What Are Chubby Penguins?
After the great success of Bored Ape Yacht Club, another animal-themed PFP project immediately shook the NFT ecosystem in the battle for the NFT market in 2021, Pudgy Penguins is a group of overweight penguin avatars.
Pudgy Penguins is a collection of NFT PFPs released in July 2021. Like many other collections at the time, the project nearly lost much of the community’s attention. The collection consists of 8,888 individually created penguin NFTs, each with over 150 hand-drawn features.
This collection is based on cute penguins found in Antarctica. The diversity of this collection adds to its attractiveness and distinctiveness, whether it be penguins with Viking caps or necklaces with tropical flowers.
Pudgy Penguins goes beyond appearances by offering owners special access to experiences, events, and IP licensing options, among other features. This brand has a large following and is used to create content, items, toys, and so on.
It could be that the market as a whole collapsed, or it could be that the creators of a specific initiative fled with the support of the community. Even the slightest inkling from a project’s community that its founders are capable of doing something similar can cause them to lose confidence.
That’s exactly what happened in the Pudgy Penguins community in late 2021 when they realized the project’s finances had been approved by the original crew.
However, Pudgy Penguins has suddenly caught the attention of all NFT users, from announcing a successful $9 million crowdfunding campaign to releasing Pudgy Toys and raking in $500,000 in sales in just two days.
The increase comes just a few months after a multi-million dollar purchase was handed over to new management as confidence in the company’s original team waned. These have demonstrated the dominance of Pudgy Penguins in the huge NFT industry.
Forgotten past
Pudgy Penguins will be on sale in July 2021, right in the middle of the bull run enthusiasm. Pudgy quickly caught the attention of the community and was thought likely to be a runaway success, as was the BAYC chapter due to the general market support and guaranteed popularity of the NFT PFP kits at the time.
Nevertheless, the joy didn’t last long, as a series of claims from project supporters against the founding team surfaced on Twitter, claiming that ColeThereum (creator of Pudgy Penguins) had engaged in fraud before and at the time.
According to allegations, ColeThereum has embezzled all the money in the fund and has no plans to develop the idea further. Instead, the creator offered to buy back the project for 888 ETH for 100% of the shares.
Luca Schnetzler purchased the project rights in April 2022 for 750 ETH (equivalent to $2.5 million at the time). Luca is one of the project’s most ardent supporters; he recognizes the potential of the collection and is confident that the skills and expertise he has acquired over the years can help the Pudgy Penguins comeback.
Ecosystem overview
Pudgys has developed considerably after being bought by Luca Netz, with particular efforts such as developing Pudgy Word and selling Pudgy Toys on Amazon. The initiatives produced in the Pudgy Penguins environment are listed below.
Lil Pudgy’s
Little Pudgys is a collection of 22,222 hand-drawn Pudgys created on the blockchain using LayerZero technology. Users can transfer their Lil Pudgys to other blockchains using Pudgys Bridge. For example, Lil Pudgys was born on Ethereum, but can now transfer to Polygon, BNB Chain, or Arbitrum.
Little Pudgys is an extension of Pudgy Penguins that gives you access to the universe that revolves around the Pudgy Penguins ecology at a lower cost. Pudgy Penguins may claim 8,888 Little Pudgys for free, with a total of 13,334 available for purchase in December 2021. Owners of Little Pudgys will have the same rights as Pudgy Penguins. Both have access to experiences, events, and intellectual property licensing prospects, among other things.
Chubby bars
Pudgy Rods, originally ‘Pudgy Gifts’, has been offered as a free NFT, and any NFT Pudgy Penguins holder can claim mint before August 30, 2021.
Initially, each NFT took the form of eggs wrapped in red ribbon, the contents of which held a mystery to the community. The presents were first revealed as a bridge to Christmas Eve. While the debut was met with mixed reviews, it seems that people now view Pudgy Rods as part of the greater Pudgy Penguins ecology.
Chubby toy and chubby word
On May 18, 2023, the project announced the launch of Pudgy Toys, a tactile stuffed animal offered on Amazon that quickly caused a stir in the market after reaching $500,000 in sales in just 48 hours. The development team also sees the physical toy as a “Trojan horse” for the web3 and NFT ecosystems, as well as a way to expose Pudgy Penguins to a large number of real consumers.
One feature that sets Pudgy Toys apart is that each toy comes with a digital experience called Pudgy World. Each Pudgy World participant must create an account and provide an email address. NFT soulbound is the user account, which is equivalent to the NFT wallet. Customers who buy toys receive a birth certificate with a QR code. The user receives a digital object on Pudgy World after scanning a QR code. This digital object can be traded on the Pudgy World Marketplace.
Ultimately, the introduction of Pudgy Toys and Pudgy World brought Pudgy Penguins closer to consumers. In addition, collecting revenue from sales contributes to the development of a long-lasting NFT empire.
Chubby Penguins NFT
Main statistic
Use cases
Owners of the Pudgy Penguins NFT can use them as follows:
- Image profile NFT (PFP) as avatar
- This is the key to joining the Pudgy Penguins keeper community.
- If a pattern can be recognized, buy and hold it to invest.
- It is a brand image used in making various things such as toys, clothes and so on.
NFT purchase and allocation
On July 23, 2021, the Penguins collection will be available to the public at a starting price of 0.03 ETH. Pudgy Penguins currently has no NFT allocation information.
The Pudgy Penguins team was able to collect 266.64 ETH (worth $532,000 – the ETH price at the time was $2,000) with 8,888 NFTs sold out on the day of the sale.
NFT properties
Each Pudgy Penguins image has different elements. The greater the value of the NFT, the rarer the structural features. Pudgy Penguins NFT has five features:
- The background has 13 types: Yellow, Underwater, Supermarket, Beach,…
- The skin has 15 types: Black, Dark Gray, Light Gray, Red, Yellow Gold, …
- The face has 27 types: Agitated, Pillow Case, Mirrored, Star Struck,…
- Head has 54 types: Fish Orange, Egg Gold, Hatched, Crown,…
- The body has 64 types: shark suit, pillowcase, banana suit,…
Team
Luca Netz is the CEO of the Pudgy Penguins project. Luca Schnetzler has worked in various professions, but due to a special skill, Luca became a billionaire at the age of 19. raised millions of euros… Luca entered the cryptocurrency market in 2016 and started collecting NFTs. Luca acquired Pudgy Penguins for $2.5 million in 2022 and became the company’s official CEO.
Other members of the project:
- Lorenzo Melendez: CTO
- Nicholas Ravid: CMO
- Peter Lobanov: CCO
- Jennifer McGlone: Clo
- Dr. Kaizu: chief of operations.
Route maps & updates
- July 2021: Pudgy Penguins launches with a collection of 8,888 NFT penguins on the Ethereum blockchain. This collection was sold out in just 19 minutes.
- October 2021: The project donates part of the project proceeds to organizations that support animal welfare and environmental conservation.
- January 2022: The community decided to vote to remove the founder after discovering that they had withdrawn the funds from the project to do things that did not bring community value, in addition, they were also involved in NFT scams.
- April 2022: The Pudgy Penguins brand was acquired by businessman Luca Schnetzler for 750 ETH (approximately $2.5 million) to continue development.
- December 2022: Trading volume reaches 1,200 ETH, double that of Yuga Labs’ BAYC blue chip collection.
- January 2023: Project sends money earned from Sotheby’s auction to charity.
- March 2023: CEO Luca Schnetzler announces trademark registration for Pudgy Penguins.
Investors and partners
investor
Pudgy Penguins raised $9 million on May 9, 2023 in a seed round led by 1kx investment fund. Pudgy Penguins plans to use this funding to expand its intellectual property and team.
Pudgy Penguins never raised funding from investment funds prior to financing. The team’s operating finances come from the sale of Pudgy Penguins during the initial sale, as well as a royalty fee from the sale.
Partners
Pudgy Penguins announces partnership with PMI, a global toy brand, on September 4, 2022. PMI has been a pioneer in the children’s toy industry for the past 25 years, working with well-known brands such as Fortnight and Harry Potter. PMI is also partnering with multinationals such as Kellogg to enter the Web 2.0 sector.
The project was auctioned at Sotheby’s in October 2022. This is an important step in establishing his status in the art world.
Pudgys partnered with LayerZero in January 2023, allowing customers to carry NFT Little Pudgys across chains. Pudgy Penguins is also the first Web3 brand to expose people to Soulbound Token.
Pudgy Penguins has a strong emphasis on tactile toys and ensures that the charming penguins’ IP address is visible to everyday customers. The partnership with Retail Monster helps promote Pudgy Toys and introduce them to a wider audience around the world.
Conclusion
Pudgy Penguins seems to be the strongest example of a resurgence in the NFT market. With unique strategies going beyond the Web3 domain, this project still has great potential in the future. As the project continues to top OpenSea’s volume charts, fans of currently struggling NFT projects may have new reasons to hope for their return.
DISCLAIMER: The information on this website is intended as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We recommend that you do your own research before investing.