A hapless trader endured a disastrous experience with Pudgy Penguins’ PENGU tokens. On Dec. 17, prior to an NFT-tied airdrop, this trader invested $10,000 in PENGU tokens. However, within minutes, the investment plummeted.
The PENGU token had a remarkable market cap surge of over $3 billion shortly after its debut. But this particular trader made the purchase at an absurdly inflated $14 trillion capitalization. According to on-chain data and community observers, the initial $10,000 investment dwindled to less than $3.
It appears an unknown trader placed a large PENGU order on Jupiter just before the token went live, likely attempting to front run the airdrop. These types of traders, known as “snipers,” use advanced tools to quickly acquire new tokens. But a glitch in Jupiter’s decentralized exchange led the trader to a low liquidity pool.
DEX aggregators like Jupiter use a bonding curve system to calculate crypto prices based on demand. Tech-savvy wrongdoers sometimes manipulate this, creating volatile pools. Traders can accidentally buy from incorrect contracts and incur heavy losses, as in this case where the trader likely bought into a manipulated pool without verifying the contract or market cap. After swapping 45 wrapped Solana, the buyer received only 78 tokens worth under $5 and later acquired 62,585 PENGU coins worth about $2,000.
The Pudgy Penguins project has seen a recent recovery in the NFT renaissance. Owned by Iglo Inc., it was once among the top three NFT projects by market cap, with a single Pudgy NFT costing more than a Bitcoin at one point. After the airdrop, the average trading price of the Penguin-themed NFTs was $60,000, though a 50% correction brought the floor price to 15.63 Ether. Igloo Inc. has plans to activate PENGU features on Ethereum’s blockchain and launch its layer-2 Abstract Chain network. The PENGU token has a total supply of 88.88 billion tokens, with seven million eligible addresses for the airdrop.
Related topics:
Pudgy Penguins’ New Crypto Venture: PENGU Token on the Horizon
Pudgy Penguins: From NFTs to Toys – A Comprehensive Overview
Pudgy Penguins NFTs: A Success Story in the Crypto Bear Market
