Fat Penguin Leads the Web3 Brand Trend: The Rise from NFT to a Diverse Ecosystem

Recently, a wave of profile picture trends centered around Pudgy Penguins has swept through the crypto community. Many well-known exchanges and NFT platforms have changed their official Twitter avatars to Pudgy Penguin-themed creations. It is worth noting that the 70-year-old asset management giant VanEck not only adopted the Pudgy Penguin avatar as early as 2024 but also made an appearance at the Nasdaq bell-ringing ceremony on June 23 this year with physical dolls, bringing Web3 IP to the mainstream financial stage.

This wave has significantly boosted the market performance of assets related to the Fat Penguin. As of July 17, the Fat Penguin ecosystem token $PENGU has surged over 216% in nearly a month, with its market cap once exceeding $2.8 billion. Meanwhile, the trading volume of Fat Penguin NFTs has increased to $13.726 million, a staggering 111% increase compared to the same period last month.

The Comprehensive Ecosystem of Fat Penguin

Since the downturn of the NFT market in 2022, Pudgy Penguins has not been constrained by market sentiment. Instead, leveraging its uniquely adorable penguin image, it has actively expanded IP licensing and commercial implementation, showcasing a successful case of brand building and cultural operation to the market. Today, Pudgy Penguins has evolved into a core brand of a diversified ecosystem, covering various fields including the Ethereum Layer 2 network Abstract based on ZK technology, gaming applications, MEME, NFT lottery platforms, as well as offline toys and consumer products.

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 accumulated approximately 2.5 million active users. These figures indicate that Pudgy Penguins is transforming into a truly scalable Web3 super IP with user scale effects, product commercialization capability, and on-chain infrastructure capability.

1. Physical Product Ecosystem

The Pudgy Toys series is one of the most successful commercial cases for the Pudgy Penguin. Since its initial launch in May 2023, Pudgy Toys has quickly risen to the top of Amazon's best-seller list, surpassing $10 million in sales, and successfully entering over 10,000 Walmart stores across the United States. The rich product line includes plush toys, dolls, and igloos, which not only meet consumer demand but also establish a revenue-sharing mechanism between NFTs and physical products, allowing Pudgy NFT holders to earn passive income from sales, providing a new commercial pathway for the NFT industry.

2. Game Section

The gaming sector is one of the key areas of focus for Pudgy Penguins. In May of this year, the 1V1 turn-based battle game, Pengu Clash, was launched in the TON ecosystem, attracting over 60,000 players in its first week. Another multiplayer survival adventure game, Pudgy Party, is scheduled for release in the summer of 2025, and its official Twitter account is nearing 100,000 followers. By continuously launching lightweight game content that aligns with users' social habits and entertainment needs, Pudgy Penguins is steadily expanding its IP influence and effectively attracting more users into its ecosystem.

3. Abstract Ecology

Abstract is the Ethereum Layer 2 network based on ZK-rollup technology jointly launched by the company behind Pudgy Penguins and its partners. It adopts a wallet solution that does not require mnemonic phrases and a user-centered design concept, aiming to lower user barriers and expand 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 the number of active users maintained in the range of 50K-200K. The network supports a diverse ecosystem including games related to Pudgy Penguins and NFT applications.

Popular projects in the ecosystem include:

• Abster: The official mascot MEME of Abstract, as of July 17, has a market value of 37.6M, currently making it the highest market cap MEME coin in the Fat Penguin ecosystem.

• Polly: The official token of the lottery project PollyPrize, users can participate in the platform's lottery activities by purchasing Polly tokens, with prizes including currently popular NFTs.

Future Development Potential

In the short term, there are three trends in the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem that are worth noting:

1. A certain asset management institution officially submitted an application to the SEC in March this year, intending to launch a spot ETF product based on $PENGU. If 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 of milestone significance but will also bring unprecedented institutional recognition to $PENGU.

2. The infrastructure Abstract is accelerating its improvement. The CEO of Pudgy Penguins has stated that Abstract is expected to launch its TGE by the end of this year. As the core infrastructure supporting various businesses such as Pudgy Penguins games, NFT interactions, and social applications, its token mechanism will provide stronger incentives and collaboration expectations for ecosystem participants after it is implemented.

3. The multiplayer survival adventure mini-game Pudgy Party is expected to launch this summer and has already garnered significant attention in the community. As the official launch of the game approaches, MEME characters such as Abster in the ecosystem are expected to achieve content linkage and gameplay integration within the game, further strengthening brand loyalty and enhancing the ecosystem's popularity.

The current Pudgy Penguins has far exceeded the scope of traditional NFT projects, evolving into a composite Web3 brand that encompasses IP, physical products, games, and infrastructure. Starting from the initial avatar IP, it gradually expands to offline consumer goods, light social games, Layer2 infrastructure, as well as MEME tokens and lottery platforms, creating a composite ecological closed loop that spans virtual and real, multi-chain and multi-scene. This is also the main reason why Pudgy Penguins has consistently maintained market activity despite the ongoing downturn in the NFT market.