Ascendant Ethereum NFT Project Pudgy penguins now has a rock bottom price that is within reasonable distance of the once dominant collection Bored Ape Yacht Club– paving the way for a potential sea change that would upend the long-standing power hierarchies in the NFT industry.
At one point on Sunday afternoon, the lowest price you could pay for a Pudgy Penguins NFT rose to 21.5 ETH, or just over $54,850 at the time of writing, according to data from NFT price floor. At the same time, Bored Ape NFTs were selling for a minimum price of 22.8 ETH – an amount worth just over $58,000 at today’s prices.
The difference in bottom price between both collections has increased slightly since yesterday: while writing, Pudgy Penguins said-Declutter‘s pick for the NFT Project of the Year 2023 – has a minimum of 20.7 ETH, while Bored Ape Yacht Club has remained stable at 22.9 ETH.
Nevertheless, the fact that both collections are currently so close in price is a remarkable event that would have been unthinkable even months ago.
Pudgy Penguins, an Ethereum-based collection of profile photos (PFP), gained momentum after launching in 2021, but was rocked by the devastating crypto winter that unraveled the NFT industry the following spring. So a new owner doubled on increasing the brand’s IP value, first on social media, then via physical merchandise drops launched in collaboration with major partners such as Walmart.
The strategy yielded remarkable results. After the floor price fell below 1 ETH in mid-2022, Pudgy Penguins climbed to 5 ETH last year; Fueled by flashy brand partnerships and increased industry buzz, the collection then took off rising last fall, quadrupling in value during an otherwise meager period for the broader NFT market.
Bored Apes, meanwhile, have seen a reverse trajectory. The brand defined both the innovation and excess of the 2021 NFT boom; At the time, BAYC PFPs were routinely sold to celebrities at premium prices north of $1 million a piece.
However, since the start of the crypto winter in May 2022, the collection has bled significantly, reflecting macro industry trends. After reaching a peak bottom price of 152 ETH in April 2022 (worth approximately $429,000 at the time), it appears that BAYC has lost more than 82% of its ETH value since then NFT price floor. As of 2022, the collection has failed to meaningfully reverse its steady decline in value for some time.
The remarkable value of both brands is perhaps best highlighted by their respective fundraising histories. Last year, after an IP reboot, Pudgy Penguins managed to come together $9 million in seed funding to launch the next chapter.
Bored Ape maker Yuga Labs, on the other hand, made an astonishing observation $450 million in 2022 to fuel the then-untouchable cartoon monkey brand, bringing the company’s value to $4 billion.
Both Pudgy Penguins and Bored Ape Yacht Club are still below CryptoPunks, the influential titan of the NFT space, in terms of price floors. At the time of writing, a CryptoPunks NFT starts at around 58.7 ETH, or worth around $146,000.
Yuga Labs owns the CryptoPunks project IP after acquiring it from creator Larva Labs in 2022 for an undisclosed amount. In 2021 and 2022, the Bored Apes and CryptoPunks often traded places in terms of NFT value, but the older CryptoPunks project from 2018 has held its value better over the past year.
Edited by Andrew Hayward