After amassing more than 50 billion social media views and placing toys on shelves in Walmart and Target stores across the country, Ethereum NFT project Pudgy Penguins has launched a token.
News of the planned token launch sent the Pudgy Penguins floor price skyward, breaching $100,000 and becoming the second largest profile picture (PFP) project in all of NFTs.
“A founder’s job in crypto is to maximize for optimal excitement,” said Pudgy Penguins IP owner Luca Netz in a video interview with crypto personality ThreadGuy.
Now the token is live as of today, December 17. Here’s everything you need to know about PENGU on Solana, the tokenomics, and how eligible users can claim it.
What is PENGU?
PENGU is the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem token that’s now live on the Solana blockchain. It has a total supply of 88.88 billion PENGU tokens, 25.9% of which are set aside for members of the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem via an airdrop claim.
“By launching PENGU on Solana, Pudgy Penguins grows by reaching an entirely new audience,” said Igloo Inc, the Pudgy Penguin parent company on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Over the last 3 years, Pudgy Penguins has become the face of crypto.
Sitting in millions of households worldwide, garnering millions of followers, and amassing over 50 billion views, Pudgy Penguins has cemented itself in the hearts and minds of everyday people and culture. pic.twitter.com/Uz2I2K5di1
— Pudgy Penguins (@pudgypenguins) December 6, 2024
Though the token first launched on Solana, it will eventually expand to Ethereum and Abstract, the consumer-focused Ethereum layer-2 scaling network being built by Igloo Inc.
To Netz, the PENGU token offers the millions of Pudgy Penguin fans around the world to better connect with the brand, suggesting that tokenization at its core is “alignment.”
When is PENGU dropping?
PENGU launched as planned on December 17, 2024. Official links and claim details will only be shared and announced from the Pudgy Penguins account on X.
A number of copycat tokens were created and traded ahead of the launch, attempting to dupe investors into buying an asset with the same or a similar name. With the official PENGU live now, though, it should be more obvious which token is the real one when it comes to buying from exchanges.
Who will get the PENGU airdrop?
More than 88 billion PENGU tokens have been minted on the Solana blockchain, split among a handful of holder categories as outlined by the Pudgy Penguins announcement.
Decrypt has reached out to Pudgy Penguins to gain additional clarity on details related to its token distribution. Numbers below are estimates based on an informational graphic 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.
Owners of the main Pudgy Penguins NFTs reportedly received an allocation of just over 1.7 million PENGU, while Lil Pudgy owners received over 188K PENGU, and Pudgy Rod holders received between 105K and nearly 195K tokens depending on rarity level.
Project lead Luca Netz confirmed that no snapshot was taken to capture holders, and instead those holding the assets at the time of token generation will be granted access to PENGU. Unsurprisingly, Pudgy NFT prices plummeted once the token claims opened; any NFTs up for sale have probably already been used in the airdrop, and can’t be used again to claim more PENGU.
24.12% : Other Communities
The next largest bucket of PENGU tokens has been set aside for other communities in Web3 and potentially beyond, with an expectation of acquiring 5 million new members of the Pudgy Penguin community, according to the announcement graphic.
Communities that were offered the “Elite” role in the Abstract Discord are also eligible for a PENGU claim, 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 buyers of Pudgy Toys that interacted with its online Pudgy World gaming platform and collected “Pudgy Traits”—or attributes to equip to their virtual Penguins—would be eligible for PENGU as well. Owners of Pudgy Toys can gain access to Pudgy World by scanning a QR code that came with their toy. After scanning the code, users are instructed to “collect the traits and wait for Abstract bridge to go live,” according to Netz.
17.8%: Pudgy Penguins team
Pudgy Penguins ecosystem employees, current and former alike, take the third-largest slice of PENGU, receiving nearly 18% of the token pursuant to a one-year cliff and a three-year vesting period. During token distributions, a cliff typically disables the ability for a user to sell or transfer any tokens.
12.35% : Liquidity pools
A portion of the PENGU supply has been set aside to create sufficient liquidity for active trading of the token.
11.48%: Company
Igloo Inc., the Pudgy Penguins parent company, will receive 11.48% of the PENGU token, subject to the same one-year cliff and three-year vest that Pudgy Penguin employees received.
4% : Public Good
Four percent of the PENGU token supply is set aside for public good efforts. Though not officially described, Pudgy Penguins has undertaken public good initiatives during the last 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 set aside for efforts to expand the Pudgy Penguins brand, potentially through listings with centralized exchanges or brand marketing efforts.
As part of the launch on Binance, 3% of the PENGU supply will be airdropped to participants of Binance’s HODLer program.
0.35%: FTT Holders
The smallest allocation of the PENGU token is set aside for FTT token holders. FTT is the native token of the infamous FTX exchange, which filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations following its November 2022 collapse.
The token saw a brief spike to nearly $4 on the day of the PENGU announcement—a nearly one-year price peak—but has since retraced. No official holding criteria has been shared at this time.
How to claim PENGU
Pudgy Penguins has shared claim details via X, and users have 88 days to claim the token—until March 15, 2025. Any unclaimed PENGU will be permanently locked, effectively removed from the circulating supply.
Where can you trade PENGU?
PENGU went live for spot trading on the centralized crypto exchanges Binance, OKX, and Bybit, with more expected to join the fray. Additionally, users can trade PENGU via Solana-based decentralized exchanges, or DEXs.
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 17. This story was originally written by Logan Hitchcock ahead of the PENGU launch, but any post-launch updates were made by Andrew Hayward.
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