December 18, 2024
The Budgie Penguins ecosystem token, PENGU, was launched on Solana this Tuesday, and has risen to the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap. Millions of NFT holders and traders have qualified for the airdrop.
Despite the initial enthusiasm, the price of PENGU fell sharply throughout the day.
NFT Penguin Budgie Suffering Airdrop Madness PENGU
At the time of reporting, PENGU was down 57% from its launch price of $0.068, reflecting a massive sell-off. Surprisingly, the Budgie Penguins NFT collection also saw a similar drop.
According to CoinGecko, the floor price of the collection has dropped to 17.2 ETH, even as daily sales have surged by 258%. Many users have been buying up Budgie Penguins NFTs aggressively in recent weeks to qualify for the PENGU airdrop. Now, it appears those buyers are selling their NFTs.
The sell-off was massive. After PENGU was launched on Binance, over 20% of the total token supply was liquidated, equivalent to roughly $9.3 million. The remaining tokens hold a value of $37.7 million.
An on-chain analyst wrote on X (formerly Twitter): "Project-related wallets (or early investors) are selling massive amounts on-chain! $8.74M worth of PENGU has been sold so far. Address HoTdB...YL8YZ received 888M tokens from the address that posted the token yesterday (before claiming the airdrop), and sold 169M tokens at $0.05164 in the last hour."
Airdrops are common, with recipients often taking profits quickly. However, PENGU’s drop was unusually rapid. If the selling pressure subsides and trading stabilizes, the price may eventually find a floor.
Meanwhile, Binance is facing intense scrutiny for its listing of low-value airdrop tokens and meme coins. Large initial sell-offs of these tokens often lead to concerns about pump-and-dumps, and the largest crypto exchange has come under fire in recent months for enabling such scenarios.
