Pudgy Penguins, the lovable NFT collection featuring charming penguin characters, has officially overtaken the iconic Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) to become the second-largest NFT collection by market capitalization.
This milestone follows a remarkable surge in Pudgy Penguins’ floor price, which jumped 8.4% in the last 24 hours, reaching 22.1 ETH ($86,922). Over the past week, the price skyrocketed by nearly 45%, pushing its market cap to an impressive $772.5 million, surpassing BAYC’s $755 million.
While CryptoPunks remains the largest NFT collection with a market cap of $1.5 billion, Pudgy Penguins’ rise is undeniable.
The surge in Pudgy Penguins’ value comes after the recent announcement of an upcoming official token airdrop. The project plans to launch its crypto token, “Pengu,” on the Solana blockchain this month. With a total supply of 88.8 billion tokens, the Pudgy community will receive 25.9% of the total supply, further boosting excitement around the project.
Despite a slowdown in the NFT market compared to its 2022 highs, the last week has shown signs of recovery. Ethereum-based NFTs saw a notable trading volume of $91 million between December 1-8, with Pudgy Penguins emerging as a leader, gaining 34.3% in value during this time. The collection outperformed other top NFTs, including CryptoPunks and Mutant Ape Yacht Club, which also showed positive growth.
This success is part of Pudgy Penguins’ broader transformation under new leadership. After being acquired by Luca Netz, the brand expanded its reach through major retail partnerships and ventured into NFT gaming. With the promise of innovations, Pudgy Penguins is proving it’s here to stay in the ever-evolving NFT space.
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