Pudgy Penguins’ PENGU token price has surged by over 700% following its launch and airdrop distribution. The Solana-based token recorded significant trading volume shortly after going live, reflecting strong demand from NFT holders and the wider crypto market.
Pudgy Penguins Airdrop Goes Live
The Pudgy Penguins NFT project released its native token, PENGU, on the Solana blockchain and allowed NFT holders to claim tokens via an airdrop. Holders of Pudgy Penguins, Lil Pudgys, Rogs, and soulbound tokens (SBTs) were eligible to participate in the airdrop, which went live at 8:00 a.m. ET.
CEO of the project, Luca Netz said that in order to claim the tokens, the users would have to link both their Ethereum and Solana wallets. Moreover, the users were informed that they needed to have SOL token of at least $10 value in their wallets for the gas fees. The claim period will be 88 days, and any unused tokens will be burnt after that period elapsed.
$PENGU is now live.
CA: 2zMMhcVQEXDtdE6vsFS7S7D5oUodfJHE8vd1gnBouauv
Learn more & how to claim your PENGU below. pic.twitter.com/ROWgq02YbF
— Pudgy Penguins (@pudgypenguins) December 17, 2024
The airdrop also includes owners of Pudgy Toys – physical plush collectibles available at Walmart and Target among other retailers. The toys are connected with Igloo’s Ethereum Layer-2 Abstract Chain and the PENGU token owners will be able to bridge their tokens once the mainnet is out.
PENGU Price Skyrockets Over 800%
The PENGU token experienced a strong debut, achieving a trading volume of approximately $90 million in its first hour. Within 24 hours, the token price surged by 870%, reaching an all time high of $0.05 before settling at $0.0485.
The token’s market capitalization reached $3 billion and placed PENGU among the 200 best cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. According to the data from CoinMarketCap, the total number of PENGU tokens is 88.88 billion tokens, among which 23.5% are from the airdrop, and another 12.3% is locked into liquid tokens on decentralized exchanges.
One of the most significant transactions involved a trader who made a $8.36 million profit within 20 minutes through the token’s price surge. The trader bought 239.6 million PENGU using 23,742 SOL and then sold the tokens for 60,726 SOL.
A trader made an incredible 36,984 $SOL($8.36M) profit by trading $PENGU in less than 20 minutes.
As soon as $PENGU launched, the trader spent 23,742 $SOL($5.36M) to buy 239.6M $PENGU and later sold it for 60,726 $SOL($13.72M).
A massive profit!
https://t.co/hIpkzxZjES pic.twitter.com/z5ZDKL3cfn
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 17, 2024
During this launch, several centralized exchanges, including Binance, OKX, and Bybit have included PENGU. Binance also revealed that it would enable PENGU on various products such as Binance Futures allowing for up to 75x leverage on PENGU/USDT Perpetual Contracts. At the same time, OKX also added the token to its spot trading market, indicating that more institutional investors are starting to pay attention to NFT-based tokens.
NFT Market Reaction and Ecosystem Growth
The release of PENGU has positively influenced the Pudgy Penguins NFT market. The floor price for the Pudgy Penguins collection increased to 34.1 ETH (approximately $136,000), marking a 2.6% rise. This places the collection as the second most expensive in the NFT market, following CryptoPunks.
The Pudgy Penguins ecosystem has expanded beyond digital collectibles, with physical products like Pudgy Toys connecting to the Pudgy World metaverse. The project continues to strengthen its cultural presence through retail partnerships and broader community engagement across blockchain networks.
Subsequently, PENGU’s launch on Solana represents a strategic step for the Ethereum-based NFT project, with plans to introduce cross-chain compatibility via LayerZero technology. This will enable seamless integration of PENGU across Ethereum and Solana networks, further enhancing its utility and adoption.
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