Author: Nancy, PANews
On the evening of December 17, the highly anticipated leading NFT project Pudgy Penguins announced its launch and initiated airdrops, receiving over 100,000 claims. The high traffic temporarily caused the claim API to malfunction, and after a brief pause, the airdrop has now resumed. According to Binance data, the opening price of the PENGU token reached a high of $0.07, with a fully diluted valuation (FDV) peaking at $6.2 billion, although the current price has since retraced.
According to the airdrop eligibility query, users can add multiple wallet addresses at once for checks. This includes Pudgy penguin series NFT holders, Ethereum/Solana OG players, Abstract Enjoyers of the Layer 2, and various chain explorers who can all receive PENGU token airdrops, with more conditions met resulting in more airdrop quantities.
From the perspective of various players sharing their experiences, apart from the NFT holders reaping substantial profits of tens of thousands to millions of dollars, there are also seasoned players who won a valuable 'pork trotter rice' through multiple addresses. Of course, some users ended up with nothing after querying dozens of addresses. In addition to the high returns from airdrops, experienced traders have earned huge profits through on-chain arbitrage. According to Lookonchain monitoring, a trader made a profit of 36,984 SOL (approximately $8.36 million) by trading PENGU in less than 20 minutes. Moreover, some whales are making large purchases; Lookonchain observed that a certain whale spent 15,300 SOL ($3.46 million) to buy 6.47 million PENGU tokens at an average price of $0.053.
It is worth mentioning that according to on-chain analyst Ai Yi's detection, the wallets associated with the PENGU project (or early investors) have been selling off on-chain in large amounts, having sold PENGU worth $8.74 million.
During this airdrop frenzy, Pudgy Penguins not only successfully drove up its NFT prices but also further expanded its community and ecological influence. However, the profit-driven behavior brought about by the airdrop has also led to widespread speculation and discontent within the community.
Leveraging the airdrop activity to boost NFT prices and expand the community.
With a flexible airdrop mechanism and extensive token distribution strategy, Pudgy Penguins has attracted significant attention over this period and actively expanded its community size and ecological influence.
On one hand, unlike most projects that determine airdrop eligibility through snapshots, Pudgy Penguins' airdrop has no time limit; the PENGU tokens will be distributed to relevant NFTs once they go live, and holders have 88 days to apply. This flexible airdrop mechanism has led to massive hoarding of Pudgy Penguins NFTs, injecting strong upward momentum into their prices.
NFT Price Floor data shows that from the announcement of the token issuance plan on December 6 to the official launch, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins surged by as much as 133.6%, while Lil Pudgys increased by 165.7%. Meanwhile, the sales volume of the fat penguin series also soared, with CryptoSlam statistics indicating that Pudgy Penguins' sales exceeded $54 million during this period, while Lil Pudgys reached $22.6 million.
On the other hand, Pudgy Penguins aims to expand its community size through airdrops. The tokenomics of PENGU shows that, in addition to 25.9% of the total token supply allocated to the Pudgy community, other communities will also receive 24.12% of the tokens. According to Pudgy Penguins, approximately 25% of the PENGU token supply will be airdropped to the Solana ecosystem, allowing active users of applications like Phantom Wallet and Jupiter to receive airdrops without holding NFTs. This part includes about 7 million wallet addresses, covering multiple protocol users and community members.
Furthermore, to expand its ecological scale, Pudgy Penguins' token has adopted a multi-chain deployment strategy. In addition to being deployed on Solana, it will also be launched on Ethereum and the anticipated Layer 2 network Abstract Chain. Pudgy Penguins' parent company, Igloo, stated that this move aims to create the largest on-chain community and expand the audience of the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem through multi-chain deployment.
The airdrop has triggered a frenzy for physical toy speculation, with QR codes being stolen, causing dissatisfaction.
Although the Pudgy Penguins airdrop event incentivized community members and promoted ecological development, it also sparked speculation chaos. With the introduction of Pudgy Toys, the IP derivative toys of Pudgy Penguins, as part of the airdrop, these toys quickly attracted a large number of speculators' attention, becoming the target of a rush to buy.
"I just hired a group of kids to help me shop at Walmart, and I can't wait for my airdrop." "Getting a free 10x airdrop from the fat penguin toys no one wanted at Walmart, I spent $1,000 on this experiment and might buy more. I plan to donate these toys to children at Christmas. Regardless of the outcome, it's a win-win situation." "I ordered 10,000 penguin toys from Amazon at $20 each. If each toy gets a $100 airdrop and I return these toys, I can make a profit of $1 million without any cost."
Pudgy Toys are being snatched up.
On social media platforms, speculators are sharing their 'harvest' from shopping for fat penguin toys, attempting to profit by hoarding Pudgy Toys. Compared to the risks of purchasing high-premium NFTs for airdrops or the financial losses incurred, buying physical toys can yield substantial profits with zero costs.
Driven by profit, many speculators are profiting from the QR codes inside the fat penguin toys (which grant access to Pudgy World) and even resorting to theft. This behavior, which deviates from the original cultural and emotional value of Pudgy Penguins, has sparked controversy and criticism.
"$PENGU is about to launch; toys across North America are almost sold out. Is anyone willing to buy these QRs?" Some users are selling QR codes for fat penguin toys at high prices. Others have reported missing QR codes or toys in some boxes ordered from Walmart.
Pudgy Toys QR codes have been compromised.
According to a post by Suji, the founder of Mask, "Today in a New York store, a Web2.5 user wanted to buy some fat penguin toys but found that several packaging boxes had been opened, and the accompanying QR codes had been stolen. These toys were originally meant for those who genuinely love Pudgy Penguins. Even if many people accidentally lost their QR codes, they still enjoy the fun. However, with the launch of the airdrop, degenerates flocked to stores and committed such irresponsible acts. This behavior is theft, and the entire crypto community should condemn these actions. Please leave the fat penguin toys for those who truly love them."
In summary, Pudgy Penguins' airdrop activity has brought significant ecological expansion and market heat to the project. However, finding a balance between promoting economic incentives and maintaining cultural spirit and community values has become an important topic that Pudgy Penguins and other crypto projects need to contemplate and prioritize for long-term development.
