Pudgy Penguins, the third-largest NFT collection by market capitalization, announced Thursday night that it will launch a new token called PENGU on the Solana blockchain by the end of the year.
The announcement comes as crypto market valuations soar and the lowest price for Pudgy Penguins' NFT collection hits a new all-time high.
According to the project, it will distribute 88 billion PENGU tokens to NFT holders with Pudgy Penguins, Lil Pudgys, Pudgy Rods, and other collections related to the project.
Token supply will be allocated based on the following allocation: 23.5% will be reserved for existing Pudgy Penguins NFT holders and 22.02% will be reserved for the broader Solana and Ethereum communities. An additional 12.32% will provide liquidity to decentralized exchanges.
Pudgy Penguins will launch in July 2021 with 8,888 NFT pieces, with the “8” serving as a metaphor to hint at what the comical characters will look like.
Based on an announcement video shared by Pudgy Penguins, the PENGU token is considered a “master coin” through its lore, with a core team of seven “hatching” from a golden egg as a symbol of “collective power” .
Decrypt reached out to Pudgy Penguins about Solana's selection.
changing trends
The collection's lowest price soared more than 40% this week, surpassing its previous high of $57,000 in February 2024 and reaching an all-time high of more than $62,000, Decrypt reported Thursday.
This increase coincides with Bitcoin surpassing $100,000 and reflects broader market momentum impacting major NFT collections.
Pudgy Penguins maintains a strong presence in the market despite historic NFT market volatility, with a total market capitalization of approximately $550 million.
The brand has expanded beyond its digital assets, with physical toy sales exceeding $10 million through major retailers such as Walmart, Target, and Walgreens.
The launch of the PENGU token represents a strategic turning point as market attention shifts from NFTs to alternative tokens and meme coins.
On X (formerly Twitter), Pudsey Penguins pointed out this change in a post saying, “The tide is turning. A new beginning is at hand.”
The move leverages Pudgy Penguins' established brand presence, including over 3 million social media followers and 32 billion views on Giphy, while addressing historic NFT liquidity challenges.
Decrypt reported on Monday that the Crypto bull market is also driving up the price of NFTs. The surge brought the overall NFT market cap to about $8.6 billion, and weekly Ethereum NFT trading volume doubled to more than $101 million, according to data from CoinGecko.
The project's transformation began when it was acquired by Luca Netz in 2022, expanding from an underperforming NFT collection to a prominent crypto-native brand. Netz predicted ambitious growth for the project in July, suggesting a potential floor price target of 200 ETH (approximately $780,000 at current rates) during this market cycle.
The project will eventually integrate with Abstract, the next Ethereum layer 2 solution, but the immediate focus remains on establishing PENGU's presence within the Solana ecosystem.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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