Introducing PENGU: The Pudgy Penguins Token

What Is PENGU, the Pudgy Penguins Token?

PENGU is the official Pudgy Penguins token, which will be first launched on Solana in late 2024. Claims for the PENGU opened at 8AM AST on 17 December 2024.

Key Takeaways

• PENGU is the official token of the Pudgy Penguins NFT collection, which is a collection of 8,888 unique cartoons of cute penguins.

• The Pudgy Penguins NFT collection was launched on the Ethereum blockchain and has grown into one of the biggest NFT projects.

• PENGU will be launching on the Solana blockchain with the goal of expanding the project's community and reaching new users. It plans to go multichain and extend to other blockchain networks including Ethereum and Abstract.

Pudgy Penguins, one of Ethereum blockchain’s largest NFT collections, will be launching a native token – PENGU. While Pudgy Penguins is not the first major NFT project to launch a native token, Pudgy Penguins has weathered the NFT winter to emerge as the second-largest NFT project by market capitalization, only behind CryptoPunks in anticipation of the PENGU launch. However, upon launch of the PENGU token, the Pudgy Penguins NFT collection has dropped to the fourth-largest NFT project, behind BAYC and Infinex Patrons. 

With its strong global community, along with its enduring and endearing characters that have been turned into toys to introduce the Pudgy Penguins brand to the wider world outside of the crypto space, we’re excited to see what PENGU will bring to the Pudgy Penguins community and beyond.

What Is PENGU?

PENGU is the native token of the Pudgy Penguins NFT collection, where the token name is a nod to how the community refer to their Pudgy Penguins NFTs as “Pengus”. According to the project, PENGU is set to launch on the Solana blockchain in late 2024 as part of the project’s plans to expand its community and further widen the reach of Pudgy Penguins by allowing everyone to align themselves with the cute penguins. 

With PENGU, the millions of Pudgy Penguin fans and the hundreds of millions of people outside of crypto that see and share the Pudgy Penguin every day finally have the opportunity to align themselves with the character.

Now, everyone can join The Huddle. pic.twitter.com/zGPUMfPJoe

— Pudgy Penguins (@pudgypenguins) December 6, 2024

While there hasn’t been news on the exact utility of the PENGU token, it is expected to foster community expansion, project growth, member rewards, and project governance. There is plenty of hype around the upcoming token, with pre-market trading on Whales Market reporting total trading volume of the PENGU token at over $4.44 million at time of writing. 

PENGU Tokenomics

According to the official launch announcement by Pudgy Penguins, the total supply of PENGU is 88,888,888,888. These tokens will be minted on the Solana blockchain at the Token Generation Event (TGE).

Based on the above chart:

• 25.9% will be reserved for the Pudgy Penguins community, which is likely to include Pudgy Penguins and Lil Pudgy holders, and potentially holders of other Pudgy assets like PenguPins (commemoration soulbound tokens) and Pudgy Rods.

• 24.12% of the total supply is allocated to other communities to expand the size of the Pudgy Penguins community, bringing an estimated five million new huddle members on board.

• 12.35% of the total supply will be used to create liquidity pairs on decentralized exchanges and grow a thriving market for PENGU after launch.

• 17.8% of the total supply is allocated to the project team and subject to a 1-year cliff and 3 years vesting.

• 11.48% of the total supply is reserved for the company and will be used for development and marketing ventures.

•  FTT (FTX exchange token) holders will also get 0.35% of the total supply, and 4% of the token supply will be dedicated to public good, in line with the Pudgy Penguins’ motto of “Spreading good vibes across the meta.”

CEO Luca Netz has also announced that they have plans to airdrop around 25% of the PENGU supply to the Solana ecosystem. So if you are an active user of the Solana ecosystem, using dApps like Phantom wallet and Jupiter, there's a chance you'll receive some PENGU too, even if you don't hold a Pudgy!

🐧Exclusive: In an exclusive interview with SolanaFloor, Pudgy Penguins CEO @LucaNetz reveals plans to airdrop $PENGU to 1M Solana wallets. pic.twitter.com/fqHibddP1F

— SolanaFloor (@SolanaFloor) December 10, 2024

Why Is PENGU Launching on Solana and Not Ethereum or Abstract?

Pudgy Penguins was launched on the Ethereum blockchain in July 2021 and has become a popular collection on the network. It has reached an all-time high of almost 36.3 ETH  during anticipation of the PENGU token and is held by over 5,000 NFT collectors. For a project that has enjoyed this level of success on the Ethereum network, Pudgy Penguins’s decision to launch its native token on the Solana blockchain has sparked debate within its community (in spite of its plans to eventually launch on Ethereum as well).

According to Igloo, the firm behind Pudgy Penguins, the decision to launch on Solana is to enable the Pudgy Penguins character to reach a new audience. 

By launching PENGU on Solana, Pudgy Penguins grows by reaching an entirely new audience.

However, PENGU plans to go multichain, including launching on ETH and @AbstractChain.

— Igloo (@IglooInc) December 6, 2024

Solana is also growing in popularity, thanks to its fast transactions and cost-effectiveness, and is arguably the busiest blockchain network at time of writing. In the below charts from Artemis, Solana’s number of Daily Active Addresses and Daily Transactions far outstrips that of Ethereum and its Layer 2s, which suggests that launching on Solana will allow the PENGU token to reach a far wider audience.

However, as the PENGU token will be launching on Solana, Pudgy Penguins holders will need to create a compatible wallet on Solana in order to claim their airdrops. 

While the Pudgy Penguins team is contributing to the building of Abstract, a Layer 2 designed to be consumer-centric, it has yet to be launched. By releasing the PENGU token earlier and allowing it to build momentum on Solana before launching it on Abstract, it could also give the new network a head-start with a popular token.

The Growing and Enduring Popularity of Pudgy Penguins

Pudgy Penguins was originally launched by Cole Villemain (under the Twitter (X) pseudonym ColeThereum) and three other colleagues in 2021. The intent was to create PFP NFTs that embody happiness, community, and other social virtues. Unfortunately, the original founders were canceled by the community in January 2022 due to their inability to meet promised developments, widespread FUDs, and allegations of an ongoing rug pull plan.  In response, the floor of the collection slumped to levels below 0.6 ETH.

Biddings for a new owner started, and Lucas Schneltzer, a Los Angeles entrepreneur, bought the project for 750 ETH ($2.5 million) in April 2022. He revamped the project’s leadership and announced new growth plans. Under the leadership of Luca Netz, Pudgy Penguins has seen a significant recovery in floor price and overall brand image. Pudgy Penguins has also become one of the first Web3 brands to offer major licensing opportunities to its holders, and has also crossed over into the regular world by launching Pudgy Toys in May 2023, which can be purchased at Target and Walmart stores, as well as on Amazon.

Final Thoughts

Upon the launch of the PENGU token, Pudgy Penguins will join the ranks of major NFT projects – like BAYC – with a native token to further grow its community. Existing Pudgy Penguin and Lil Pudgy NFT holders definitely have something to look forward to with the impending airdrop, and given the current interest on Whales Market, there are plenty of people looking forward to the new token. By launching on Solana, Pudgy Penguins will also take its character IP to a whole new audience, while taking advantage of the chain’s speed and low transaction costs.

As the airdrop and token launch program draws closer, it is important to keep an eye on fake token launches with the same ticker and malicious airdrops. You can refer to our guide on airdrop scams for better coverage on airdrop scams and how to stay safe from them. Always double-check before interacting with any platform or signing a transaction. You can also install a reputable security browser extension to improve your transaction security. Also, note that this article discusses the PENGU token and Pudgy Penguins NFT for educational purposes, it is not financial advice. Featured projects are not endorsed.