Nearly three years ago, the token (NFT) brand Pudgy Penguins-now is expected to end in the year with $ 50 million in income.
CEO and owned Luca Schnetzler (better known as Luca Netz) built a fortune through Instagram before the toy industry breaks. In the world of blockchain, he is among the largest pudgy Penguins holders, but like many in the community, he is not satisfied with the performance of the collection price. In April 2022, the project was at low time. He decided to strike, get the parent Igloo for $ 2.5 million in Ether (Eth).
But soon, Netz has some difficult options to do. The Terra’s fall in May 2022 Sparks a long bear market. NFT assets Tanked in valueIt is threatening to fail Netz’s acquisition.
In a recent -only interview with Cointelegraph, Netz explained his thinking on time: “This company will run out of money in six months if I don’t start making real money, and it’s clear that I’m not going to make any web3 money … Physical products are the only thing I know to do.”
Netz has expanded his NFT business in the physical toy industry to expand the path. At first, it was enough “to pay the bill,” but it was scaled with a multimillion-dollar cow.
Meanwhile, a physical collectibles craze avoids digital assets, which sets collections such as pudgy penguins for the next NFT advances.
Pudgy Penguins is Netz’s next Instagram in the midst of NFT struggles
Netz told his story many times. His family struggles to find stability during his childhood. He often moved, who did a high school failure and eventually pushed him to look for opportunities outside of school.
According to Netz, he did his first million in the age of 18 through a drop-shipping business in Shopify, who sells jewelry that he promoted through Instagram fan pages of popular hip hop artists. He went to become a gel blaster marketing officer, a toy gun that shoots water gel pellets sold in large boxes stores like Walmart.
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When NFT revenues and the larger blockchain ecosystem spiral, Netz relies on the background of his consumer products in Expand Pudgy Penguin in a physical toy brand.
At this time, it’s just enough to keep the company on the financial side, but it also grows in a broader cultural brand.
“Toys are a high income but low-profit-margin business. Today, we have made millions of dollars selling toys, but we have been stabbed here,” Netz said.
“At this time, we need it to pay the bill and keep the company without having to close or ask the community the money.”
Most cryptocurrency projects build communities on social media platforms familiar to the industry, such as X, Discord and Telegram. Instagram, a platform known for visuals, is often deported by crypto projects. To Netz, it doesn’t “make sense.” Pudgy Penguins are also on the average social channel, but Netz has put a bigger focus on Instagram than most other projects.
“When I go to Walmart or Target, (they don’t appreciate) large crypto numbers such as the NFT Market cap, price or quantity,” he said. “The thing that actually moved the needle with traditional brands in terms of getting a big box distribution is social media.”
Like Monday, Pudgy Penguins has 1.9 million Instagram followers and 728,100 on X.
Pudgy penguins shine as collectives breathe life to nft
It has a brand of social media and a toy line, but at its core, Pudgy Penguins is an NFT project. The NFT market has been declared dead by many media outlets on many occasions. According to Dappradar, NFT trading volume Continue to fall even after the supposed death under $ 1 billion in the second quarter of 2025.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BayC), for example, acquired supporting the Global celebrities and public numbers During its climax as it rose to a peak floor price of 153 ETH in May 2022, days before Terra collapsed. The collection fell to a 13.44-eth floor price.
Cryptopunks are the leading NFT collection today when measured by market capitalization, with a floor price of 52.97 ETH. It reached a full time high 125 ETH on August 29, 2021, then reached 124 ETH on October 18 of that year, just weeks before the FTX Fiasco.
But recently, the excitement for NFTs has climbed back, with collections such as cryptopunks and Moonbirds recording sales and trade spikes.
It came along with an increasing popularity of collectivity. Online resale eBay, on call to income of Q2, reported A 6% bump income to $ 2.7 billion, which relates to its success in increasing interest in collectivity, such as Pokémon cards.
“Pokémon is hot right now. You can buy a Pokémon card a week, and after two weeks later, it’s worth double. It’s discouraged,” Netz said.
“That is a great signal to me that people start the kind of explores in collectivities again. When the physical collectivs are well, the digital collectibs follow.”
Labubu Frenzy is similarly caught in the world by storm. These cute and frustrating creatures have been collected fashion accessories, made special with mystery packaging (blind boxes) to attract repeated purchases. A rare Labubu has been reported to be sold for $ 10,500 on eBay.
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Digital collectibles follow. The courtyard, a blockchain platform where users can access tokenized physical collectiv, is among the top NFT projects this year. This includes a vending machine feature where users can buy booster packs, such as Pokémon and sports cards, for random draws and have the opportunity to hit gold, such as the mysterious boxes of Labubu.
“In the last four years, this is the most promised,” Netz said of the NFT Market momentum. “All I have to do is, when the retailer enters, there is nothing more fun in the crypto than the NFTs’ collection and collecting. I always believe that,” he added.
Pudgy penguins want to be crypto mascot beyond nft
Pudgy Penguin wants to be a mascot for crypto. This Launched a Memecoin based in Solana, PenguIn December 2024, distributed by a $ 1.5-billion airdrop.
The token cratered in price in the first weeks after the launch but since the recovery, backed in momentum from the larger pudgy penguin brand, NFTs and even a funds exchanged by the exchange (ETF) Canary’s application. Netz sees pudgy penguins expanding as a franchise throughout the crypto ecosystems.
“Arches; Penguins,” said Netz, drawing inspiration from “the founder“ A biographical film based on McDonald’s Ray Kroc, while describing a future with Pudgy Penguins assets in the ETFs and wealth of companies.
The NFT market is still far from the 2021 climax, and previous eruptions of enthusiasm quickly faded. Meanwhile, digital collectibles with physical counterparts are rising as one of the few segments showing a similar growth in a non -stagnant NFT market.
The Pudgy Penguins toy line and Social Reach have maintained the brand life where most NFT projects fade, but the market growing from is still fragile. For Netz, the stakes are that the construction of a cultural brand will appear the blockchain cycles that almost kill it.
“It ended working in our favor because, as everyone exploded and the crypto projects were taking their communities millions -million, we built the brand the right way when nothing else was done,” Netz said.
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