[TL; DR]
-
The Pudgy Penguin NFT #6873 fetched 400 ETH on the market.
-
-
There are 8, 888 Pudgy Penguin NFTs in the collection.
-
-
The NFTs have 150 traits which include bowl cuts, glasses, hats, a mohawk, crown, and scarves.
-
-
Currently, the Pudgy Penguin NFT holders sell the tokens on the secondary market.
These days people use blockchain based products such as non-fungible tokens in other spheres of life other than on the digital ledger. An important example is that of profile picture (PFP) non-fungible tokens which they use on centralized social media platforms such as Discord, Twitter and Facebook. Social media fanatics use such NFTs from several collections including Meebits, World of Women, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Pudgy Penguins and Hashmask.
Reason for people to use PFP NFTs
Community members, companies and celebrities are the ones that mainly use PFP NFTs to create certain impressions. For example, celebrities may use specific PFP NFTs such as Pudgy Penguin as a way of showing their affiliation to the project. Others use them to show that they are wealthy. People such as celebrities buy very expensive PFP NFTs which ordinary people cannot afford. Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg are examples of celebrities who use PFP NFTs.
Although some people buy the PFP NFTs to show how affluent they are, others purchase them for speculative purposes. In other words, they buy and hold them, waiting for their values to rise. Then, they will sell them for profit.
In response to this development, Twitter is working flat out to introduce a mechanism which can verify if the PFP NFT an individual is using is actually his/hers. However, Twitter will not just focus on Pudgy Penguin PFP NFTs, but others such as CryptoPunks.
Therefore, the prestige and speculative motives for acquiring and holding PFP NFTs explain why their values can significantly rise over a short period, like what happened to the rarest Pudgy Penguin #6873.
Pudgy Penguin fetches 400 ETH
In spite of the long bearish market, a rare Pudgy Penguin NFT sold for 400 ETH, worth about $650,000 in terms of fiat money at the time of sale. This Pudgy Penguin NFT #6873 is one of the rarest in the collection, with its unique traits shared by only 0.01 of the other NFTs.
According to the data on Opensea, the seller of this NFT purchased it on 8 September 2021 at a cost of 225 ETH, worth $788,000 at that time. In terms of ETH, the seller made profit, but in terms of fiat money he/she had a loss of about $$159,995. Nevertheless, this is the largest sum in terms of ETH, a single Pudgy Penguin NFT has fetched.
This is not surprising considering that Pudgy Penguin NFTs are the most sought after PFP NFTs since their inception in June 2021. There are a few traits that make the NFT#6873 stand out from the rest of NFTs in the collection. It is the only Pudgy Penguin NFT with a green background and facing the opposite side as the others. The current owner of this NFT is an individual identifiable by the Twitter handle
@KinkyBedBugs. He is a strong fanatic of Pudgy Penguin NFTs and the project.
Other factors that enhanced the rise in price of Pudgy Penguins
In order to understand the price resurgence of the Pudge Penguin NFTs, we need to explore some past events. First, the price of these NFTs was negatively affected by wrangles in the project team which led to the ousting of one of the founding members, Cole Villemain. The main reason for his ousting is that he managed a paid NFT promotion where he received payment without telling the rest of the team. He was removed from the team alongside other members.
From that time, the prices of the NFTs averaged around 2.2 ETH. However, following an acquisition that took place in April 2022, there were several developments which increased the values of the NFTs. For example, Pudgy Penguin introduced an NFT marketplace, a media hub and a toy line, among others. These created upward price momentum on the NFTs resulting in a jump of the average price from 2.2 ETH to 3.8 ETH, representing a 69% increase.
The other reason for the bullish momentum of the collection is the introduction of a new advisory team. In fact, Pudgy Penguin incorporated nine advisors including Nansen’s Alex Svanevik and Jordan Sterling who formerly worked with the Meta’s Venture Capital team.
After the team posted information about the new advisory board, the prices of the Pudgy Penguin NFTs started to increase.
What are Pudgy Penguins?
Pudgy Penguins is a collection of 8, 888 NFTs based on the Ethereum blockchain. Currently, a total of 4,491 individuals own these ERC-721 tokens. Each Pudgy Penguin NFT in the collection is completely unique, although they share some traits. The reason is that they are randomly generated from 150 traits, most of which are hand-drawn. Examples of the traits are bowl cuts, glasses, hats, a mohawk, crown, and scarves.
The Pudgy Penguin NFT project was launched on 22 July 2021. The founders are Mrtubby, Mickyj, Jonah and Cole. However, people came to know about them later on because they remained anonymous for some time. These members earn royalties every time buyers pay for each NFT.
How to buy the Penguin Tokens?
Currently, all the Pudgy Penguin tokens exist on the secondary market. This is because they are in the hands of people who purchased them already.The current owners sell them on their terms which include bidding for them. Therefore, only the highest bidders get them. OpenSea is the most popular marketplace for Pudgy Penguin NFTs.
Conclusion
The rarest Pudgy Penguin NFT #6873 was purchased for 400 ETH by a person with a Twitter handle @KinkyBedBugs. There are a total of 8, 888 Pudgy Penguin NFTs which people sell in the secondary market. Buyers acquire them for prestige and speculative motives.
Author:
Mashell C., Gate.io Researcher
This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.