Pudgy Penguins’ PENGU Token Climbs 13%, NFT Sales Drop 52%

Pudgy Penguins’ native token, PENGU, climbed 13% on Jan. 5, emerging as one of the top performers in the crypto market.

Nonfungible token (NFT) project Pudgy Penguins is continuing to make waves in early 2025, with its native token, PENGU, emerging as one of the best performers in the crypto market.

At the time of publication, PENGU was trading at $0.040, a 250% surge since its launch on Dec. 17. The token debuted with a market cap of $2.8 billion, which has since dipped to $2.5 billion, according to CoinGecko.

Some large holders are cashing out, taking advantage of the rally. Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain reported a new wallet withdrawing 84 million PENGU — worth $3.13 million — from Binance on Jan. 4.

However, Pudgy Penguins’ NFT sales have dropped by 52% in the last seven days, according to data from CryptoSlam.

“In just the first few days of 2025, Pudgy penguins had billions of GIF views, Telegram stickers experiment sold out in record time, hundreds of thousands of new penguins with actual stake in the game, viral Instagram and TikTok campaigns,” Berko Crypto, community lead at Pudgy Penguins, said on Jan. 3.

NFT sales may be declining, but thanks in part to its viral GIF and sticker strategy, Pudgy Penguins continues to capture public interest. The project recorded over 1.1 billion views for its stickers and GIFs in the first five days of January.

Related: Pudgy Penguins CEO unfazed by SEC actions against NFT sector

PENGU token’s expansion plans

PENGU currently operates on Solana but plans to expand to Ethereum and Abstract, an Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution developed by Igloo Inc. The token’s total supply is 88.88 billion, with 25.9% allocated for Pudgy Penguin NFT holders via airdrop claims.

While no official use case for PENGU has been confirmed, the token is expected to play a role in governance and potentially access exclusive perks within the ecosystem, according to Bybit.

Crypto trader Pentoshi teased the possibility of a future airdrop for PENGU holders:

“$PENGU holders to receive Abstract (potentially another 6 fig + airdrop). You may potentially qualify by getting the Pengu holder role and Pengu enjoyer roles in the Pudgy discord.”

Pudgy Penguin NFT sales slide

Despite the token’s rally, Pudgy Penguins’ NFT sales have declined steeply.

Over the past week, total sales dropped to $5.5 million — a 52% decrease since the previous week. NFT transactions fell by 51%, while buyers and sellers plummeted by 56% and 41%, respectively.

This week’s top NFT collections by sales show Pudgy Penguins’ 52% drop. Source: CryptoSlam

In comparison, Azuki, another leading Ethereum NFT collection, saw sales fall by 17.65%, while DMarket on Mythos bucked the trend with a 10.43% increase in sales.

Launched in 2021, Pudgy Penguins has grown to become the second-largest NFT collection by market cap, valued at $721 million, according to NFT Price Floor. Notably, the project has secured partnerships with retail giants Walmart and Target to stock Pudgy Penguins-licensed toys in-store, leading to more than one million toy sales.