An unknown Pudgy Penguins NFT collector has offered 5 of his NFTs – value properly over $500,000 USD – for simply $35 USD every, yielding a lack of half one million {dollars}.
Going down within the early hours of December 31, reactions from the neighborhood initially suspected that the consumer had did not double-check which foreign money was getting used for the sale. Every NFT was listed for 35 USDC, whereas 35 ETH would have been a excessive worth, however a way more life like determine.
Suspicion rapidly arose when it was discovered that each one 5 NFTs had been snapped up by the identical purchaser. Rumours recommend that this pockets is also owned by the vendor, with the sale being proof of tax loss harvesting, forward of the tip of 2024.
How costly are Pudgy Penguins NFTs?
As of writing, the ground worth of Pudgy Penguins NFTs sits at 21.5 ETH (over $70,000 USD) – although it’s believed the 5 NFTs offered listed here are value much more.
Pudgy Penguins have their very own in-house market, and NFTs with related traits to the 5 offered right here have both been listed or offered at, or are deemed to be, extra priceless than these on the flooring.
The Pudgy Penguins NFT assortment is presently the second most beneficial NFT avatar assortment. Pudgy Penguins surpassed Bored Ape Yacht Membership for the primary time earlier in 2024, and took a agency maintain of the #2 spot following the launch of the $PENGU token.
That leaves Pudgy Penguins NFTs solely trailing behind CryptoPunks, who sit at a flooring worth of 37.25 ETH (over $125,000 USD) as of writing.
Is that this a mistake, or suspicious exercise?
Although these trades might merely be a really expensive error, there’s quite a few causes to recommend that it’s as a substitute deliberate, and maybe suspicious.
Every NFT was offered for 35 $USDC one after the opposite over a 10-minute interval – that means if it was a mistake, it could have been a sequence of 5 back-to-back errors, quite than a single massive mistake. All 5 NFTs had been offered to the identical pockets too, which would appear unlikely given the circumstances.
As soon as information of the trades hit X, many various theories rose as to the character of the transactions. Some believed it to be tax loss harvesting – creating massive losses to keep away from giant tax funds – while others imagine that cash might have exchanged off-chain, with the on-chain transactions solely being token funds.
Regardless of the reality is, there’s little question the trades have proven the NFT neighborhood to be alive and kicking as 2024 attracts to a detailed.