- Pudgy Penguins concluded its PENGU token claim on Solana early, burning 13.69% of the total supply valued at over US$150M.
- The airdrop ended abruptly due to “low legitimate” claims, with the project lead accusing bots of trying to harvest unclaimed tokens.
- Shortly after, PENGU’s price dropped over 14% within 24 hours post-burn, falling to US$0.0117 and dropping out of the top 100 tokens by market cap.
Web3 project Pudgy Penguins concluded its PENGU token claim on Solana this Wednesday after burning all remaining unclaimed tokens —approximately 13.69% of the total supply— valued at over US$150M (AU$238M) at the time of the burn.
Although the original claim period was set to end on March 9, the team advanced the deadline, giving users just five additional days to claim their PENGU.
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According to Pudgy Penguin’s project lead, Luca Netz, the expedited timeline was due to most Pudgy Penguins NFT holders already claiming their tokens, and adding that the rest are just bots:
Only people claiming here are Bots that have no interest in being [a] part of the ecosystem. 95% of penguins have claimed. Makes no sense to keep it open if the data says that the only people claiming today are bots who are running scripts for the 8m eligible wallets.
Luca Netz, Pudgy Penguin Project LeadShortly after the announcement, 10% of the remaining airdrop supply was claimed, leaving over 12 billion PENGU tokens unclaimed. These tokens were transferred from an address labeled “Pudgy Penguins Airdrop” on Solana’s block explorer, Solscan, to the Solana burn address known as “1nc1nerator”, effectively removing them from circulation.
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The token burning actually did the opposite of what it intended to. Instead of boosting the price due to scarcity, the token has plummeted by over 14% in the past 24 hours, falling to US$0.0117 (AU$0.019).
This took the coin out of the top 100 tokens by market capitalisation. The PENGU token is also down over 70% from its all-time high of US$0.057 (AU$0.091) in December 2024.
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Meanwhile, Pudgy Penguins’ parent company, Igloo Inc., announced plans to attract new capital to PENGU and Pudgy Penguins NFTs by increasing institutional interest. But users are just not buying it. The broader NFT ecosystem has been on a downward spree for years now, with the Pudgy Penguins NFT collection dropping 14% over the past week, reaching a floor price of $29,840, as per CoinGecko data.
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