- Pudgy Penguins denied rumors of shopping for OpenSea, clarifying there’s no acquisition deal.
- The challenge is targeted on model partnerships like Lufthansa, NASCAR, and its new recreation Pengu Conflict.
- NFT market rebounded sharply in July, with a 94% surge led by CryptoPunks and CryptoBatz.
Nope, they didn’t purchase OpenSea. Pudgy Penguins has formally denied the swirling rumors that it snagged the huge NFT market again in December 2024. The chatter kinda exploded on-line after people dug up an outdated submit from CEO Luca Netz, the place he casually mentioned he needed to purchase OpenSea sooner or later. That was again in October—however apparently, folks ran with it.
Beau, head of safety at Pudgy Penguins, jumped in to kill the noise. “Pudgy Penguins didn’t purchase OpenSea… chill,” he posted on X. Straight to the purpose. He even adopted it up with one thing like, “Not even positive it’d make sense for us to try this proper now.” Truthful sufficient.
Followers had been connecting dots—perhaps too many. They pointed to adjustments OpenSea made in December and matched it with a few of Pudgy’s bulletins across the similar time. However for now? No deal. Simply hypothesis. Beau redirected everybody’s consideration to actual stuff occurring, like precise partnerships with Lufthansa and NASCAR. Yeah, real-world manufacturers.
Pudgy’s Centered on Collabs, Not Buyouts
As an alternative of chasing acquisitions, Pudgy Penguins has been going arduous on model collabs. Lufthansa, NASCAR… even Pudgy Toys are a part of the combination. That toy line really lets holders make some passive earnings, due to their OverpassIP system. NFTs turning into bodily merch? Fairly wild.
And there’s extra—they only launched Pengu Conflict, a skill-based recreation on The Open Community. Not some random P2E clone both. This one’s “play-to-win,” the place gamers go head-to-head, placing their abilities (and wagers) on the road. CEO Luca Netz defined it like: it’s not about farming tokens, it’s about successful ’trigger you’re good on the recreation.
Elympics helps run the multiplayer motion behind the scenes, providing totally different modes and match varieties. It’s not only a informal flex—it’s a part of their technique to combine leisure, Web3 tech, and model worth into one loopy ecosystem.
NFT Market’s Bouncing Again—Laborious
Whereas all this was happening, your complete NFT house lit up in July. The overall market cap hit $6.6 billion. That’s a 94% leap from June. Yep, you learn that proper. Buying and selling quantity additionally spiked—up 51% week-over-week, says DappRadar. It’s the strongest bounce we’ve seen since early 2025.
Main the cost? Good ol’ CryptoPunks. Their flooring value surged 53%, almost hitting $180K per piece. On July 22 alone, they noticed 83 gross sales—flooring went up 15.9% in simply sooner or later. Love them or hate them, the Punks nonetheless maintain severe clout in Web3.
Additionally, CryptoBatz (Ozzy’s assortment) had an enormous second too. After information of his passing, quantity exploded—like, 100,000% enhance in a day. That’s $281K in quantity inside 24 hours. Fairly insane response.