Pudgy Penguins’ PENGU Token and NFTs Plummet 50% Following Airdrop

by

As a seasoned researcher with years of experience in the dynamic world of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, I can’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu when observing the recent Pudgy Penguins saga. The initial excitement surrounding the launch of the PENGU token on Solana was palpable, reminding me of the gold rush days of the crypto market. However, the swift and significant drop in both the token’s price and the floor price of the associated NFT collection is a stark reminder that not every ride ends happily ever after.

On Tuesday, the native token of the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem, called PENGU, debuted on the Solana blockchain, propelling it into the ranks of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. This exciting event made millions of NFT holders and traders eligible for an airdrop.

Despite the initial excitement, PENGU’s price has fallen sharply throughout the day. 

Pudgy Penguins NFT Suffers From the PENGU Airdrop Craze

Initially, PENGU was priced at $0.068 upon launch, but as of now, it has plummeted by 57%. This substantial decrease indicates a massive sell-off in the market. Interestingly enough, the Pudgy Penguins NFT collection also showed a comparable downtrend.

As reported by CoinGecko, the floor price of the collection dropped to 17.2 ETH, despite a substantial increase of 258% in daily sales. It seems that numerous users who had actively purchased Pudgy Penguins NFTs over the past few weeks with the aim of qualifying for the PENGU airdrop are now selling their NFTs.

The sell-off has been widespread. Following PENGU’s launch on Binance, over 20% of the token supply has already been liquidated, amounting to approximately $9.3 million. The remaining tokens hold a value of $37.7 million.

The initial backers of the project are offloading significant amounts of their holdings within the blockchain! To date, approximately 8.74 million dollars’ worth of PENGU tokens have been sold. Yesterday, the address HoTdB…YL8YZ received 888 million tokens from the token deployment address prior to the airdrop claim, and in the last hour, they sold 169 million tokens at roughly $0.05164 each, as reported by an on-chain analyst on platform X (previously known as Twitter).

Quick cashing out of profits from airdrops is usual, but PENGU’s rapid drop has been striking. If the selling pressure lessens and trading normalizes, its price might eventually find a solid base.

This steep decline follows a comparable pattern with the MOVE token from Movement Network, which experienced a 50% drop the previous week following its listing on Binance.

Magic Eden’s ME token, which was just launched, has encountered similar difficulties. In the immediate aftermath of an airdrop, about 8 out of every 10 recipients promptly sold their entire holdings, leading to a significant decrease in its value.

Even though its value is decreasing, PENGU still boasts a market capitalization exceeding 1.8 billion dollars. However, the market cap for Magic Eden’s ME token is notably lower at approximately 400,000 dollars.

Currently, Binance is under close examination due to its practice of listing tokens from airdrops and meme coins with low market capitalization. These listings frequently trigger massive initial sales, which raise concerns about pump-and-dump schemes. In recent times, the leading cryptocurrency exchange has faced criticism for allowing such situations to occur.

Read More

2024-12-18 13:03