A big reshuffle after the NFT market picks up: Will Fat Penguin acquire OpenSea? PENGU fever breaks out in South Korea

In the gradually warming NFT market, the popular project Pudgy Penguins has been rumored to acquire the NFT trading platform OpenSea, which the team has denied. Meanwhile, their native token $PENGU has sparked a wave of enthusiasm at Upbit, the largest exchange in South Korea, with daily trading volume surging and even surpassing Doge (DOGE). In October last year, Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz had previously revealed in an interview his desire to "buy OpenSea" and that he "bought a big project in December", along with OpenSea's sudden change in token strategy after four years of operation, which sparked community speculation that Pudgy Penguins might have quietly acquired OpenSea by the end of last year. However, Pudgy Penguins' security chief Beau clearly denied this on X: "Pudgy Penguins did not buy OpenSea, calm down. The scale we are planning is large, and you don't need to speculate about a single acquisition." He further pointed out that the team is currently focusing on expanding brand influence rather than platform acquisitions. He urged the community to discuss collaborations with Lufthansa Airlines or NASCAR instead of speculating about acquisitions. This statement shows that the Pudgy Penguins team is more inclined to expand physical merchandise and application breadth through brand collaborations, such as partnering with PMI Toys to release Pudgy Toys or launching the casual mini-game Pengu Clash on the TON chain. Meanwhile, Pudgy Penguins' native token $PENGU has created a sensation in the Korean market. Lookonchain noted that although Doge's market cap is 13 times that of PENGU, PENGU's recent trading volume on Upbit, South Korea's largest exchange, reached 136.4 billion Korean won (about $100 million), even surpassing Doge's trading volume. DappRadar data shows that the NFT market's total market value has rebounded to $6.6 billion, a significant 94% growth from the previous month, with weekly trading volume growing by over 50%, the strongest rebound in the past half year. This revival is primarily driven by the legendary Ethereum project CryptoPunks, with its floor price rising over 50% in a single month. Whales including GameSquare, BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes, and other on-chain investors are making large-scale acquisitions, bringing vitality to the market. Pudgy Penguins' clarification about OpenSea not only reaffirms their development path but also highlights the importance of brand management and community building. As the NFT market warms up after years of dormancy, we see a reshuffling of top-tier blue-chip projects, once again proving the value of physical businesses and loyal communities. As Bitcoin and ETH are increasingly incorporated into corporate reserves, the listed gaming company GameSquare recently purchased CryptoPunk #5577 for $5.15 million, announcing the launch of an NFT financial reserve strategy and planning to create an NFT revenue model, attempting to replicate MicroStrategy's business script in the digital collectibles domain.

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GameSquare Acquires CryptoPunks to Build Non-Fungible Token Treasury Strategy Company

American media and entertainment company GameSquare Holdings ($GAME) recently announced the purchase of CryptoPunk #5577, also known as "Cowboy Ape", wearing a cowboy hat for approximately 5.15 million dollars in preferred shares, marking the first step in its Non-Fungible Token financial treasury strategy.

GameSquare stated that this strategy extends from its previously launched ETH treasury layout, currently holding about 12,900 ETH (approximately 46.9 million dollars), with plans to raise an additional 250 million dollars for investment:

Our Non-Fungible Token strategy will focus on creative Ethereum-native digital assets, including culturally representative digital art and collectibles.

(Non-Fungible Token Treasury Company? Market Trading Volume Triples to New High, Whales Buying CryptoPunks for Millions)

More Than Just Buying: Monetizing NFT IP for Stable Returns

Rather than "collecting" Non-Fungible Tokens, GameSquare is attempting to treat them as high-value assets that can generate sustainable income. The announcement indicates they will obtain 6% to 10% annual returns through marketing operations, community management, and licensing collaborations, which is known as a Non-Fungible Token revenue strategy.

It is understood that the previous owner of this Punk was Robert Leshner, founder of the lending protocol Compound and current CEO of RWA company Superstate.

Eli Scheinman, who facilitated the transaction, revealed on X: "GameSquare's largest investor is Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys. Of course, we would choose the Punk wearing a cowboy hat."

Will NFT Sector Also Have a Micro Strategy? Can Treasury Companies Revive NFTs?

NFT Now founder Matt Medved directly stated: "GameSquare's purchase of Punk #5577 is just the beginning." He pointed out that a CryptoPunk buying wave of 8 million dollars on July 20th caused the floor price to surge 8 ETH overnight; if the funding scale expands to 50 million or even 100 million dollars, the price increase will be even more significant.

He compared this phenomenon to MicroStrategy's long-term strategy of buying large amounts of Bit: "Back then, companies converted cash to Bit, now JPEGs are being treated as assets."

This was also echoed by Yuga Labs co-founder Garga.eth: "The world is not ready for Non-Fungible Token vault companies, but they will still come."

Arthur Hayes Talks CryptoPunks: A Status Game for the Wealthy

BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes recently quietly bought 5 CryptoPunks, with a total value of about 244 ETH (approximately 900,000 dollars), bringing his current Punk holdings to 7. He also posted about this:

In this Bull market, CryptoPunks will outperform ETH in dollar terms. Because ETH holders want to use Non-Fungible Tokens to show off their status, the internet is just a status game.

Today, 7 Punks wearing hoodies were just sold for 1058.5 ETH (3.8 million dollars), reportedly bought by 6 wallets from the same owner, indicating that users are indeed accumulating Punks.

With the entry of traditional capital, brands, and professional players, Non-Fungible Tokens are transitioning from simple art collections to a new category with asset attributes, operational logic, and cash flow.