PENGU opened with an FDV that exceeded 6 billion USD, and the fat penguin airdrop started "helicopter money" distribution, while offline physical dolls were snatched up

Author: Nancy, PANews

On the evening of December 17, the highly anticipated leading NFT project Pudgy Penguins announced its launch and initiated an airdrop, which has received over 100,000 claims. The sudden surge in traffic also caused the claim API to malfunction, and after a brief pause, the airdrop has now resumed. According to Binance data, the token PENGU opened at a peak price of $0.07, with a fully diluted valuation (FDV) reaching as high as $6.2 billion, although the current price has since retreated.

From the airdrop eligibility query, users can add multiple wallet addresses at once for verification. Holders of the Pudgy Penguins series NFTs, Ethereum/Solana OG players, L2 Abstract Enjoyers, and various chain explorers can all qualify for the PENGU token airdrop, with more conditions met resulting in a larger airdrop amount.

From the sharing of various players, besides the substantial profits gained by NFT holders, who earned profits ranging from tens of thousands to millions of dollars, some veteran players also won a considerable "pork knuckle rice" from multiple addresses. Of course, there are also some users who, after querying dozens of addresses, ended up with "nothing." In addition to the high returns from the airdrop, experienced traders have made 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. Additionally, a whale has been buying in large quantities; Lookonchain reported that a certain whale spent 15,300 SOL ($3.46 million) to purchase 6.47 million PENGU tokens at an average price of $0.053.

It is worth mentioning that, according to on-chain analyst Ai Yi, wallets associated with the PENGU project team (or early investors) are currently dumping large amounts on-chain, having sold PENGU worth $8.74 million.

During this airdrop frenzy, Pudgy Penguins not only successfully boosted the price of its NFTs but also further expanded its community and ecological influence. However, the profit-driven behavior triggered by the airdrop has also led to widespread speculation, causing dissatisfaction within the community.

Boosting NFT Prices and Expanding Community Through Airdrop Activities

With a flexible airdrop mechanism and a broad token distribution strategy, Pudgy Penguins has attracted significant attention in recent times 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 token is allocated to relevant NFTs as soon as it goes live, and holders have 88 days to apply. This flexible airdrop mechanism has led to a massive buying spree of Pudgy Penguins series NFTs, injecting strong upward momentum into their prices.

Data from NFT Price Floor shows that from the announcement of the token issuance plan on December 6 to its official launch, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins rose by as much as 133.6%, while Lil Pudgys saw an increase of 165.7%. Meanwhile, the sales volume of the Pudgy Penguins series also surged significantly, with CryptoSlam statistics indicating that during this period, Pudgy Penguins' sales exceeded $54 million, while Lil Pudgys reached $22.6 million.

On the other hand, Pudgy Penguins aims to expand its community size through the airdrop. The token economic model of PENGU shows that in addition to 25.9% of the total token supply allocated to the Pudgy community, other communities will receive 24.12% of the tokens. According to Pudgy Penguins, the Solana ecosystem can receive about 25% of the PENGU token supply airdrop, meaning that active users of applications like Phantom wallet and Jupiter can receive the airdrop even without holding NFTs. This portion of wallet addresses is approximately 7 million, covering users from multiple protocols and community members.

Furthermore, to expand its ecological scale, Pudgy Penguins' tokens will also adopt a multi-chain deployment strategy. In addition to being deployed on Solana, it will also launch on Ethereum and the anticipated L2 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.

Airdrop Triggers a Craze for Physical Toys, QR Code Theft Causes Discontent

Although the Pudgy Penguins airdrop activity incentivized community members and promoted ecological development, it also triggered speculative chaos. With the introduction of Pudgy Toys, the IP derivative toys included in the airdrop, these toys quickly attracted the attention of many speculators, becoming a target for their frantic purchases.

"I just hired a bunch of kids to help me raid Walmart, can't wait for my airdrop." "I got a free 10x airdrop from Pudgy Penguin toys that no one wanted at Walmart; I spent $1,000 on this experiment and might buy more. I'll donate these toys to kids for Christmas. No matter the outcome, it's a win-win." "I ordered 10,000 penguin toys from Amazon at $20 each; if each toy gets a $100 airdrop, returning these toys would yield a profit of $1 million without any cost."

Pudgy Toys being snatched up

On social media, speculators are sharing their "harvests" from raiding Pudgy Penguin toys, attempting to profit by hoarding Pudgy Toys. Compared to the risks of financial loss from purchasing high-premium NFTs for airdrops, buying physical toys allows for considerable gains with zero cost.

Driven by profit, many speculators have even resorted to stealing QR codes (which grant access to Pudgy World) from Pudgy Penguin toys to profit, a behavior that detaches from the original cultural and emotional value of Pudgy Penguins, leading to controversy and criticism.

"$PENGU is about to be issued, and toys across North America are almost sold out. Is anyone willing to buy these QR codes?" Some users are selling the QR codes of Pudgy Penguin toys at high prices. Others have reported that the penguin toys ordered from Walmart are missing QR codes or toys in some boxes.

Pudgy Toys QR codes being stolen

According to Suji, the founder of Mask, "Today in a New York store, Web2.5 users wanted to buy some Pudgy Penguin toys but found that many packaging boxes had been opened, and the accompanying QR codes were stolen. These toys were originally meant for those who truly love Pudgy Penguins. Even if many people accidentally lost their QR codes, they still enjoyed the fun. However, with the launch of the airdrop, Degens flocked to the stores and engaged in such irresponsible behavior. This behavior is theft, and the entire crypto community should condemn it. Please leave the Pudgy Penguin toys for those who truly love them."

In summary, the Pudgy Penguins airdrop activity has brought significant ecological expansion and market enthusiasm to the project. However, how to maintain a balance between cultural spirit and community values while promoting economic incentives has become an important topic that Pudgy Penguins and other crypto projects need to deeply consider and prioritize for long-term development.