Pudgy Penguins, the NFT collection brand turned intellectual property, is launching a .pudgy top-level domain through a partnership with Unstoppable Domains.
.Pudgy domains can be purchased through the Unstoppable Domains website or a landing page designed by Pudgy Penguins, the team said in an interview.
Within a few months, Pudgy Penguins hopes to integrate a feature where the accounts created with store-bought Pudgy Penguins create digital wallets with .pudgy domains instead of typical alphanumeric HEX addresses, the team added.
Read more: Advice from Pudgy Penguins CEO to Web3: Create ‘real products’ that ‘transcend’ NFTs
Following the acquisition of the collection by Luca Netz in 2022, Pudgy Penguins has placed a heavy emphasis on the intellectual property rather than just the JPEGs.
Netz called Pudgy Penguins a “transcendent.” [intellectual property] brand” while announcing its $9 million fundraising in May 2023.
The first part of this vision consisted of toy versions of some of the 8,888 Pudgy Penguins NFTs. The plushies and figurines went on sale on Amazon in May before hitting shelves in 2,000 Walmart stores in September. That number was expanded to 3,100 this week. Walmart currently stocks 30 different Pudgy toys that sell for about $3-12 each.
Pudgy’s toys feature a QR code that unlocks certain features in the brand’s open-world online game, Pudgy World. The game is currently in open beta mode, but is expected to see a wider release sometime in the first quarter.
“We do have toys, but we are not a toy company. We’ll have a game, but we’re not a game company. You know, those are distribution mechanisms for the brand and the ultimate vision is: how can you make this the most popular penguin in the world? Pudgy Penguins president Lorenzo Melendez said.
Amid all this, Pudgy Penguins NFTs have seen rapidly rising price interest in recent months, nearly surpassing in price the once-vaunted Bored Apes collection, or the least expensive NFT available on secondary markets.
Read more: Pudgy Penguins approaches Bored Ape’s rock-bottom prices, supported by the CEO’s expansive approach
The .pudgy domains are powered by Unstoppable Domains, a company that creates blockchain-based domain names.
Pudgy will be Unstoppable Domains’ tenth top-level domain partnership, following similar integrations with Blockchain.com and Klever Exchange, among others, according to a press release.