🐧 Pudgy Penguins' PENGU Memecoin Debuts as 6th Biggest in Crypto
Though crypto majors fall as uncertainty builds ahead of today's FOMC meeting and Powell's potential comments.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news:
Crypto majors fall 2-4% ahead of FOMC today, Powell's comments
Strategic Reserve chatter heightens among US politicians
PENGU debuts with $2.8B in volume, 6th biggest memecoin at $2.5B mc
Binance Alpha teases several AI leaders
NFT volume hits $100M though most leaders red, Punks at 40 ETH
🐧 The PENGU Takeover Is Here
Pudgy Penguin holders have been through more turmoil than anyone in NFTs.
The original team made them the laughingstock of the NFT ecosystem in 2021 by putting fishing rods in eggs with no plan to execute and then effectively walked away from the project as the floor crashed.
Luckily, Luca Netz took over with a vision and the ability to execute on that vision.
And yesterday marked the latest major milestone in the Pudgy Penguin lore and launched the springboard to the masses.
What Happened?
The Pudgy Penguins PENGU token officially launched yesterday morning.
Since then, it has taken over Solana and basically the entire memecoin and NFT ecosystems.
Some stats from day 1:
6th biggest memecoin in crypto, 62nd overall coin
$2.7B in trading volume (over $1B onchain)
$2.1B market cap and $3B in FDV
421,000 holders
961,000 claims
Not surprisingly, the first few hours of claims were a bit rocky with hundreds of thousands of wallets trying to go through the process.
But the team worked through issues short order and smoothed things out.
As the dust has settled this morning, the Pudgy Penguin NFTs are down from 32 ETH to a 17.75 ETH floor (14.25 ETH loss or $55k) and the airdrop at current prices is worth $58,000.
Thus anyone who bought at 32 ETH or lower is up on their buy with the airdrop (and most holders have entries sub-10 ETH).
So, it was a good day.
Why It Matters
For the Pudgy ecosystem, the token was the primary lever to grow the holder base (The Huddle).
With only 38,120 NFTs, the team was limited with growth options.
Now, in less than a day of trading, there are 420,000 holders in the ecosystem.
20x growth, in a day.
That's explosive.
And now, those holders will likely have a leg up (or at least incentives) to explore the Abstract ecosystem, where the Pudgy team plans to take things to the next level.
They have rewarded their most loyal holders with a $60,000 gift, and many are now in the position to hold their NFTs for much longer (they have liquidity options now).
That means the NFTs can go higher in the next run (I don't think the Pudgy local top is in).
They've also shown the rest of the NFT ecosystem the power of a token drop, if done right.
But the most important message from yesterday was one that Luca delivered to us during the FOMO HOUR show, where he said this is his "end game" and he plans to do this for 15-20 years to make the PENGU brand a "Crypto Conglomerate."
Things are just getting started...
🚚 What is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
Ethereum led NFT trading volume with $104M on the day; Solana was next with $4.8M and then Bitcoin with $4.8M
ETH NFT leaders were mostly red; Punks +2% at 40.5 ETH, Pudgy -47% at 17.5, BAYC -3% at 18.1 ETH, Azuki -12% at 9.4 ETH
Pudgy Penguin NFTs did fall from ~32 ETH floor to 17.5 ETH floor after the PENGU airdrop (~$60k at current prices); Lil Pudgy's are back to 1.84 ETH and Rogs are at 0.8
LOVE Tennis (+120%), goblintown (+32%) & VeeFriends (+26%) led notable top movers
BTC NFT leaders were mostly red; Bitcoin Puppets -9, NodeMonkes -6%, OMB -4%, Quantum Cats -4%
The Runes leaders were mixed; DOG -7% at $830M mc, PUPS -14% at $160M, BDC even at $75M, GIZMO even at $23M
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
Here's a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:
PENGU went live for trading, seeing $2.5B+ in volume and holding now at $0.036 ($3.23B FDV) with over 400,000 holders
Nifty Island's ISLAND token went live as well, now at $45M FDV
FUEL announced a token airdrop for its 200k eligible users (wallets)
Kraken soft-launched its new L2 Ink with its stated goal of enabling "access to DeFi from a trusted OG"
Moonpay announced that Moonshot broke its single-day onramp record
🤖 AI x Crypto
New section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:
Overall market cap is up 10% at $10.8B, with most leaders slightly green
Binance Alpha showcased FARTCOIN, AI16Z & AIXBT in their new product, leading to speculation of potential listings in the future
ZODS was the top mover, jumping 100% to $15M; NIKITA, AIMONICA, GRIFT, MEMESAI & ARC all jumped 20-40%
FARTCOIN, AGENT & AIXBT see biggest mindshare growth
🌎 Macro Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
Crypto majors are red this morning ahead of Powell's comments; BTC -2% at $104,900, ETH -4% at $3,860, SOL -4% at $217, XRP -5% at $2.55
BGB, VIRTUAL, MOVE led top alts, up 5-10%
Memecoin majors are more red than majors; DOGE -5%, SHIBA -6%, PEPE -9%, WIF -11%, BONK -11%, MOG -4%
Senator Cynthia Lummis says "2025 will be the year for Bitcoin and Digital Assets," vowing to work with Crypto Czar David Sacks to help make a legal framework for the crypto industry and a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve happen
The US Senate Banking Committee has abandoned its efforts to advance anti-crypto Caroline Crenshaw for SEC Commissioner
Ohio Representative Derek Merrin introduced the Ohio Bitcoin Reserve Act yesterday, aimed at creating a Bitcoin fund for the state
Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey says $250k Bitcoin is "One signature away" after drafting a potential strategic reserve bill for the President
Bitwise launched a Solana staking ETP in Europe for $BSOL
🚀 Memecoin Movers
$UFD (+28,000% to $28M market cap, SOL)
$TEMA (+95% to $24M market cap, SOL)
$ZODS (+95% to $15M market cap, SOL)
$SS (+94% to $14M market cap, SOL)
$TRUST (+70% to $44M market cap, SOL)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
FishBallerz (140%, 0.04 ETH Floor)
LOVE (120%, 3 ETH Floor)
goblintown (65%, 0.43 ETH)
MetaWinners (15%, 0.08 ETH)
CyberBrokers (15%, 0.19 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming Mints and Events
Folks - my source for daily mints and events has shut down operations.
Given the general lack of interest in new mints on a daily basis, I'll be discontinuing this section of the newsletter, at least for now.
If I can find a good source for daily events, I will look at turning it back on.
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