The dynamic seems to be changing on the NFT market: the floor price of the Pudgy Penguins briefly exceeded that of the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), symbolizing a potential paradigm shift. While BAYC has experienced controversy and difficulties with its side projects, the Pudgy Penguins have capitalized on their community and real-world integration, including partnerships such as the one with Walmart.
Pudgy Penguins on track to permanently overtake Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)?
Are we witnessing a paradigm shift in the non-fungible token (NFT) market? Earlier today, the floor price of the Pudgy Penguins collection surpassed that of the iconic Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), known for its monkey NFTs broken down into several underlying collections such as the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC).
The floor price of an NFT collection is the lowest price, here in Ether (ETH), for which the cheapest NFT is traded. Floor price is widely used as a metric to determine the attractiveness of a collection, since it reflects investor demand for its NFTs.
It’s done pic.twitter.com/NIPvMRGJJ5
– parsec (@parsec_finance) February 17, 2024
Although BAYC’s floor price has passed that of the NFT Pudgy Penguins collection since this tweet, this momentary overtaking reflects an underlying trend: the historic Bored Ape Yacht Club is clearly struggling to maintain its dominance of the NFT market.
A lack of dynamism clearly visible if we take a step back and look at the evolution of its floor price in comparison with that of the Pudgy Penguins:
Floor price evolution of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (left) and Pudgy Penguins (right) collections
There’s no denying it: while the floor price of the BAYC collection exceeded 161 ETH in April 2022, it now stands at just 21.8 ETH. By way of comparison, the Pudgy Penguins floor price is currently valued at 21.45 ETH, whereas at the end of September 2023 it was still only 5 Ethers.
In other words, the Pudgy Penguins floor price has increased by a factor of 4 in the space of just a few months, while the BAYC floor price has only fallen.
How to explain such a turnaround?
Objectively, there are many rational explanations for this situation. As far as the Bored Ape Yacht Club is concerned, the project has had to contend with numerous controversies over the years, some of which have done lasting damage to its image, particularly as regards its iconography.
It also appears that the project has seen too much, with one disappointment after another, for example with its metaverse The Otherside, its Magic Eden platform totally eclipsed by the success of Blur and OpenSea on Ethereum, or its ApeCoin token (APE), down 94% since its highest price (ATH). APE currently trades at $1.6, down from almost $24 in April 2023.
Yuga Labs, the firm behind BAYC, thus seems to be drowning in its many projects, and this testifies to the importance of establishing consistency in the development of a community project in order not to disappoint investors.
Pudgy Penguins has understood just that. Since the project was acquired in April 2022 by Luca Netz, who wanted to breathe new life into the collection by promoting the community aspect, Pudgy Penguins have managed to capitalize on their intellectual property, particularly since raising $9 million in April 2023.
In particular, the Pudgy Penguins project has demonstrated its ability to bridge the gap between the real world and Web3, through clothing, toys, collectibles and a partnership with Walmart, the world’s leading company in terms of sales.
It remains to be seen whether Yuga Labs will attempt to redress the balance and consolidate its position as market leader in NFT.
