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 * What is Pudgy Penguins NFT? A Profile


WHAT IS PUDGY PENGUINS NFT? A PROFILE

By Peter Barker / January 26, 2023 / 8 minutes of reading


Discover the Pudgy Penguins NFT collection that has defied the bear market by
setting a new all-time high floor price. 

The bear market has been tough, with even the most resilient projects losing
considerable amounts of ETH from their floor price. Pudgy Penguins is one
project bucking this trend. The web 3.0 project focused on community and IP
utilization broke its all-time high floor price at ETH 8.25 in early 2023.

Pudgy Penguins is a community-driven, decentralized PFP project. Today, it
claims one of the most vibrant communities in the NFT space, but it has a
controversial past that includes a near rug pull and a hostile takeover. This
post will tell you everything you need to know about the Pudgy Penguins’
ecosystem, IP rights, controversial history, and plans for the future.

Table of Contents

 * Pudgy Penguins Explained 
 * Who Created Pudgy Penguins?
 * When Did Pudgy Penguins Launch?
 * What Makes Pudgy Penguins Unique?
 * What Does A Pudgy Penguins Do? 
   * Lil Pudgys 
   * IP Utilization
   * Pudgy Plushies
   * Pudgy Media
 * How To Buy Pudgy Penguins
 * The Future Of Pudgy Penguins NFT
 * Author


PUDGY PENGUINS EXPLAINED 

Pudgy Penguins is considered one of the first blue-chip Ethereum NFT collections
and compromises 8,888 ERC-721 PFP Penguins with randomly assigned hand-drawn
features through a generative art program. The Pudgy community likes to refer to
itself as ‘The Huddle,’ and people have paid huge sums to join the ‘Huddle.’ For
example, one Pudgy sold for over $600k in 2022. Read on, or watch my video now.



Since the genesis mint, the Pudgy Penguins family has expanded with the addition
of the Lil Pudgy. The smaller cousins of the original Pudgy Penguins compromise
a 22,222-piece PFP collection that generally has a lower floor price than the
originals. You can learn about the Pudgy Penguin and Lil Pudgy’s community and
project by following the project on Twitter and joining their Discord.


WHO CREATED PUDGY PENGUINS?

The Pudgy Penguins’ history is short but turbulent. The original creators of the
project were a small group of college students who launched the project in July
2021. The creators ended up in deep water and today have nothing to do with the
project, and information about them is limited. 

 * Cole Villemain: Co-founder, known on Twitter as @ColeThereum, describes
   himself as a digital art collector and anime fan. He was removed from the
   project by the Puddgy community shortly after launch. 
 * Clayton Patterson: According to a New York Times article Clayton was a
   co-founder, known online as @mrtubby, but his social media accounts appear to
   have been deleted or changed since the community voted to remove him. 

According to an official blog post, the take-over from Clayton and the other OG
owners was completed in April 2022, and an advisory board filed with web 2.0 and
3.0 experts was set up to guide the project forward. 

There’s little to no information about ‘Mickyj’ and ‘Jonah,’ both of whom have
also been credited with co-creating the collections. Needless to say, they were
also removed from the project by the community shortly after the launch. 


WHEN DID PUDGY PENGUINS LAUNCH?

The Pudgy Penguins hit the Ethereum blockchain in July 2021 following massive
anticipation that even saw the flightless birds featured in the New York Times.
The Penguins sold out within an hour, with over 4,000 different wallets picking
up at least one of the NFTs at a starting mint price of ETH 0.03 ($94).  

The ETH volume during the launch was insane and shattered the previous record
when it hit just under $150 million. Things looked good for the Penguins. The
road map had made a lot of promises, and the floor price kept pumping. 

A spectacular crash eventually followed the euphoric launch. In December 2021,
Dart, or a.k.a coldpizza.eth, a community moderator, came forward on Twitter,
accusing the founders of underpaying him and offering him bribes.

In December 2021, Dart, or a.k.a coldpizza.eth, a community moderator, came
forward on Twitter

Darth’s Tweets angered the community, but the final blow for the project came
through an absurd Christmas Day airdrop that ended with some terribly drawn NFT
fishing rods dropping into users’ wallets. 

Source: OpenSea

Following the disaster airdrop, a conversation between Pudgy whale @9x9x9eth
leaked, alleging the founders were trying to sell the project and walk away with
the funds. Shortly after the Tweet went live, the floor price tanked, and the
project appeared to be finished. 



In April 2022, the community rallied to resurrect the project, and Luca
Schnetzler, a USA-based entrepreneur, stepped up as the leader, purchasing the
entire project for ETH 750 ($2.5 million becoming the Pudgy Penguins CEO. You
can find the full list of team members working under Luca on the Pudgy Penguin’s
official site. 

Luca’s purchase pushed the project’s floor price up considerably, and since
April 2022, things have been going much better in terms of floor price, trading
volume, and the Huddle’s morale. 


WHAT MAKES PUDGY PENGUINS UNIQUE?

The Pudgy Penguins have a potential combination of five different trait types,
Body, Background, Face, Head, and Skin. The rarest Penguins in the collection
have four traits (2.8%), and the rest have five (97.2%). 

The rarest Pudgy, according to Rarity Sniper, is #6873. Naturally, it has only
four traits that, include a Green Background (0.01%), Black Skin (0.01%), and a
Mirrored Body (0.01%). This relatively plain-looking Pudgy sold for an
astonishing ETH 400 ($640K). You can read more about insanely rare and pricy
NFTs in our ‘Best-Selling Rarest NFTs’ post. 

Pudgy #5678 ranks #2 for rarity with four totally unique traits, including the
Trick Or Treating Background (0.01%) and Pillow Case Body (0.01%). The only
reason this spooky penguin missed out on the number one rank is that it has five
traits as opposed to the rarer four. 

The Pudgy Penguins ended 2022 by smashing through their all-time high floor
price and even temporarily posting higher 24-hour trading volumes than the Bored
Ape Yacht Club. The late 2022 success has continued into 2023, with their
monthly trading volume placing them firmly in the top 20 on OpenSea. 

Source: Rarity Sniper


WHAT DOES A PUDGY PENGUINS DO? 

Although the Pudgy Penguins are primarily PFP collectibles and the metaverse
game and token promised by the original founders were never realized, the
project has developed some use cases.


LIL PUDGYS 

In December 2021, every Pudgy Penguin was offered the chance to claim a Lil
Pudgy by visiting the Pudgy website and connecting their Ethereum wallet. There
are 22,222 NFTs in the Lil Pudgy collection, and they grant holders generous IP
rights and access to exclusive Pudgy events. 

The Lil Pudgy collection’s average price has been increasing steadily since its
launch, and they appear to have benefited from the volume pump experienced by
the Genesis collection in late 2022. As of writing, they have a floor price of
ETH 0.7 ($900) and a total volume of ETH 5,884 ($7.5 million).  

Source: OpenSea

The rarest Lil Pudgy NFTs have sold for huge sums. For example, Lil Pudgy #10329
has a unique Pudgy Knight Gold trait not found anywhere else in the collection
and sold for ETH 69 ($84k) on Christmas eve 2022. 

Source: OpenSea


IP UTILIZATION

The Pudgy Penguin developers and community are keen to use the combined
creativity of the Huddle to build the Pudgy brand.  According to the official
Pudgy Penguin’s IP Rights document, all Pudgy holders are “Granted a limited,
worldwide, nonexclusive license to copy, access, use and otherwise exploit the
primary owner’s pudgy penguin nft and related art, for the purpose of
commercializing and promoting their own goods and services.” 

The only condition in terms of commercial use is that the Pudgy owner doesn’t
earn more than $500k in revenue within any 12-month period. By offering a
flexible copyrights contract to Pudgy holders, the community can launch their
own products and campaigns, which in turn grows the Pudgy Penguins brand. 

You’ll find the full Pudgy Penguins IP-rights document on the official website,
and you can learn more about NFT copyrights in our ‘Does Owning An NFT Mean You
Own The Copyright?’ post. 


PUDGY PLUSHIES

In July 2022, Pudgy Penguins partnered with PMI Toys, a leading children’s toy,
and merchandise brand, in a deal that the developers described as a push to
merge web 3.0 IP rights with real-world merchandising. The developer explained
in an official Tweet that licensing rights for the ‘Pudgy Plushies’ will come
directly from the community. 

The project is still being developed, but it’s an interesting take on web 3.0
licensing rights. Essentially, a Pudgy Penguin holder could profit directly from
the partnership if their Pudgy is manufactured by PMI toys and then sold in
stores. 


PUDGY MEDIA

The Pudgy Penguins’ have a media platform run entirely by the community. Pudgy
Media schedules special Twitter Spaces releases monthly updates about the
project’s development and organizes real-world events. The most successful Pudgy
Media milestone was the Pudgy Penguins VIP Yacht Party that took place at the
Miami F1 Grand Prix in 2022. The Yacht Party was exclusive to Pudgy Penguin
holders and was an effective PR event for the project.


HOW TO BUY PUDGY PENGUINS

The best marketplace for trading Pudgy Penguins is the Pudgy Penguins
Marketplace. Before purchasing a Pudgy Penguin, you should do your own research
and get to know the Pudgy community on Discord, as the Huddle is central to the
project.

Follow these steps to purchase a Pudgy Penguin:  

 * Get a Crypto Wallet: Get an ETH-compatible crypto wallet like MetaMask. 
 * Connect to Marketplace: Visit the Pudgy Penguins Marketplace and connect your
   wallet. 
 * Explore: Browse the collection and use the filters to sort them by price and
   rarity. 
 * Buy: Purchase a Pudgy by pressing the buy now button. 

You can purchase a Lil Pudgy by following the same steps. 


THE FUTURE OF PUDGY PENGUINS NFT

Pudgy Penguins went from one of the most hyped NFT projects of mid-2021 to a
near-disaster by the end of 2022. Since the community forced out the original
creators and Luca Schnetzle took over as CEO, the Huddle has gone from strength
to strength. As long as the community and developers continue to use web 3.0 IP
rights creatively, we can expect the Pudgy Penguins to continue to surprise us
in the future. 


AUTHOR

 * Peter Barker
   
   Peter first became interested in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology
   while reading about alternatives to traditional finance. He has since been
   using his background in journalism to write about everything crypto.
   
   View all posts

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