Pudgy Penguins Charges for the NFT Throne: How Did “Pudgy Penguins” Get Out of the Bear Market?

When the trading volume and floor price of well-known blue-chip NFTs such as BAYC, Moonbird, and Doodles dropped, Pudgy Penguins bucked the trend, once on March 9 Become the "sales champion" in the NFT market.

Since the second half of 2023, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins has continued to rise. Entering 2024, it has hit record highs many times, breaking through 18 ETH at the end of February. The mark, valued at $59,000, showed strong market performance. CryptoSlam data shows that on March 9, Pudgy Penguins’ 24-hour sales exceeded US$4 million, temporarily leading CryptoPunks and BAYC, ranking first in the NFT sales list.

How did this "fat penguin" survive the bear market and become the new blue-chip favorite?

In the past year, brand building and IP derivatives have been the key strategies for the strong rise of Pudgy Penguins. By selling Pudgy Toys, a physical toy matched with NFT, the project has Sales of $10 million were achieved in less than a year.

The sales of 750,000 Pudgy Toys toys not only expanded the Pudgy Penguins NFT brand beyond the Web3 market, but also truly gathered a group of offline Traffic, in turn, provides growth momentum for NFT sales. Even Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins, has to admit that the large-scale adoption of NFT comes from users’ love for IP.

The successful operation of Pudgy Penguins has once again verified the effectiveness of the transformation of Web3 IP into the commodity market.

Floor prices rise 150% in one year

Entering 2014 In 2018, the NFT project Pudgy Penguins finally ushered in its highlight moment. In the Chinese market, it has a name that fits its image-Pudgy Penguins. Recently, this "fat penguin" has frequently attacked the NFT sales throne, and its floor price and sales have repeatedly led the two NFT market leaders, BAYC and CryptoPunks.

Pudgy Penguins NFT has 8888 different penguin images

March 9 On that day, Pudgy Penguins’ 24-hour sales exceeded US$4 million, surpassing CryptoPunks and BAYC.

On February 17, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins surpassed BAYC, which has long dominated the PFP  NFT category, for the first time. Blur data shows that on that day, the floor price of BAYC was 22.15 ETH (current value of US$59,800), and the floor price of Pudgy Penguins was 22.54 ETH (current value of US$60,900).

Although the advantage is weak, it is a phased result of Pudgy Penguins' continued growth in recent months.

According to Dune data, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins has increased several times in the past 90 days, far ahead of blue chips such as CryptoPunks, BAYC, MAYC, and Moonbirds. NFT series. The obvious contrast is that the growth of the two "big brothers" BAYC and CryptoPunk is weak.

Blue chip NFT project floor price increase in 90 days

In terms of market value performance, CryptoPunks BAYC and BAYC still rank first due to their accumulation in the previous cycle. But if you look closely, BAYC has been on a decline since reaching its peak in 2022, with its market value shrinking by nearly 300% to currently US$580 million. On the other hand, Pudgy Penguins continued to climb during the same period and has accumulated US$460 million.

Changing trends in the market value of blue-chip NFT projects

Continuous growth has led Pudgy Penguins to also appear on the list It is on the hot list of NFT market. In the ranking of NFT hot projects in the last 7 days and the last 30 days, “Fat Penguin” ranked first, and its brand power has greatly increased.

Ranking of NFT hot projects on the 7th/30th

March 13 , CoinGecko data shows that the floor price of Pudgy Penguins is 13.1 ETH, which is approximately US$52,900, an increase of 22% in the past 30 days, and an increase of 150% in the past year; while the floor price of BAYC has dropped to 14.55 ETH, which is approximately US$58,700. , a decline of 35.2% in the past 30 days, and a decline of 78.4% in the past year.

A recent acquisition by Yuga Labs, the parent company of BAYC, may be one of the reasons for user selling. Last month, Yuga Labs acquired PROOF, the parent company of Moonbirds, and the assets acquired included the team, intellectual property, and art portfolio. However, due to the poor reputation of the latter, Yuga Labs caused dissatisfaction in the community, and BAYC prices began to decline sharply since then.

The strong growth of Pudgy Penguins has put BAYC and other blue chips facing challenges.

"Fat Penguin" goes through the "bear" road

On Instagram, "Pudgy Penguins" already has more than 1.33 million followers, and this number is still growing. Through the bear market and rising against the trend, what did Pudgy Penguins do right?

In fact, this IP consisting of 8888 picture-type NFTs had a highlight moment when the NFT market was booming, but due to the Trust issues were once abandoned by users until it changed hands.

In July 2021, a group of college students founded the Pudgy Penguins project. A month later, it became popular due to an article by New York Times reporter Kevin Roose. The price quickly exceeded 3 ETH. NBA superstar Stephen Curry also purchased a "Penguin" for 3.5 ETH; #6873 in the series also set a sales record of 225 ETH for Pudgy Penguins.

It is a pity that the young founding team did not operate "carefully" and caused many farces. For example, the blind box activity was criticized by users for lack of sincerity. As a result, OpenSea was temporarily removed from the shelves, and the team's subsequent sell-off of NFT also dampened the enthusiasm of community users, and Pudgy Penguins' performance began to falter.

In April 2022, Pudgy Penguins was finally sold for $2.5 million to Luca Netz, who has experience in operating e-commerce companies. He is now the CEO of Pudgy Penguins .

Before taking over this project, Luca worked in many physical companies, did dropshipping business, served as the CEO of a jewelry company, and used marketing methods to A clothing company bails out of trouble. In 2021, Luca became the chief marketing officer of toy gun company Gel Blaster, and after working there for a year, acquired Pudgy Penguins.

Luca, who has extensive marketing experience, attaches great importance to brand building. He pointed out a direction for Pudgy Penguins: to build a sustainable growth revenue source.

This is very different from the way old NFTs operate. The success of Yuga Labs is inseparable from its continuous "matryoshka dolls" for BAYC in the crypto bull market, allowing holders to obtain new series of additional airdrops, increasing user stickiness, and using BAYC's high prices to stimulate purchases by consumers who want to obtain airdrops. This does work in the crypto bull market.

When Luca took over Pudgy Penguins, the bull market had reached its end, and new nesting dolls would only continue to dilute the value of the original NFT series. During the bull-bear transition period, Yuga Labs also realized this and began to transfer BAYC IP to Web3 game ecosystems such as Otherside to improve the usability of NFT. At that time, Pudgy Penguins' IP was in a state of failure due to improper early operation, and its brand power had been greatly reduced.

Luca decided to rebuild the IP value of "Fat Penguin" "in a Web2 way".

After taking over Pudgy Penguins, Luca began to operate IP licensing and product planning. In May 2023, Pudgy Penguins began selling physical toys "Pudgy Toy" online after completing $9 million in fundraising.

PudgyToys toys designed based on NFT images

Pudgy Toy is based on " "Fat Penguin" NFT was designed as a blueprint, and Luca's past experience in the industry came into play. He directly promoted these toys to the well-known supermarket brand Walmart.

At the end of September 2023, Pudgy Toy will be launched in 2,000 Walmart stores in the United States, extending the brand of NFT IP Pudgy Penguins to the huge consumer market.

Luca Netz personally stated on various social platforms and media sites at the time, "It only costs $20 and three minutes of time, Pudgy  toys can provide users with Their first blockchain wallet and NFT, no other product can attract users as cheaply and effectively as ours, which is the Trojan horse we are using to get people into Web3."

Facts have proved that the method of entering Web2 users through IP derivation is very effective. According to Decrypt, the Pudgy Toys series has achieved sales of $10 million in less than a year, with sales exceeding 750,000.

Not only offline, Pudgy Penguins has also established extensive social media channels. On Instagram, Pudgy Penguins has millions of followers, with tens of thousands of likes per post. On TikTok, Pudgy Penguins has 250,000 fans, and the first short video pinned to the top has been played more than 13 million times.

The traffic is here, the next step is how to convert it.

In order to establish a closer connection between NFT and holders, Pudgy Penguins released the IP licensing platform OverpassIP, allowing NFT holders to interact with Web2 through authorization Cooperate with platforms or offline brands to realize profits.

This is equivalent to revitalizing the Pudgy Penguins NFT series, giving early holders the incentive to establish contact with the entity, and bringing the "Pudgy Penguins" to a wider market IP amplification.

Recently, Pudgy Penguins itself is also enriching its ecology, and will soon launch its own brand Web3 game Pudgy World, providing a narrative drive for NFT holders and toy owners. open game. Each Fat Penguin toy has a QR code. Users only need to scan the code to unlock NFT items in the game or achieve personalized customization.

The case of Pudgy Penguins once again proves that NFT is not just for speculation in the Web3 market. If the brand is operated properly and the marketing methods keep up, the NFT IP is also related to all entertainment. Like IP, it can also accumulate value and continue to innovate and develop.

Different from traditional IP, Web3's NFT IP itself has a pricing market. The existence of the NFT trading market will make the value of the IP transparent, and who is the hot one? , it is clear at a glance in NFT trading markets such as OpenSea and Blur. The blockchain openly and transparently records the ownership of NFT, providing the best infrastructure for the circulation of IP.

It is foreseeable that with the successful counterattack of Pudgy Penguins, NFT will continue to evolve forward in 2024 and explore more diverse adoption scenarios.