The Pudgy Penguins NFT collection is keeping Web3 hopes afloat in a sea of dead NFT projects and a generally muted collectibles market.
The nonfungible token set became the world’s second-most expensive NFT on Wednesday, with the minimum (or minimum) value of one of the 8,888 comic penguins topping $100,000 and raising the cost of the collections above its comic ape precursor, the Bored Apes Yacht. Club.
That means buying a single NFT now costs more than a bitcoin, which currently trades at just over $100,000.
The value of the land has increased by 76% in the last seven days to over 26 ether (ETH), or just over $105,000. Bored Apes and CryptoPunks, the most popular NFTs, fell 12% in the same period.
Demand for the NFTs surged after a CoinDesk exclusive on Pudgy Penguin’s plans to release a PENGU token on the Solana blockchain later this month. The token allocation strategy includes a substantial share for existing NFT holders, which may have incentivized current owners to hold or increase their investments, driving up demand.
Nearly a quarter (23. 5%) of the 88 billion PENGU tokens will be reserved for owners of the project’s NFT collections, such as Pudgy Penguins, Lil Pudgys, and Pudgy Rods. Another 22% will go to the Solana and Ethereum communities, and 12% will be set aside to supply liquidity to decentralized exchanges.
In the NFT market position, the land value is the cheapest price of an NFT within an express series. The NFT owner sets it based on market position forces, such as demand or the rarity of the collectible’s features. The floor remains in position until a lower floor is laid.
This is different from the general token or stock market, where demand and origin automatically replace values every second, rather than a single holder deciding the minimum value of an asset.
Pudgy Penguins came into existence in 2021. Each penguin is hand-drawn and features distinctive traits such as backgrounds, body, face, head and skin.
The collection has managed to expand its presence beyond virtual collectibles to physical and conventional brands.
Parent company Igloo introduced Pudgy Toys last year, a line of virtual art collecting toys. Since then, the company has sold more than $10 million worth of collectible igloos and plush toys to primary retailers such as Walmart, Target, Amazon and Walgreens.