Fat Penguin is about to launch its token, is the spring of NFTs coming again?

Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

After a long absence from the bull market feast, the NFT sector has recently started to stir. First, yesterday Magic Eden opened the airdrop share query, and today the leading NFT in the ETH ecosystem, “Pudgy Penguins”, announced via Twitter its token issuance plan for this year.

Although specific dates and allocation details have not yet been announced, the general token distribution ratio has been released, with the largest share (25.9%) allocated to the Pudgy community; meanwhile, 24.12% is allocated to other communities, and even 0.35% is reserved for $FTT Holders.

According to community user @BTCThinker88, the airdrop scale for the $PENGU token is still considerable, with Pudgy Penguins holders expected to receive between $31,000 and $61,000 (7.9 ETH-15.8 ETH) each. If Abstract Chain also provides token distribution for the penguin community, this could become one of the largest airdrop events in 2024, following HYPE.

Indeed, the biggest benefit for projects is the ability to stimulate prices. As soon as the token issuance news was released, the floor prices of the Pudgy Penguins NFT series Pudgy Penguins and Lil Pudgys rose sharply: the floor price of Pudgy Penguins is currently reported at 18.55 ETH (approximately $72,600), while the floor price of Lil Pudgys is reported at 1.91 ETH (approximately $7,500), with a daily increase of nearly 20%, and trading volume increasing by 3-5 times.

NFT Rebound: Can Projects Seize the Trend to Thrive?

As the overall market continues to rise, excess funds have also flowed into the NFT ecosystem. According to Dune user @hildobby's data, the total sales of NFTs have started to warm up, with daily trading volume nearing $40 million and weekly trading volume exceeding $100 million.

Blue-chip NFTs are also showing impressive gains. According to OKX data, the floor prices and trading volumes of blue-chip NFTs on the ETH mainnet have seen significant increases over the past 30 days.

Some projects have ceased operations, while others continue to benefit from airdrops

During the bear market of the past two years, the NFT sector has faced significant challenges compared to altcoins. The once-glorious blue-chip NFTs like Bored Ape Yacht Club and Azuki encountered community FUD and large-holder sell-offs, causing prices to plummet to rock bottom. The market gradually lost its allure for NFTs, which became more of an "expected voucher" for future airdrops or mere commemorative tokens, with the vast majority of NFTs losing their utility as investment/speculative assets. Even some major projects were not spared; on December 3, the once-popular NFT brand RTFKT, which was even acquired by Nike, announced it would gradually cease operations as the crypto bull market approached, which was disheartening.

Aside from sporadic new project hotspots, only a few blue-chip projects have maintained relative heat, and the polarization among NFT projects has become increasingly severe: some blue-chip NFTs, even in a bear market, have performed well. Strong community projects like Milady, Pudgy Penguins, and Madlads have received substantial airdrops from various popular projects like Ethena ($ENA), Aethir ($ATH), Zksync ($ZK), and Wormhole ($W) this year, with the total value of the airdrops far exceeding the floor prices of the projects.

Staying Close to the Market is Clearly a Path Forward

From the existing distribution plan, the Pudgy Penguins community clearly understands the market, and the "customer acquisition" skills of this established top NFT are indeed impressive. Not only does the community allocation take the largest share, but they are also generous in distributing to other communities. This internal and external allocation plan accounts for half of the total token supply.

In addition to providing substantial allocations to the community, Pudgy Penguins, which originated on the ETH mainnet, has specifically chosen to issue tokens on Solana, which is currently the hottest platform. Indeed, whether in terms of liquidity or player sentiment, choosing the meme-crazy Solana for the cartoon NFT project Pudgy Penguins is undoubtedly a better choice for launching the project’s price.

How Are Other Old NFTs Doing?

Bored Ape Yacht Club

Current floor price: 20.7888 ETH

Historical highest average transaction price: 340 ETH

90-day average price: 14.21 ETH

90-day transaction volume: 20409 ETH

As one of the most prominent NFTs, BAYC has been criticized for not keeping up with the times during the bear market. Indeed, since the sky-high transactions and token issuances in 2021 and 2022, the Bored Ape series has not seen any further substantial innovation. In October this year, Apechain announced it would start its own Meme Pump, and BAYC's short-term trading volume increased accordingly, but as the hype faded, it fell back again, only recovering gradually as the sector warmed up recently.

Milady Maker

Current floor price: 6.53 ETH

Historical highest average transaction price: 7.11 ETH

90-day average price: 4.63 ETH

90-day transaction volume: 10756 ETH

Relatively low-key but with a strong community, Milady has recently maintained an upward trend, with the average floor price exceeding the level during Musk's token issuance of Milady-themed memes last May. Moreover, with ETH prices nearing $4,000, in USD terms, Milady's price has more than doubled compared to its previous peak.

Azuki

Current floor price: 6.1 ETH

Historical highest average transaction price: 40.77 ETH

90-day average price: 5.222 ETH

90-day transaction volume: 8026 ETH

Azuki's current floor price of 6.1 ETH is still a distance from the average price of 16 ETH during the community FUD and cliff-like drop in June 2023. Clearly, the current price cannot be considered a "recovery," but rather an increase along with the overall market rebound.

Mad Lads ------ Solana

Current floor price: 43.5 SOL

Historical highest average transaction price: 173.58 SOL

90-day average price: 45.47 SOL

90-day transaction volume: 59345 SOL

As a representative project of Solana, Mad Lads has also enjoyed various project airdrop benefits, with projects like Wormhole and Backpack allocating a considerable portion of airdrop shares to the Mad Lads community. Perhaps influenced by the overall downturn of the Solana NFT ecosystem, Mad Lads' price has been declining since its peak in March, but recently, as the market has improved, the price has rebounded.

Conclusion

Choosing to announce the token issuance on the most liquid Solana chain at a time when ETH breaks new highs and market sentiment is positive, the Pudgy Penguins' token issuance plan is strategically successful, and the market has clearly responded positively to this action.

From the price trends of $APE over the past few years, it can be seen that token issuance is not a universal remedy for NFT projects. To avoid token issuance becoming the last dance for project value realization, we need to observe the subsequent actions of the project parties regarding price and token use cases. However, one thing is certain: not only for NFT projects but for all old projects looking to revive, seizing trends and staying close to the market should be the main theme to follow in this bull market. For market participants, regardless of how much a project boasts, maintaining observation and making calm and well-informed investment decisions is the most important survival strategy in a bull market.