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 is launching a token. 

The news 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. 

While excitement swirls around the Pudgy Penguin ecosystem, find out everything you need to know about its upcoming token PENGU, which will soon be launching on Solana.

What is PENGU?

PENGU is the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem token that's set to launch on the Solana blockchain. It will have a total supply of 88.88 billion PENGU tokens, 25.9% of which are being set aside for members of the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem via an upcoming 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). 

Though the token will launch 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 does not have a formal release date, though it is expected soon. Official announcements from the Pudgy Penguins account on X indicate that it will be released by the end of 2024.

A number of copycat tokens are already being traded, attempting to dupe investors into buying an asset with the same or a similar name, but the real token isn't yet available as of this writing.

Who will get the PENGU airdrop?

More than 88 billion PENGU tokens will be circulating 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. 

Although specific ratios are not yet announced, it is expected that the largest allocation will be received by holders of the original Pudgy Penguins NFTs—which are most valuable by far—followed by Lil Pudgys and Rogs. 

Project lead Luca Netz confirmed that no snapshot will be taken to capture holders, and instead those holding the assets at the time of token generation will be granted access to PENGU. 

24.12% : Other Communities

The next largest bucket of PENGU tokens will be 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. 

Though the official communities have not been named, there's speculation that projects close to Pudgy Penguins, like the communities receiving exclusive roles in its Abstract Discord, would become eligible for the token. 

Netz did indicate that buyers of Pudgy Toys that interacted with its online Pudgy World gaming platform and collected “Pudgy Traits”—or attributes to equip 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. 

17.8%: Pudgy Penguins Team 

Pudgy Penguins ecosystem employees, current and former alike, will 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 will be 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. 

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

No details have been shared about how PENGU will be distributed, but users will have 88 days to claim the token once it is live, according to a post on X by Netz.

Pre-market trading

While PENGU is not yet live, pre-market trading has already begun on platforms like Whales Market. At the time of writing, PENGU is trading for $0.04 on more than $650,000 in lifetime volume. At a price of $0.04, PENGU would have a fully diluted valuation of more than $3.5 billion.

Historically, pre-market trading is highly volatile and not predictive of future pricing. However, it sometimes lands pretty close to the target, as seen with the ME token associated with NFT marketplace Magic Eden.

Edited by Andrew Hayward