Interview | Jack

Editor | Sleepy.txt, Kaori

"We want to surpass Hello Kitty and also surpass Pokémon."

It's hard to imagine that a new IP that has only been around for four years would dare to challenge two of the world's top cultural symbols head-on. Pudgy Penguins, the adorable penguins, surprisingly possess unexpected aggression.

However, they indeed have the confidence now.

They have entered 3,100 Walmart stores, selling millions of physical toys; on social media, "Pudgy Penguins" has become a traffic password, with nearly 2 million followers on Instagram, over 700,000 followers on TikTok, and a total of 54.7 billion views for their stickers on GIPHY. In fact, two of the top ten posts with the highest interaction on Walmart's Twitter are related to Pudgy Penguins.

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

Three years ago, the crypto market entered a long bear market. That brief and intense "NFT Summer" quickly became a thing of the past. Those NFT IPs that once aimed to disrupt Sanrio and challenge Nintendo faded away one by one, becoming blurred in the continuously declining floor price curve.

At that time, Pudgy Penguins was also standing on the edge of a cliff, mired in the mismanagement of the early founding team, wavering direction, and a collapse of community trust, until one person appeared.

Luca Netz invested $2.5 million to acquire the entire project.

From a homeless youth to a top operator

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

He was born in Los Angeles but grew up wandering around the world. His mother moved him and his brother around without a fixed home, often sleeping on friends' or relatives' sofas.

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 accessory products favored by rap artists, and ran small-scale ads on Instagram, leveraging a few hundred dollars to generate thousands of dollars in orders.

He didn't stock products; he focused on advertising and conversion, hitting the right emotional notes while leaving the supply chain to others. This drop-shipping model helped him earn his first pot of gold. Two years later, he packaged the entire project and sold it for $8 million.

That year, he had just turned 18.

Later, he began to engage in real brand building, from category planning and content storytelling to channel strategy, trying to build a complete system.

After that, he turned to true brand building. From category planning, content storytelling, to channel strategy, he started to build a complete system. He had created DTC brands and helped old trendy brands like Von Dutch regain visibility among young people.

He also founded a toy gun brand, Gel Blaster, and served as CMO. During the post-pandemic window, he captured the attention of teenagers, generating buzz on TikTok and then breaking into offline supermarkets.

Luca is not just a marketer. He manages product lines, oversees content strategies, and studies how channels can cooperate. What he excels at is taking something from being seen to being liked, and then to getting people to spend money on it.

All the strategic prototypes for Pudgy Penguins were actually formed back then.

Pudgy Penguins was once one of the blue-chip NFT projects in 2021, but by 2022, the community was fragmented, the founding team was voted out by the community, and market sentiment had plummeted, with the "IP cultural narrative" of NFTs basically sentenced to death.

Luca did not hesitate. In April 2022, he acquired the entire project for 750 ETH (about $2.5 million). He said Pudgy Penguins was the first NFT he bought. Beyond sentiment, what drove this acquisition was a sixth sense cultivated from years of brand experience; he saw the endless potential of this fat penguin.

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

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

Just recently, it appeared on the Nasdaq opening bell alongside asset management company VanEck, becoming the first Web3 native IP to participate in such a ceremony. After this event, listed companies, large enterprises, and celebrities like Coinbase all changed their avatars to penguins, collectively viewing it as a new symbol, a mascot that can represent the entire financial sector.

Recently, Beating also reached out to our old friend Luca Netz for an in-depth conversation.

In this dialogue, he discussed the ambitions of Pudgy Penguins. From becoming "the face of finance" to competing head-on with Hello Kitty and Pokémon; from building significant influence in Web2 to constructing a complete ecosystem centered around Crypto behind the IP. Luca is building his own IP empire, aiming to make Pudgy Penguins the "Mickey Mouse of the internet age."

Below is our complete exclusive interview content.

Becoming the "Face of Crypto"

In July, Coinbase changed its X account avatar to a Pudgy Penguin, captioned "New avatar, who doesn't like it?" Soon after, multiple crypto projects like OpenSea, MoonPay, Polkadot, EigenCloud, and OKX also switched to Pudgy Penguins-themed avatars, as if it had been rehearsed in advance. This influence has long seeped into traditional finance.

VanEck, a well-established private investment management company founded in 1955, quietly changed its Twitter avatar to a Pudgy Penguin back in 2024. On June 23 of this year, they brought Pudgy Penguins to the Nasdaq stage, ringing the opening bell alongside Luca Netz. On that day, Luca wrote on his LinkedIn, "Pudgy Penguins is the face of crypto."

Beating: Recently, many celebrities and companies have changed their avatars to Pudgy Penguins on X. What’s happening behind this?

Luca Netz: I think this is actually the result of Pudgy Penguins naturally developing to this point. It has become the "face" and mascot of the crypto world. The biggest difference between it and other meme images or NFT projects is that it truly appeals to everyone.

Coinbase was one of the first to change their avatar, but getting over 300 individuals/companies to change their avatars was not something we pushed behind the scenes; it just happened naturally. I think this is because everyone has gradually come to the same conclusion as our internal team: Pudgy Penguins is the most popular image in the crypto world.

Once big companies start changing their avatars, whether you are a small business, a billionaire, or a large trader, you naturally want to join this trend of changing avatars, and everyone has fun. This is actually the derivative effect of Pudgy Penguins being regarded as the mascot of the crypto world.

Beating: Why did Coinbase change their avatar?

Luca Netz: Coinbase changed their avatar because of their social media intern, Alex. He is actually a seasoned Pudgy Penguins holder and community member, having been involved for three years. He tweeted asking everyone which avatar he should change to, and in the end, he chose Pudgy Penguins.

Later, some people did come to us for custom avatars, and we helped out, but this was not an event we organized ourselves. Similar things have been happening over the past few years, like Phantom and Solana changing their avatars, but it was only after Coinbase changed their avatar that it truly drove all mainstream exchanges and communities to follow suit.

We did not organize this event, but we did assist them in customizing avatars to make this trend even better.

Beating: Why are Pudgy Penguins community members so energetic, while other NFT communities are not? For example, Bored Ape.

Luca Netz: If you feel like you missed out on Bored Ape in 2020 or 2021, you are just in time for the early stages of Pudgy Penguins.

Bored Ape did indeed attract many celebrities back then, while Pudgy has gathered celebrities, billionaires, crypto natives, and project teams all together. Honestly, I believe you will soon see a wave even crazier than what we saw back then. Bored Ape did have similar community momentum, but this time it will be bigger.

From my perspective, a key reason Pudgy has such a significant influence is its credibility. For example, we have entered Walmart and Target, with over 10,000 retail stores across the U.S. selling our products, and the Chicago Board Options Exchange recently launched an ETF related to us. Institutions like Bitwise and VanEck have also changed their avatars to Pudgy Penguins. By the way, Bitmine's avatar on X is now a Pudgy Penguin; they are one of the largest ETH holders.

The reason people are willing to participate is that this project is reliable enough; they are not helping some pump-and-dump coin, nor are they speculating; they are standing with the strongest brands, the largest communities, and the most beloved IPs in the crypto space. This brings them attention, goodwill, and social interaction, all of which are genuinely positive things.

A 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 a "digital version of Labubu," and a significant reason for Labubu's popularity is the support from female users.

In our community, there is the most influential group of female users in the entire crypto space. The fact that people can gather around this IP is not due to luck; it is the "magic" of the Pudgy Penguins IP itself. It has infectiousness and warmth, which is something you absolutely cannot underestimate.

Beating: Can you elaborate on the impact of the female community on Pudgy Penguins? You mentioned they have driven this brand; what specifically do you mean?

Luca Netz: We particularly feel this in Asia, where the gender ratio in the Asian community is basically half and half. In the U.S., it’s about 70% male and 30% female.

Think about what Pudgy Penguins essentially is; it is a "cute" IP, and "cute" IPs can rule the world (laughs). Women really love "cute culture," and our community is very inclusive. I think this is a community that allows women to feel truly proud.

There have been some female-led communities in the crypto world before, but in terms of scale and cohesion, none have grown as robustly as Pudgy Penguins. So I believe many women have found a sense of "belonging" in the crypto world here. They enjoy wearing our merchandise and participating in our culture, which makes them proud.

I often think about where the "home" for women in the crypto world is. If you think seriously about it, Pudgy Penguins might be the only place in the entire crypto world that can truly gather, communicate, and engage a large number of women.

Can you name another project that brings so many women together to talk about crypto, play together, and build together? There may be some small communities, but the only one with real scale is Pudgy Penguins. When we hold events, the male-to-female ratio on-site is often 50:50, which you won’t see in any other crypto project. I think that’s really special.

Beating: Your exposure is increasingly appearing in NASDAQ photos, such as the bell-ringing ceremony, where everyone wants to take Pudgy Penguins on stage. Community members have mentioned that you not only want to be the face of the crypto world but also the face of finance. Is there an intrinsic connection between this avatar change movement, the female community, and your growing "financial temperament"?

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For the full interview, please visit the 【Beating】 public account

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