Pudgy Penguins

Pudgy Penguins is a blockchain-based collection of digital artwork composed of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It is a collection of 8,888 unique NFTs launched on the Ethereum blockchain in August 2021. In December 2021, the original team released the companions to the Pudgy Penguins, Lil Pudgys which are the extension of the original collection, and make a cute and affordable entry into the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem. Lil Pudgys is a collection of 22,222 penguins; 8,888 claimable for free per Pudgy Penguin, and 13,334 sold in a public sale.

Established in July 2021, the organization was formed by a cohort of university students. In April 2022, Pudgy Penguins underwent acquisition by Luca Schnetzler for a sum of 750 ETH, equivalent to $2.5 million.

Luca and team announced in May 2023 that the Pudgy Penguin toy line would launch on Amazon, and quickly sold 20,000 toys in the first two days of sales. Each toy sold also came with a digital collectible. That announcement was followed a few days later by announcing a $9 million dollar fund raise led by early-stage investment firm 1kx—with support from Big Brain Holdings and Kronos Research, among others.

In September 2023, the Pudgy Penguin toy line was released in 2000 Walmart stores across the United States, and then on May 12, 2024 the Pudgy Penguin team announced that Pudgy Penguin toys would be coming to Target stores.