The Pudgy Penguins airdrop not only shocked but also touched people.
What shocked people was its wide user coverage, which is unparalleled among all NFT project airdrops. What touched people was that this originally abandoned project was revived by an entrepreneur, and has steadily progressed to today and achieved renewed glory.
All the Ethereum wallet addresses I have used received rewards in this airdrop, which really moved me.
In the comments at the end of the previous article, a reader also mentioned this project.
All of this has made me reminisce about my past interactions with this project. I don't remember the exact timeline of these interactions, so today I'll share these stories based on my memory.
Longtime readers of my past articles know that I am a hardcore BAYC enthusiast, mainly in the Ethereum ecosystem.
During the 2021 NFT craze, I handled many well-known NFT projects in the Ethereum ecosystem, including Pudgy Penguins and the Lil Penguins mentioned in this airdrop.
However, at the time, my attention to Pudgy Penguins was far less than my love for CryptoPunks and BAYC. So, like many of my other blue-chip NFT purchases, I sold them without any attachment when I liquidated my NFTs.
After I sold them, the project announced a big news: its founders were exposed for their shady past and "repeated the same trick" by abandoning the project.
This huge blow quickly devastated the project, causing its floor price to crash.
But what left a deep impression on me was that the project's community was very active and started a series of self-rescue measures.
For me, I just observed what was happening and was glad I avoided the pitfall.
Soon after, the community brought the latest progress - entrepreneur Luca Netz had acquired the project from the founders.
At the time, I read about this entrepreneur and felt that he had started businesses in multiple fields and achieved good results. But based on these experiences alone, I couldn't see any particular highlights that would allow him to reshape the project's future - such entrepreneurs are abundant in the US.
Subsequently, the entire crypto market entered the bear market that we have all witnessed. In this bear market, not only Pudgy Penguins, but even CryptoPunks and BAYC suffered heavy losses - all the projects in the NFT sector were not spared.
But I have always been very focused on the development of the NFT sector, especially the series of actions taken by BAYC. Because I have always believed that if even BAYC cannot find a new direction for NFT development, then all the other projects in the NFT sector, except for CryptoPunks, may go to zero.
During the most agonizing period of the bear market, BAYC launched one new game after another, and although the effects are not very satisfactory now, they managed to retain some popularity for the NFT ecosystem and left a glimmer of hope for the sector at the time.
From BAYC's actions, although the games they launched ultimately had general results, I believe that the hope for the future of the NFT sector still lies in games.
During that period, Pudgy Penguins also occasionally reported some quite eye-catching progress. What left a deeper impression on me was that Luca started to work on the IP, making Pudgy Penguin plush toys, which seemed to have achieved good sales performance on Amazon and offline stores.
However, I did not agree with this.
I clearly remember that in one of my previous articles, I had mentioned Pudgy Penguin's marketing. I felt that the traditional marketing approach of physical products and IP toys was too outdated and old-fashioned for NFTs.
I still believe that pure on-chain, pure online things are the future of NFTs.
Later, I heard news about Pudgy Penguins again, apparently because of the great performance of its toy sales, which caused the community to regain hope in the project, and its NFT floor price even exceeded that of Mutant Apes for a time.
This made me regain interest in the project. But when I found out the reason, my enthusiasm immediately waned. However, I continued to observe for about one or two weeks. As a result, its floor price fell back again and lagged far behind Mutant Apes.
So I thought that was just a passing fad, and this project was still just a second-tier project.
At the time, I did have the thought of buying one.
But then I thought, rather than buying a Pudgy Penguin, I might as well spend more to buy a Mutant Ape, a top project. But if I bought a Mutant Ape, I already had some, so buying another one wouldn't make much difference to me.
So I quickly dismissed this idea.
Later, the news from the 0N1 Force community, another once-famous project in the NFT ecosystem, reminded me of Pudgy Penguins again.
0N1 Force was the first anime-style side-face NFT project in the Ethereum ecosystem. This project was also once very popular, but was later abandoned by the project team. But it was even more tragic than Pudgy Penguins - after being abandoned, it was neglected for a long time, with its floor price plummeting to a heartbreaking level, almost reaching zero.
The news was that it, like Pudgy Penguins, had been acquired.
As far as I remember, it was acquired by a group of well-known players. Among them were those who had worked in the entertainment industry in Hollywood, those who had previously served as consultants for BAYC, and others who had successful entrepreneurial experiences in other fields.
Seeing this news, I immediately thought of Pudgy Penguins and compared this team to Luca. This team, both in terms of background and experience, seemed to be stronger than Luca.
Therefore, I felt that if Pudgy Penguins could make a comeback, 0N1 Force might also have a chance.
More importantly, at that time, the price of 0N1 Force was much lower than Pudgy Penguins, so I thought buying 0N1 Force would be better than buying Pudgy Penguins.
After that, I never paid attention to Pudgy Penguins again until this airdrop, which triggered my past memories.
A reader asked how to identify projects with potential in the early stage based on Pudgy Penguins' development.
Based on my experience, I don't think I could have discovered Pudgy Penguins' potential or seized this opportunity.
First, I did not agree with Luca's operational approach in the process of rescuing the project.
Secondly, during the project's development, there were several times when I wanted to buy it but felt there were better projects worth buying.
If I have to say what factors are worth paying attention to in the process of Pudgy Penguins' resurrection?
I think it's the one I've always emphasized: the key to investing in a project is investing in the people.
Although I don't agree with Luca's operational approach, I highly respect Luca as a person.
Therefore, in this process, if investors highly recognize Luca as a person and also recognize Luca's operational approach, I think when Luca started to work on the IP and make plush toys and achieved initial success, they could seriously consider this NFT.
In addition, there is another situation where investors can firmly grasp this wave of dividends: that is, a heartfelt love for this NFT, without any complaints, not for the sake of profit, but for a certain sentiment or experience in their heart - this kind of feeling may only be truly understood by players who have personally played and loved an NFT.
