The New Cultural Narrative of the Encryption World: The Rise of the Fat Penguin

Recently, a special avatar trend has emerged in the encryption community. Many well-known projects have changed their social media avatars to cute chubby penguin images. This seemingly fun interaction actually reflects a collective recognition of the long-termism spirit and brand strategy of Pudgy Penguins, while also showcasing the accelerating trend of grassroots experiments in encryption moving toward mainstream culture.

The Rise of the Fat Penguin Again: The Secret of the "Rebirth" of the Small Image

Recently, Pudgy Penguins has sparked a wave of profile picture trends in the mainstream encryption community. Several heavyweight institutions in the industry, including a well-known exchange, an NFT trading platform, and multiple fintech companies, have successively changed their official social media profile pictures to the remixed images of Pudgy Penguins.

This is not the first time Pudgy Penguins has attracted such widespread attention. As early as the end of last year, when Pudgy Penguins completed a large-scale airdrop aimed at the community, it had already triggered a wave of profile picture changes. On April 26, World Penguin Day, Pudgy Penguins' official team released a commemorative poster, receiving responses from several well-known institutions once again.

The reason behind many encryption projects changing their avatars is not merely because the chubby penguin has a cute and appealing visual style, but more importantly, it reflects the recognition of the constructive narrative and long-term culture behind it, as well as support for the rise of encryption elite entrepreneurs. It is worth noting that many founders in the encryption field are themselves holders of chubby penguin NFTs.

Compared to other NFT projects that have risen to fame due to speculative trends, the key to Pudgy Penguins' successful business transformation lies in its clear strategic planning, strong operational capabilities, and narrative-building skills. Since the NFT market entered a bear market in 2022, Pudgy Penguins has not been constrained by market sentiment; instead, it has actively engaged in IP licensing and commercial implementation based on its unique and adorable penguin image, telling an exciting story about brand building, cultural operations, and long-termism.

Its core operators demonstrate vision and rich resources, and their brand management and operational methods are more in line with the aesthetics of traditional markets, which largely distinguishes them from the insider thinking of many NFT project founders.

Pudgy Penguins has launched a series of physical toys through partnerships with several well-known retailers, surpassing some traditional strong IPs in sales. At the same time, they have collaborated with top entertainment agencies and children's book publishers to continuously expand derivative content. In addition, they have developed a range of gaming products, creating a long-term brand building cycle through a high-recognition aesthetic language, combining offline toys, e-commerce, social content, IP licensing, and actively penetrating mainstream culture.

They also created viral spread through mainstream social platforms and participated in high-end auctions and exhibitions in Times Square, New York, significantly increasing brand exposure and public awareness. This multidimensional marketing and communication strategy has helped Pudgy Penguins continuously expand their global influence, with the active audience size rapidly growing to millions. As of July this year, the global audience for Pudgy Penguins has reached 87.4 million, and it is expected to approach or exceed the target of 100 million by the end of the year.

The operational style adopted by Pudgy Penguins, which resembles that of traditional enterprises, has broken the stereotype of speculation dominating the NFT and the entire encryption market, showcasing the real value and extensibility of Web3 brands to the traditional world, attracting the attention of an increasing number of traditional institutions.

Cross-Border Finance: Opening the Doors to Mainstream Markets

The brand imagination of Pudgy Penguins is not limited to IP storytelling. A cute penguin character that was originally only active in the encryption community has surprisingly appeared on the stage of the traditional financial market. The driving force behind this cross-border breakthrough is a well-established investment management company.

In June of last year, this investment firm unexpectedly changed its social media avatar to Pudgy Penguins and publicly stated this was because "the boss thought it was too cute." This was not only a light-hearted and humorous cultural interaction but also indicated that traditional financial giants are actively embracing native encryption IPs.

Subsequently, the investment company not only used the image of the fat penguin in its Ethereum ETF promotional video but also collaborated with Pudgy Penguins to ring the opening bell on NASDAQ when launching the DAPP ETF product. This marks the first time a Web3 native IP has entered the global capital market stage, bringing unprecedented brand exposure to Pudgy Penguins and symbolizing its official recognition in the financial sector.

The reason this investment firm supports Pudgy Penguins seems to be a strategy of leveraging publicity. On platforms aimed at traditional investors and mainstream media, they introduced the event in a relatively neutral and objective tone, emphasizing its encryption layout. Meanwhile, on platforms active in the crypto community, they adopted a relatively low-key promotional approach.

More groundbreaking is that the path for Pudgy Penguins to advance to financial products is now opening up. Currently, an exchange has submitted application documents for the Canary PENGU ETF to the SEC in the United States, which will directly hold assets from the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem. If the review goes smoothly, PENGU will become the first US ETF product to directly hold MEME or NFT, gradually becoming a core allocation target in mainstream investment portfolios.

Currently, the market sentiment for Pudgy Penguins has been driven up, and its ecosystem has also risen in response. Among them, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins NFTs reached 14.19 ETH, setting a new high in nearly six months; the token PENGU price hit $0.03, with a 30-day increase of 192.7%, not far from its historical high.

Overall, from the small profile pictures to the cultural consumption brand, and then to financial asset targets, the comeback story of Pudgy Penguins not only establishes itself as a visual asset that can be commercialized, socialized, and even financialized, but also marks a phased victory for the culture of encryption elites.