Interview｜Jack

Editing｜Sleepy.txt, Kaori

“We want to surpass Hello Kitty, and we also want to surpass Pokémon.”

It is hard to imagine that a new IP that has only been around for four years would dare to challenge the top two cultural symbols in the world head-on. Pudgy Penguins, adorable penguins, surprisingly have an aggressive side.

However, they do have the confidence now.

They have entered 3,100 Walmart stores, selling millions of physical toys; on social media platforms, the “chubby penguin” has become a traffic magnet, with nearly 2 million fans on Instagram, over 700,000 fans on TikTok, and a total view count of 54.7 billion for its GIFs on GIPHY. Even on Walmart's Twitter, two of the top ten most interacted tweets in history are related to Pudgy Penguins.

In the NFT space, it has almost become the sole survivor.

Three years ago, the crypto market entered a long bear market. That brief and hot “NFT Summer” quickly became a memory to be cherished. Those NFT IPs that once intended to overthrow Sanrio and challenge Nintendo, one by one, fell silent and blurred into the declining floor price curve.

And Pudgy Penguins, at that time, also stood on the edge of a cliff, mired in the quagmire of early team mismanagement, wavering direction, and community trust collapse, until one person appeared.

Luca Netz, investing $2.5 million, acquired the entire project.

From a Homeless Teen to a Top Trader

Luca Netz is not a typical Web3 entrepreneur, but Pudgy Penguins survived solely because of him.

He was born in Los Angeles but grew up wandering the world. His mother took him and his brother around, with no fixed abode, sleeping on friends' or relatives' sofas for years.

At 16, he dropped out of high school to support his family and began his hustle career.

Initially, he built an independent site using Shopify, selling accessories favored by rap artists, running small-scale ads on Instagram, and leveraging a budget of a few hundred dollars to generate thousands of dollars in orders.

He doesn't stock inventory, only focuses on marketing and conversion, taps into the right emotions, and delegates the supply chain to others. This drop-shipping model helped him earn his first pot of gold. Two years later, he sold the entire project as a package deal, making $8 million.

That year, he had just turned 18.

Later, he started getting involved in real brand building, from category planning, content narrative, to channel strategy, trying to put together a complete system.

Afterward, he turned to genuine brand building. From category planning, content narrative, to channel strategy, he began building a complete system. He has created his own DTC brand and also helped old-school brands like Von Dutch re-enter the youth's field of vision.

He also founded the toy gun brand Gel Blaster and served as the CMO. During the post-pandemic window, he captured the attention of teenagers, gained traction on TikTok, and then penetrated offline retail and supermarkets.

Luca is not just a marketer. He manages the product line, watches over content strategies, and studies how channels can collaborate. His expertise lies in taking something from being seen, to being liked, and then getting people willing to pay for it.

All the strategies for Pudgy Penguins had actually taken shape at that time.

In 2021, Pudgy Penguins was once one of the blue-chip NFT projects, but by 2022, the community was divided, the founding team was ousted by community vote, market sentiment hit rock bottom, and the NFT's "IP cultural narrative" had essentially been sentenced to death.

Without hesitation, in April 2022, Luca acquired the entire project for 750 ETH (about $2.5 million). He said Pudgy Penguins was the first NFT he bought. Besides nostalgia, what facilitated this acquisition was the sixth sense cultivated through years of brand experience. He saw the infinite potential in this chubby penguin.

Although not the founder of Pudgy Penguins, he gave Pudgy Penguins a new birthdate.

Today's Pudgy Penguins is no longer the once faltering NFT avatar; it has turned its fate around, becoming the face of the entire crypto world, and has become the reason many people entered Web3.

Recently, it rang the opening bell at Nasdaq with asset management firm VanEck, becoming the first Web3-native IP to directly participate in such a ceremony. Following this event, listed companies like Coinbase, large enterprises, and celebrities have donned penguin avatars, collectively seeing it as a new symbol, a mascot representing the entire financial industry.

Exclusive Interview: Building an IP Empire in the Crypto World

动察 Beating also recently connected with our old friend Luca Netz for an in-depth conversation.

In this dialogue, he discussed the ambitions of Pudgy Penguins. From their journey to becoming the "face of finance" to competing head-to-head with Hello Kitty and Pokémon; from building significant influence in Web2 to constructing a full-fledged ecosystem with Crypto at its core in the IP realm. Luca is building his own IP empire, aiming to shape Pudgy Penguins into the "Mickey Mouse of the Internet era."

Below is the full transcript of our exclusive interview.

Becoming the "Face" of the Crypto World

In July, Coinbase changed its X account avatar to a chubby penguin with the caption "New profile pic, who dis." Following that, several crypto projects such as OpenSea, MoonPay, Polkadot, EigenCloud, OKX, and others successively adopted Pudgy Penguins-themed avatars, as if they had rehearsed in advance. This influence has already permeated traditional finance.

VanEck, a long-standing private investment management firm established in 1955, quietly changed its Twitter avatar to a chubby penguin back in 2024. On June 23rd this year, they even brought Pudgy Penguins to the Nasdaq stage, ringing the opening bell alongside Luca Netz. On that day, Luca posted this on his LinkedIn: "Pudgy Penguins is the face of crypto."

动察 Beating: Many celebrities and companies have recently changed their avatars to Pudgy Penguins on X. What's the story behind this?

Luca Netz: I believe this is a natural progression for Pudgy Penguins. It has evolved into the "face" and mascot of the crypto world. The key difference between it and other meme-based images or NFT projects is that it truly resonates with everyone.

Coinbase was among the first to change their avatar, but having over 300 individuals/companies follow suit was not something we orchestrated behind the scenes; it just naturally happened. I think this is because everyone eventually came to the same conclusion as our internal team: Pudgy Penguins is the most beloved image in the crypto world.

Once a big company changes its avatar, whether you are a small business, a billionaire, or a whale, naturally you would also want to join this avatar-changing trend, and everyone is having a good time. This is actually the derivative effect after Pudgy Penguins were embraced by everyone as the mascot of the crypto world.

Dynamic Beating: Why Did Coinbase Change Its Avatar?

Luca Netz: Coinbase changed its avatar because of their social media intern Alex. He is actually a senior Pudgy Penguins holder and community member, it has been three years already. He posted a tweet on Twitter asking everyone which avatar he should change to, and in the end, he chose Pudgy Penguins.

Later on, indeed some people came to us to customize avatars, and we also assisted, but this was not an activity we organized ourselves. This kind of thing has actually been happening over the past few years, such as Phantom changing avatars, Solana changing avatars, but it was only after Coinbase changed its avatar that it truly drove all mainstream exchanges and communities to follow suit.

We did not organize this activity, but we did assist them in customizing avatars behind the scenes to better ride this wave.

Dynamic Beating: Why do Pudgy Penguins' community members have so much energy, while other NFT communities do not? Such as Bored Ape.

Luca Netz: If you feel like you missed out on Bored Ape in 2020 or 2021, then you are catching the early stage of Pudgy Penguins right now.

Back then, Bored Ape did attract many celebrities to join, while Pudgy Penguins have brought together celebrities, billionaires, crypto natives, and project teams all in one place. Honestly, I think you will soon see a wave even crazier than back then. Bored Ape did have a similar community momentum once, but this time it will be bigger.

From my perspective, a key reason why Pudgy will have such a big impact is that it is very reputable. For example, we have entered Walmart, Target, with over ten thousand retail stores across the USA selling our products, and the Chicago Options Exchange recently launched an ETF related to us. Institutions like Bitwise, VanEck have changed their avatars to Pudgy Penguins. Oh, and now Bitmine's avatar on X is a Pudgy Penguin, they are one of the largest ETH holders.

The reason everyone is willing to participate is because this project is reliable enough. They are not shilling some memecoin; it's not about speculative trading. Instead, they are standing with the strongest brand, the largest community, and the most beloved IP in the crypto space. And this will bring them attention, goodwill, and social interaction, which are all truly positive things.

The fundamental difference between Pudgy Penguins and Bored Ape is that it is more universal, more mainstream, and more inclusive.

Do not underestimate the participation and power of the female community in this. To put it bluntly, Pudgy is like the "digital version of Labubu," and Labubu became so popular largely due to the push from female users.

Within our community, there is the most influential female user base in the entire crypto space. People gather around this IP, not based on luck but on the "magic" of Pudgy Penguins itself. It is infectious, warm, and something you absolutely cannot underestimate.

动察 Beating: Specifically, talk about the impact of the female community on Pudgy Penguins. When you say they have driven this brand, what does that refer to?

Luca Netz: This is particularly noticeable in Asia, where the gender ratio in the community is almost equal. In the U.S., it's roughly 70% male, 30% female.

Think about the essence of Pudgy Penguins; it is a "cute" IP, and "cute" IPs have the power to dominate the world (laughs). Women really love "cute culture," and our community itself is very inclusive. I think this is a community that truly makes women feel proud.

In the past, there have been female-centric communities in the crypto world, but in terms of scale and cohesion, none have grown as large as Pudgy Penguins. So I believe many women have found a sense of "belonging" in the crypto world here. They enjoy wearing our merchandise, participating in our culture, and it makes them proud.

I always wonder, where is the "home" for women in the crypto world? If you really think about it, right now, in the entire crypto world, Pudgy Penguins might be the only place where women can truly gather in large numbers, communicate, and participate in activities together.

Can you name another project that brings together so many women to talk about crypto, play together, and build together? Perhaps there are some small communities, but truly at scale, only Pudgy Penguins. When we hold events, the gender ratio is often 50:50 on-site, which you won't see in any other crypto project. I think this is truly special.

Dynamic Observation Beating: Your current exposure is increasingly appearing in photos on NASDAQ, such as the bell-ringing ceremony. Everyone wants to take the stage with Pudgy Penguins. I heard from community members that you not only want to be the face of the crypto world but also aspire to be the face of finance. The recent avatar change movement, the women's community, and your increasingly prominent "financial temperament" – is there any inherent connection among these three?

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