Pudgy Penguins Burns $150M in Tokens, Price Stagnates Amidst Institutional Push

Generated by AI AgentCoin World
Wednesday, Feb 5, 2025 5:52 pm ET1min read
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The Pudgy Penguins project, a popular NFT collection, recently concluded its token claim period on the Solana blockchain. The team initially planned to keep the claim period open until March 9 but expedited the process due to a majority of NFT owners already claiming their PENGU tokens. Project leader Luca Netz announced the change on January 30, citing data that showed most remaining claims were made by bots rather than genuine community members.

Upon the claim period's closure on February 5, only about 10% of the remaining airdrop supply was claimed. The Pudgy Penguins team then transferred the unclaimed PENGU tokens to the Solana burn address, effectively removing them from the supply. This action resulted in the destruction of approximately 13.69% of the total PENGU supply, valued at over $150 million at the time.

Despite the significant supply reduction, which often boosts a token's price due to scarcity considerations, the PENGU price has not rebounded as expected. The token is currently trading at $0.0117, down nearly 8% in the last 24 hours, and remains below the price at the time of the burn. Additionally, PENGU has fallen outside the top 100 tokens by market cap according to CoinGecko.

Last week, Pudgy Penguins' parent company, Igloo Inc., announced plans to boost institutional interest in PENGU and Pudgy Penguins NFTs to bring new inflows to the ecosystem. However, the Ethereum NFT collection's floor price has fallen to $29,860, marking an 11% decrease over the past week.

The Pudgy Penguins team's decision to burn unclaimed tokens illustrates a tactical pivot in response to market dynamics and user engagement. While the immediate aftermath has not yielded the desired price rebound, the long-term implications of supply reduction and institutional interest could reshape investor sentiment. As the project navigates these challenges, maintaining transparent communication with its community will be essential to fostering trust and encouraging future engagement.