.
• Despite the downturn in the crypto market, Pudgy Penguins has done well, introducing innovative products and fostering community connections.

Growth of chubby penguins

Since the ‘NFT Bull Market’ of 2021, the vibrant landscape of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has seen significant peaks and valleys. As the NFT market suffers a significant downturn, rock-bottom prices of blue chip NFT have fallen 82.8%, creating uncertainty about the future trajectory of digital collectibles.

However, amid this challenging period, the emergence of the Pudgy Penguins NFT project has captured the community’s attention with its unique collection and innovative marketing approaches.

Despite the prevailing market cooldown, Pudgy Penguins has defied expectations and shown a consistent growth trend in floor price and sales volume, indicating potential resilience in the face of the overall market downturn.

Pudgy Penguins all-time bottom price chart (source: CoinGecko)

Here today we will discover the key factors contributing to Pudgy Penguin’s remarkable success in these icy crypto times as we dive into the world.

How chubby penguins are

Featuring 8,888 uniquely designed chubby penguins, Pudgy Penguins is a vibrant NFT collection inspired by love, empathy and compassion. Each penguin in the collection possesses a distinctive set of rarity features, ranging from various shirts, hats and glasses to diverse backgrounds, enhancing their individual charm and allure.

The dedicated owners of these beautiful Pudgy Penguins, affectionately known as ‘The Huddle’ and ‘Pengus’, enjoy exclusive access to a range of immersive experiences, intellectual property licensing opportunities and a host of other exclusive benefits intricately built into the fabric of the project are interwoven. .

Each penguin in this collection shows a unique blend of five fundamental characteristics, namely body, background, face, head and skin. In fact, only 2.8% of the collection possesses four different hallmarks, while the vast majority, 97.2%, exhibits five different hallmarks, further underscoring its rarity and exceptional quality.

According to Rarity Sniper, Pudgy Penguin #6873, the most notable rarity, embodies a subtle elegance with its green background (0.01%), black skin (0.01%) and mirrored body (0.01%), which features a jaw – falling price of ETH 400 ($640K) during the sale.

Source: Pudgy Penguins Twitter

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How chubby penguins survived the crypto winter

In the unpredictable world of NFTs, Pudgy Penguins faced a number of challenges, especially during the so-called ‘Crypto Winter’. Let’s take a look at how this beautiful collection weathered the storm and came out even stronger.

A bumpy start and the Crypto winter

Pudgy Penguins had a promising start, with their NFTs fetching a modest 0.03 ETH at launch. Enthusiasts eagerly snapped them up, causing them to quickly sell out within twenty minutes. The average floor price increased from 0.04 ETH in July to an impressive 3.49 ETH in August 2021, raising high expectations for the project. However, this initial success was met with turbulence as their floor price fell sharply from September to December 2021, falling to 0.88 ETH.

This decline was accompanied by accusations against the project’s founders. Accusations of deviating from the project’s roadmap and unfulfilled promises began circulating within the community, casting a shadow over the future of Pudgy Penguins.

A turning point: changing of the guard

Amid the growing discontent and heated debate within social media platforms and the Pudgy Penguins community, a major turning point occurred. In January 2022, a vote on Discord led to the expulsion of the original founders, Villemain and Patterson.

Pudgy Penguins’ journey took a fascinating turn when the project’s leadership changed hands. Despite a public offer of 888 ETH from a prominent Diamond hand of the PFP NFTs, the project found a new home with Luca Schnetzler (Netz), who acquired it in April 2022 for 750 ETH.

Pudgy Penguins, led by Luca Netz and his team, steered and made strategic moves to take the project to the next level and solidify its position in the NFT space.

Rebranding and reorientation

With Netz at the helm, Pudgy Penguins began rebranding and reinvigorating their mission. Quick action was taken to restore the project’s core goals, which were aligned with creating a vibrant ecosystem.

The company’s official social media accounts on Instagram, Twitter, Discord and TikTok were secured and verified. Brand elements such as colors, logos, voice and fonts are designed to convey a cohesive identity.

Expand to new horizons

Under Netz’s leadership, Pudgy Penguins made bold moves into uncharted territory. One notable undertaking was the announcement of a penguin-themed children’s book in collaboration with the Green Kids Club, an important step towards realizing the project’s storytelling objectives.

Access to intellectual property rights (IP).

In December 2022, Pudgy Penguins reached a major milestone by granting Penguins the rights to use their NFTs for commercial purposes, which they expect could generate $500,000 annually. This move allows NFT owners to sublicense their digital assets to third parties for commercial use, creating a new realm of possibilities.

Strategic partnerships

Pudgy Penguins formed strategic alliances with Hologram Labs and Retail Monster, broadening the project’s horizons. These partnerships enabled the integration of 3D models into Pudgy Penguins, opening up opportunities for content creation on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Twitch and Vtube.

Strengthening community ties

In February 2023, Pudgy Penguins embraced a tangible sense of community by hosting physical gatherings in multiple locations around the world. These gatherings served to strengthen the virtual and physical bonds between community members, creating a deeper sense of connection and involvement.

Expand the brand

Pudgy Penguins has applied for trademarks covering several products, including printed comic books, collectible cards, candy, snacks, board games, hoodies, hats, virtual goods, multimedia and more.

The Pudgy Bridge: bridging ecosystems

As an additional layer of innovation, Pudgy Penguins introduced the Pudgy Bridge. Users can seamlessly transfer their Penguin NFTs to multiple networks and interact with different ecosystems through this unique feature. In other words, the bridge will allow Pudgy Penguins to move NFTs from Ethereum’s network to Polygon’s network via the MetaMask wallet, Coinbase wallet, or WalletConnect service.

Recent developments: Pudgy Penguins’ path of triumph and acquisitions

Pudgy Toys and Pudgy World

On May 18, 2023, Pudgy Penguins unveiled Pudgy Toys and Pudgy World, marking their notable foray into “Phygital” collectibles.

This innovative move helped increase the average floor price of Pudgy Penguins NFTs to 6.2 ETH by May 2023.

Pudgy Toys introduced a groundbreaking concept, integrating physical items alongside NFTs, a move that resonated with enthusiasts and made waves by generating more than $500,000 in toy sales on Amazon in just two days.

Pudgy Penguins raises $9 million in seed funding

Last May, Pudgy Penguins witnessed a major milestone, raising a significant $9 million in seed funding. With the backing of esteemed investment firm 1kx, as well as leading entities such as Big Brain Holdings, Kronos Research, Old Fashion Research, CRIT Ventures and LayerZero Labs, this capital injection strengthened the project’s position within the highly competitive NFT market, enabling the development of the project was accelerated. its growth trajectory.

Debut of Pudgy Toys in Walmart Stores

Last September, Pudgy Penguins introduced its captivating Pudgy Toys collection to 2,000 Walmart stores across the US. The addition of unique birth certificates for each toy, allowing users to unlock exclusive traits for their digital ‘Forever Pudgy’ characters within the innovative Pudgy World, built on the zkSync Era blockchain attracted significant attention and engagement.

Spencer Ventures’ acquisition of Pudgy Penguin NFTs

In a recent development, Spencer Ventures embarked on a remarkable acquisition spree, acquiring 144 Pudgy Penguin NFTs from the famed art collection of now-defunct crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.

The strategic deal, priced in the “six figures” and facilitated by esteemed auction house Sotheby’s, highlighted the growing demand and appeal of Pudgy Penguin collectibles. The inclusion of such rare iterations highlighted the project’s continued resonance and market appeal, solidifying the project’s position as a coveted asset in the NFT universe.

Pushing boundaries

Pudgy Penguins continues to expand its reach and influence with the launch of Pudgy Toys, which represents a pivotal moment for both the NFT industry and the digital collectibles market as a whole. With a laser focus on bringing the next generation to the world of Web3 and establishing new IP licenses through NFTs, the team’s relentless pursuit of excellence and innovation is setting a precedent for the industry.

However, it is important to remember that investors should do their research before investing in an NFT collection. There is a volatility factor in the value of NFTs, as well as a liquidity issue.

The current retail value of Pudgy Penguins is approximately $271 million, with a floor price of 5.11980 ETH ($9,192.86).