The Fat Penguin Craze Sweeps the Encryption Circle: The Rise of NFTs and Diverse Ecological IPs

Recently, the encryption community has seen a surge in popularity for profile pictures themed around Pudgy Penguins. Many industry organizations have changed their official Twitter avatars to the Pudgy Penguin derivative images. A 70-year-old asset management company not only adopted the Pudgy Penguin avatar as early as 2024, but also brought physical dolls to NASDAQ to ring the bell this June, bringing Web3 IP into the mainstream financial sector. This trend has significantly boosted the price performance of Pudgy Penguin related assets. As of July 17, the Pudgy Penguin ecosystem token $PENGU has increased by over 216% in the past month, with a market cap briefly surpassing $2.8 billion. At the same time, the trading volume of Pudgy Penguin NFTs has risen to $13.726 million, an increase of 111% compared to last month.

Since the downturn of the NFT market in 2022, Pudgy Penguins has not been overwhelmed by market sentiment. On the contrary, it has actively engaged in IP licensing and commercial implementation, telling the world a story about brand building and cultural operations, relying on its unique and cute penguin image. Today, Pudgy Penguins has developed into the core brand of a diverse ecosystem. Its ecosystem includes not only the Ethereum Layer2 network Abstract built on ZK architecture but also integrates various scenarios such as gaming applications, MEME, NFT lottery platforms, offline toys, and consumer goods.

According to official data, as of July, Pudgy Penguins toy sales exceeded $10 million, the number of users in the gaming sector reached 60,000, and Abstract has approximately 2.5 million cumulative active users. These figures indicate that Pudgy Penguins is transforming into a true Web3 super IP with user scale effects, product commercialization capabilities, and on-chain infrastructure capabilities.

In terms of physical products, the Pudgy Toys series is the most successful commercial landing case. Since its initial release in May 2023, Pudgy Toys has quickly topped the best-seller list, with sales exceeding $10 million, and successfully entered over 10,000 major retail stores across the United States. The rich variety of designs, combined with the licensing revenue binding mechanism between NFTs and real products, provides a reference for commercialization paths for the entire NFT industry.

The gaming sector is also a key focus for Pudgy Penguins. In May of this year, the 1V1 turn-based battle game Pengu Clash was launched in a certain ecosystem, attracting over 60,000 players in its first week. In addition, the multiplayer survival adventure mini-game Pudgy Party, which is set to launch in the summer of 2025, is currently receiving a lot of attention, with its official Twitter followers nearing 100,000. By continuously introducing lightweight game content that aligns with users' social habits and entertainment needs, Pudgy Penguins is steadily expanding the reach of its IP.

Abstract is an Ethereum Layer 2 solution developed by the parent company of Pudgy Penguins using ZK-rollup technology, featuring a wallet solution that does not require mnemonic phrases and a user-centered design philosophy, aimed at lowering user barriers and expanding the popularity of consumer-level application scenarios. As of July 18, the TVL of the Abstract network reached 42.6M (a year-on-year increase of 533% since the beginning of the year), with active users maintaining between 50K and 200K. The network supports a diverse ecosystem including Pudgy Penguins related games, NFT applications, and more.

Popular projects in the ecosystem include Abster and Polly. Abster is the official mascot MEME of Abstract, and as of July 17, its market cap has risen to 37.6M, making it the highest market cap MEME coin in the Fat Penguin ecosystem. Polly is the official token of the lottery project PollyPrize, and users can participate in the platform's lottery activities by purchasing Polly tokens, with prizes being currently popular NFTs.

In the short term, there are three key trends in the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem worth noting. First, a cryptocurrency asset management firm officially submitted an application to the SEC in March of this year, proposing to launch a spot ETF product based on $PENGU. If this ETF is ultimately approved, it will become the world's first ETF product with an NFT project's native asset as the underlying asset, which is not only a milestone but will also bring unprecedented institutional recognition to $PENGU.

Secondly, the infrastructure Abstract is also being accelerated and improved. The CEO of Pudgy Penguins has publicly stated that Abstract is expected to launch its TGE by the end of this year. As the core infrastructure supporting the diverse businesses of Pudgy Penguins, including gaming, NFT interactions, and social applications, once the token mechanism of Abstract is implemented, it will provide stronger incentives and collaboration expectations for ecosystem participants.

Finally, the multiplayer survival adventure mini-game Pudgy Party is expected to launch this summer, and it has already garnered a lot of attention in the community. As the official launch of the game approaches, MEME characters like Abster within the ecosystem are expected to achieve content linkage and gameplay integration in the game, further strengthening brand stickiness and enhancing ecosystem popularity.

The current Pudgy Penguins has far surpassed the traditional NFT project scope, evolving into a complex Web3 brand that encompasses IP, physical products, games, and infrastructure. Starting from the initial avatar IP, it has successively expanded to offline consumer goods, light social games, ZK Layer2 infrastructure, and then to MEME tokens and lottery platforms, gradually building a complex ecological closed loop that spans virtual and real worlds, multiple chains, and various scenarios. This is also the main reason why Pudgy Penguins has maintained market activity amid the ongoing downturn in the NFT market.