A quick look at Binance HODLer’s fifth airdrop project Pudgy Penguins

Source: Pudgy Penguins official website, Golden Finance, Twitter Compiled by: Golden Finance

On December 16, 2024, Binance announced that the Binance HODLer airdrop has now launched the 5th project Pudgy Penguins (PENGU), an NFT (non-fungible token) collection built on Ethereum.

From 08:00 on December 9, 2024 to 07:59 on December 13, 2024 (Eastern Time Zone 8), users who use BNB to subscribe to the regular and/or current products of the Earn Coin Platform will receive airdrop allocations. The HODLer airdrop information is expected to be launched within twelve hours, and the new tokens will be distributed to users' spot wallets 1 hour before trading begins.

Binance will list PENGU at 2024-12-17 22:00 (ET8) and open trading pairs for USDT, BNB, FDUSD, and TRY. Seed tag trading rules apply.  

1. Details of PENGU HODLer Airdrop

• Token name: Pudgy Penguins (PENGU)

• Total current supply of tokens: 88,888,888,888 PENGU

• Maximum supply of tokens: 88,888,888,888 PENGU

• Total number of HODLer airdrop tokens: 2,666,666,666.64 PENGU (3% of the maximum supply of tokens)

• Circulating supply before listing on Binance: 623,125,000 PENGU (70.22% of the maximum token supply)

• Smart contract details: Solana, 2zMMhcVQEXDtdE6vsFS7S7D5oUodfJHE8vd1gnBouauv

• BNB holding hard cap: average BNB holdings of a single user / average total BNB holdings*100% ≤ 4%, (if the holding ratio is greater than 4%, the BNB holding ratio will be calculated as 4%)

2. Introduction to Pudgy Penguins Project

What is PENGU, the Pudgy Penguins token?

PENGU is the native cryptocurrency token of Pudgy Penguins, a popular NFT project that aims to expand its influence in the blockchain ecosystem. PENGU is launched on the Solana blockchain to drive community engagement and support the project’s broader goals.

Key Takeaways

• PENGU is the official token of the Pudgy Penguins NFT series, a collection of 8,888 unique images of adorable penguin cartoons.

• The Pudgy Penguins NFT series was first launched on the Ethereum blockchain and has grown to become one of the largest NFT projects by market cap. It recently surpassed BAYC to become the second largest NFT project by market cap.

• PENGU will be launched on the Solana blockchain, aiming to expand the project's community and attract new users. Multi-chain deployment is planned, which will extend to other blockchain networks including Ethereum and Abstract.

Pudgy Penguins, one of the largest NFT series based on the Ethereum blockchain, will launch a native token - PENGU. Although Pudgy Penguins is not the first major NFT project to launch a native token, it has withstood the test of the "NFT winter" and eventually became the second largest NFT project by market value after CryptoPunks.

II. The uniqueness of PENGU tokens

1. Short preparation period

Although rumors about Pudgy Penguins' plan to launch tokens have been circulating for years, the official announcement was not released until December 5, indicating that PENGU will be officially launched in 2024.

Usually, airdrops related to assets or ecosystems will have a long preparation period (months or even years), and there will be strong signals foreshadowing the launch of tokens, or by announcing a snapshot date to lock in airdrop qualifications. However, PENGU did not take this route.

This triggered a heated reaction in the NFT market:

• The reserve price of Pudgy Penguins rose from about 16 ETH (about $61k) to 23 ETH (about $83k).

• The reserve price of Lil Pudgies (its sub-series) rose from about 1.7 ETH (about $6.5k) to 2.5 ETH (about $9k).

Data source date (December 10)

Three, the positioning of the token

Is PENGU a meme coin, a utility token, or a cultural token?

It seems to have all three of the above, and may take on more roles in the future. Currently, it is described as the official Pudgy Penguins token, serving the NFT project, which is positioned as the “face of cryptocurrency.”

While calling themselves the “face of cryptocurrency” is a subjective statement, Pudgy Penguins does have solid foundation to back up the claim:

• 34 billion GIF views: Just about everyone has seen a Pudgy Penguins GIF;

• 1.6 million Instagram followers: The content is adorable and relatable;

• 522,000 followers on the main TikTok account, and 1.1 million followers on the Pudgy Kindness account;

• Over 1.5 million Pudgy toys sold worldwide, with stores at Walmart, Target, and Amazon

For those who are not involved in cryptocurrency, PENGU provides a new way for Pudgy Penguins fans to establish a deeper connection with characters, brands and intellectual property (IP), no longer limited to buying toys or interacting with content.

This is consistent with my previous point that "cryptocurrencies are better stocks". Holding PENGU tokens can be seen as becoming an owner or stakeholder of the Pudgy Penguins brand in a new way, just like buying shares in the company has similar meaning.

For some, it's an investment; for others, it's a way to express fandom; or both. In addition, as the brand grows, the use of tokens may expand further.

Fourth, Token Economics

Pudgy Penguins presents its token economic model in a novel and interesting way, rather than the traditional 20-page white paper and pie chart.

This cute style fully reflects the brand characteristics of Pudgy Penguins.

• Total supply: 88,888,888,888 (8.89 billion), paying tribute to the 8,888 NFTs of the original Pudgy Penguins series;

• Claim period: 88 days.

Two of the distribution details stand out:

1. Other Communities:

About 24% of tokens will be allocated to “other communities”, which is comparable to the proportion allocated to the Pudgy holder community (about 26%).

On the surface, this seems unfair to the Pudgy community, but the distribution range explains this decision:

• The Pudgy holder allocation will cover about 15,000 wallets;

• The other community allocation targets about 5 million wallets.

This is in stark contrast to 6th Man Ventures’ analysis of token design and distribution, which found that large-scale airdrops tend to perform worse than airdrops focused on core users.