Mega-popular NFT collection without owners bought by crypto community

First of all, it is a story of ups and downs. Pudgy Penguins was an extremely successful NFT project, but its popularity came to naught after the founding owners were literally exiled. Recently, the community of people who bought the tokens a year ago has become more active. Not least thanks to the new owners, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

According to NonFungible, the NFT penguin collection became incredibly popular last summer, right after its launch. In the fall, prices and demand for them dropped because the owners of Pudgy Penguins were dissatisfied with the way the founding team was developing the project. In the end, the virtual community voted to expel the founders, which led them to put the project up for sale and leave. So much for collective management.

Now Penguins has new owners. on April 1, the project was bought for 750 broadcasts (about $ 2.4 million in current prices) by a group of mostly anonymous buyers. The team is headed by Luca Netz and Drew Cowen (the latter is a co-director of LDR Ventures). Cowen was the vice president of Guess Jeans, head of e-commerce at Steve Madden, and marketing director of the Melissa & Doug toy brand, and is now trying to relaunch one of the most famous NFT collections.

The blizzard has passed, and the snow is settling. The Huddle has shown its resilience. It’s time to waddle to the promised land.

We’re ready to announce the worst kept secret in Web3. Our next chapter has begun: new team, new roadmap, new heights.

Penguins, our time is #NOW? pic.twitter.com/IqcG697ULW

— Pudgy Penguins (@pudgypenguins) April 3, 2022

The project’s Twitter account, which has 59,800 followers, leaves playful hints about the possible distribution of some tokens, and the owners promise a «new development roadmap.»

Recently, Luka Netz spoke about his ambitions to create Pudgy Penguins toys in the context of getting them on Walmart shelves, as well as producing branded clothing and games. So far, these are just promises, but there are those who believe them — over the past week, the minimum price of Pudgy Penguins has jumped by 170%. According to NonFungible, on April 5, Pudgy Penguins' daily sales jumped to $ 2.95 million, but in two days it quadrupled to $ 700,000. So, the fate of those who do not believe in the passionate speeches of the new leaders is also significant enough to influence the token price.

After all, with new NFT collections appearing every day, it is much easier to plan a revival than to achieve it. According to DappRadar, the market for non-fungible tokens has fallen sharply since January: trading volume on the world’s largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, has dropped by 67%.

It will be extremely interesting to observe the development of events, because on the one hand, there is a well-known NFT collection with a solid fan base and the project is managed by people with experience, not newbies. Besides, the project is quite media-oriented. On the other hand, success requires a lot of factors to coincide, and the competition has increased over the past year, to put it mildly. We will monitor the situation and keep you updated!