This article is also available in Spanish.
The recently launched PENGU token has stolen the spotlight after becoming the largest Solana-based memecoin by market cap. The token's rally has sparked huge interest from large-scale investors, who have invested heavily in the token over the past few days.
Related reading
New Solana Token Steals the Spotlight
On December 17, the Pudgy Penguins Non-Fungible Token (nft) project launched its official token, PENGU, on the Solana Blockchain. The token has risen through the ranks, surpassing other Solana-based tokens and attracting massive attention in nine days.
Pudgy Penguins, one of the largest nft collections, consists of 8,888 unique cute penguin cartoons and has a market capitalization of 205,757 eth. In anticipation of the token's launch, the project emerged as the second-largest nft collection, behind only CryptoPunks.
Since launching three years ago, the project has seen its community grow significantly and “establish itself in the hearts and minds of ordinary people and culture,” according to the project team. Additionally, it is expected to contribute to the governance of the project even though a specific use case has not yet been announced.
As such, the newly launched cryptocurrency aims to “expand its community and further broaden the reach” of the project by allowing old and new users to “align” with the penguins.
According to data from CoinGecko, the Solana-based memecoin debuted with a 500% surge to a market capitalization of $3.5 billion, but saw massive volatility in the following days.
Just hours after the launch, PENGU's price retraced more than 50% before declining to a market capitalization of $1.4 billion on December 20. The token oscillated between the $0.025 and $0.037 range for a few days, stabilizing around the upper zone of the range on Christmas Eve.
Whales fill their bags as PENGU launches BONK
Amid the market's momentary gains on Christmas Day, the token surpassed this range and rose to the $0.042 mark on Thursday morning, reaching a market capitalization of $2.6 billion. During this 18% rally, the token surpassed dogwifhat (WIF) and BONK to become the largest Solana memecoin by market cap, and currently maintains its position as the industry leader.
PENGU became the fourth largest memecoin by this metric, just behind Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and PEPE. Furthermore, in the last 24 hours, the token has seen a 25% increase in market activity, with a daily trading volume of $1.92 billion.
According to on-chain data analytics firm Lookonchain, crypto whales have also noticed PENGU's rally, with several large-scale investors filling their bags over the past week.
Related reading
On December 24, a whale that had <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/lookonchain/status/1871517121454501929″ target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>received a 116.7 million PENGU airdrop, worth $3.52 million, increased its stake with a $1 million purchase. According to the post, the wallet spent 5,250 SOL to purchase an additional 34.42 million PENGU, for a total of 151.12 million PENGU, valued at $5.08 million.
Similarly, another whale <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/lookonchain/status/1872134765060739231″ target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>interchanged 500,000 ai16z, another Solana-based trending memecoin, today for PENGU. In the last eight days, this investor has spent $2.47 million to buy 79.9 million PENGU, making unrealized profits of around $835,000.
At the time of writing, PENGU is trading at $0.038, up 4.8% on the daily period.
Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com
