Since gracing the duvet of the New York Occasions, Pudgy Penguins have been on a rollercoaster journey. Initially a cute profile image NFT assortment, Pudgy Penguins endured the ousting of its founder earlier than discovering mainstream success, with licensed toys touchdown on the cabinets of Walmart and Goal shops nationwide.
Launched amid the NFT growth in 2021, the gathering and its ecosystem of companions has turn into the face of Web3, garnering thousands and thousands of social impressions and exploding past the comparatively small sector of crypto members on X (previously generally known as Twitter).
Right here’s every part it is advisable to learn about Pudgy Penguins.
What are Pudgy Penguins?
A set of 8,888 flightless fowl NFTs, Pudgy Penguins first launched in July 2021, promoting out shortly after launch for a worth of 0.03 ETH, or round $90 on the time, in accordance with knowledge from NFT Worth Flooring.
The gathering shortly gained acclaim, gracing the duvet of the New York Occasions in August 2021 after columnist Kevin Roose shared his expertise in “becoming a member of the Huddle.”
In only a few months after its mint, the gathering held a ground worth, or the bottom listed asset on {the marketplace}, of greater than $6,000 in accordance with NFT Worth Flooring. That worth would dip in direction of $1,000 by the following six months amid the subsiding of NFT mania and a few unrest inside its neighborhood, resulting in the ousting of its founder and a management turnover.
All change on the prime
Restlessness within the Pudgy Penguins neighborhood grew all through the early months of 2022 partially attributable to criticisms of its venture founder, Cole Villemain, who goes by ColeThereum on X.
Allegations of mismanagement and extra led to mistrust between the founding group and the neighborhood.
As displeasure with the group grew more and more loud, the venture held a neighborhood vote which led to the elimination of Villemain and takeover affords from the neighborhood.
One provide got here from Netz Capital’s Luca Netz, who publicly provided round $2.5 million, or 750 ETH, in January 2022.
750 ETH for @Pudgy_Penguins by the NFT degenerates. Make your transfer @ColeThereum
— Luca Netz 🐧✳️ (@LucaNetz) January 6, 2022
Months later, that supply was accepted and Netz bought the venture and its mental property for the quantity, tweeting that he was “wanting ahead to spreading love.”
After Netz’ acquisition, the Pudgy Penguins ground worth shortly rebounded, leaping from about $4,300 on the day of the announcement to $8,900 three days later.
Beneath new management, the venture shortly put in a brand new roadmap and started the journey to establishing itself as a number one NFT venture.
Pudgy Penguins: from NFTs to toys
One of many first main initiatives led by the brand new management was launching a Pudgy Toys line.
The venture introduced its intentions to work with PMI Toys in July 2022, for which it licensed Pudgy Penguin NFTs through its OverpassIP venture, permitting holders to instantly profit from the utilization of their Pudgy NFTs in industrial endeavors such because the bodily toys.
The primary toyline launched in Could 2023 and may very well be bought instantly on Amazon, nevertheless it later expanded to incorporate main retail partnerships with Walmart, Goal, Walgreens, and extra.
Only a yr after rollout, Pudgy Toys had bought greater than 750,000 items, in accordance with the corporate, bringing in additional than $10 million within the course of.
Constructing the Pudgy Penguins model
Since Netz took over the Pudgy Penguins have been arduous at work to succeed in as many eyeballs world wide as attainable and proliferate the model.
One main focus for Pudgy Penguins has been in rising its social media channels to succeed in extra customers. The venture had round 100,000 Instagram followers in July 2022, nevertheless it has since elevated that following to 1.7 million as of January 2025 whereas amassing greater than 39 billion GIF shares, in accordance with knowledge from GIPHY.
Efforts to spur the model even additional had been buoyed when it raised $9 million in 2023 shortly after signing with expertise company WME.
Since that point, it’s additionally gone on to notch collaborations with manufacturers like PEZ, CD Castellon, and Final Crumb (in addition to MYRIAD, the prediction market from Decrypt’s mother or father firm DASTAN).
PENGU: The Pudgy Penguins token
In November 2024, the venture introduced it might launch an ecosystem token on Solana as a solution to higher align incentives between the model and its followers. The PENGU token was claimable for Pudgy Penguin NFT holders and a variety of different Web3 communities and lively crypto members.
The token launched in December 2024, granting holders of Pudgy Penguins NFTs with 1.7 million PENGU tokens, value greater than $100,000 on the token’s all-time excessive as recorded by CoinGecko.
Past Pudgy Penguins: the opposite NFTs
It’s not simply “massive Pudgys” that make up the Penguin NFT ecosystem.
Lil Pudgys
The Pudgy Penguins ecosystem first grew with the launch of Lil Pudgys.
A companion was claimable without spending a dime for every of the 8,888 Pudgy Penguins NFTs, with one other batch of Lil Pudgys occurring sale to most of the people for a complete of twenty-two,222 smaller variations of the unique NFT.
In January 2023, the gathering went “cross-chain” as a part of the venture’s partnership with interoperability platform LayerZero. Holders had been capable of transport their Lil’ Pudgys through a bridge in an effort to develop the Penguin IP.
“By enabling the Lil Pudgys to go cross-chain, we’re organising the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem to succeed in thousands and thousands of individuals,” the venture wrote.
Lil Pudgys can bridge from Ethereum mainnet to Arbitrum, Polygon, or Binance Sensible Chain.
Pudgy Rods (Rogs)
Pudgy Rods are a group of fishing rod NFTs that had been gifted to Pudgy Penguin holders in 2021.
The gathering was initially named “Pudgy Presents,” however later modified to Pudgy Rods after fishing rods hatched from the eggs which beforehand populated the metadata for the NFTs.
The mismatch of fishing rods hatching from an egg was met with confusion from the neighborhood and added to the stress between the founding group and ecosystem members that arose in late 2021.
Since that point, the Rods have discovered their dwelling because the third NFT within the Pudgy hierarchy, granting holders comparable advantages to these of the unique Pudgys, like a PENGU token declare, albeit at smaller scales.
The way forward for Pudgy Penguins
Although the venture already has massive accomplishments below its belt, Netz has massive plans for the venture sooner or later.
The venture’s mother or father firm, Igloo Inc., is actively constructing out Pudgy World—a Web3 playground and storytelling universe that homes mini-games and customizable Penguins with a direct hyperlink to Pudgy Toys, which offer a QR code to get new customers onboarded.
Past Pudgy World, the venture can be engaged on Pudgy Celebration, a cellular royale sport constructed along with Legendary Video games.
