In summary
- Pudgy Penguins will launch its PENGU token on December 17 on Solana, with a total supply of 88.88 billion.
- 25.9% of the token supply will be distributed to the Pudgy Penguins community via airdrops, while the rest will go to other communities, employees, liquidity pools, and public good efforts.
- PENGU will initially trade on Binance, with pre-market trading valuing the token at $0.05.
After racking up more than 50 billion views on social media and placing toys on shelves in Walmart and Target stores across the country, the Ethereum NFT project called Pudgy Penguins is launching a token.
The news caused the base price of Pudgy Penguins to skyrocket, surpassing $100,000, becoming the second-largest profile picture project (PFP) of all NFTs.
“The job of a founder in crypto is to maximize optimal excitement,” said Luca Netz, intellectual property owner of Pudgy Penguins, in a video interview with well-known crypto enthusiast ThreadGuy.
As excitement swirls around the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem, find out everything you need to know about their upcoming PENGU token, launching Tuesday, December 17 on Solana.
What is PENGU?
PENGU is the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem token that is ready to launch on the Solana Blockchain. It will have a total supply of 88.88 billion PENGU tokens, of which 25.9% will be reserved for members of the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem through an upcoming free distribution claim.
“By launching PENGU on Solana, Pudgy Penguins grows by reaching a whole new audience,” said Igloo Inc, the parent company of Pudgy Penguin on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Although the token will launch on Solana, it will eventually expand to Ethereum and Abstract, the consumer-focused Ethereum layer 2 scaling network being built by Igloo Inc.
For Netz, the PENGU token offers Pudgy Penguin’s millions of fans around the world a better connection to the brand, suggesting that tokenization at its core is an “alignment.”
When will PENGU be released?
PENGU will launch on December 17, 2024. The official launch time has not been shared yet, but it is expected to be in the morning Eastern Time.
Official links and claim details will only be shared and announced from the Pudgy Penguins account on X.
A number of copycat tokens are already being traded, attempting to trick investors into purchasing an asset with the same or similar name, but the real token is not yet available at the time of this writing.
Who will receive the PENGU airdrop?
More than 88 billion PENGU tokens will circulate on the Solana blockchain, spread across several categories of holders, as detailed by the Pudgy Penguins announcement.
Decrypt has reached out to Pudgy Penguins for further clarity on the details surrounding the distribution of its token. The numbers below are estimates based on an infographic provided by Pudgy Penguins.
25.9%: Pudgy Community
The largest allocation of PENGU tokens is reserved for the Pudgy Penguins community, including but not limited to Pudgy Penguins, Lil Pudgys, and Pudgy Rods (aka Rogs) NFT holders.
Although specific ratios have not yet been announced, the largest allocation is expected to go to holders of the original Pudgy Penguins NFTs, who are the most valuable by far, followed by Lil Pudgys and Rogs.
Project leader Luca Netz confirmed that no snapshot will be taken to capture holders, and instead, those holding the assets at the time of token generation will have access to PENGU.
24.12%: Other Communities
The next largest pool of PENGU tokens will be reserved for other communities on Web3 and potentially beyond, with the expectation of acquiring 5 million new Pudgy Penguin community members, according to the announcement chart.
Communities that were offered the “Elite” role in the Abstract Discord are also eligible to claim PENGU, assuming they claimed the role and filled out a form in the Discord before the deadline.
The list includes, but is not limited to, the following communities: Plooshies, Doodles, Claynosaurz, Memeland, BoDoggos, Bitcoin Puppets, Nodemonkes, Azuki, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Wassies, Goblintown, Wonky Stonks, The Plague , Mocaverse, Onchain Gaias and holders of at least 1 billion Mog Coin (MOG).
Netz also indicated that Pudgy Toys shoppers who interacted with its online gaming platform Pudgy World and collected “Pudgy Traits”—or attributes to equip their virtual penguins—would also be eligible for PENGU. Pudgy Toys owners can access Pudgy World by scanning a QR code that came with their toy. After scanning the code, users are instructed to “collect traits and wait for Abstract bridge to be up and running,” according to Netz.
17.8%: Pudgy Penguins Team
Current and former Pudgy Penguins ecosystem employees will receive the third largest share of PENGU, almost 18% of the token based on a one-year vesting period and a three-year vesting period. During token distributions, a grace period typically disables a user’s ability to sell or transfer any tokens.
12.35%: Liquidity Pools
A portion of the PENGU supply will be reserved to create enough liquidity for active trading of the token.
11.48%: Company
Igloo Inc., the parent company of Pudgy Penguins, will receive 11.48% of the PENGU token, subject to the same one-year grace period and three years of vesting that Pudgy Penguins employees received.
4%: Public Good
Four percent of the PENGU token supply goes towards public good efforts. Although not officially described, Pudgy Penguins has undertaken public good initiatives over the past year with its Pudgy Kindness campaigns, sending funds and helping underappreciated streamers go viral on social media.
4%: Proliferation
Another small percentage of PENGU is reserved for Pudgy Penguins brand expansion efforts, potentially through listings on centralized exchanges or brand marketing efforts.
As part of the launch on Binance, 3% of the PENGU supply will be distributed via airdrop to participants of the Binance HODLer program.
0.35%: FTT Holders
The smallest allocation of the PENGU token is reserved for FTT token holders. FTT is the native token of the infamous FTX exchange, which filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations following its collapse in November 2022.
The token saw a brief spike of nearly $4 on the day of PENGU’s announcement, a price high of nearly a year, but has since retreated. No official tenure criteria have been shared at this time.
How to claim PENGU
Official links to claim PENGU have not been published yet, but users will have 88 days to claim it once it is available, according to a post on Netz’s X.
It is expected that users will first need to verify ownership of Pudgy Penguins or other related assets, and then connect a Solana wallet to claim PENGU.
Where can you trade PENGU?
PENGU will be available for spot trading on prominent Cryptocurrency exchange Binance at 9am ET on Tuesday, December 17.
So, so far, it is the only cryptocurrency exchange that has announced trading of the PENGU token, although others are expected to follow. Additionally, users will be able to trade PENGU through Solana-based decentralized exchanges, or DEXs.
While PENGU is not active yet, pre-market trading has already begun on platforms like Whales Market. At the time of writing, PENGU is trading at $0.05 on over $1 million in cumulative volume. At a price of $0.05, PENGU would have a fully diluted valuation of over $4.4 billion, placing it just inside the top 50 tokens by that metric, according to CoinGecko
Historically, pre-market trades are highly volatile and are not predictive of future price. However, sometimes they come pretty close to the mark, as seen with the ME token associated with the Magic Eden NFT marketplace.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
Editor’s note: This story was originally published on December 13, 2024. It was last updated with new details on December 16.
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