Pudgy Penguins, the viral Ethereum Non-Fungible Token collection, has defied the gloom in the industry in August. 

Data by CryptoSlam and Dune Analytics shows that its key metrics performed well even as the sector came under intense pressure. 

Total sales jumped by 29% in August to over $8.6 million as the number of transactions jumped by 73% to 348. 

Additionally, the number of buyers and sellers rose by 73% and 39% to 176 and 205, respectively. The average number of days held also rose slightly by 5% to 85.5.

While Pudgy Penguins sales rose in August, they remain sharply lower than their all-time high of $99.2 million in August 2021. They were also lower than the March high of $26.5 million

Pudgy Penguins Get Pricey

The prices of Pudgy Penguin NFTs are also rising.

According to Dune, the floor price rose by 30% in August to 10.66 ETH and 166% from the same period in 2023. Floor price refers to the lowest price that an NFT is being sold in marketplaces. 

Pudgy Penguins is one of the three blue-chip NFT collections that has seen its floor price rise in the past 12 months. Milady’s floor price has jumped by 121% while Doodles has risen by 12%.

The floor price of other popular blue-chip NFT collections like CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Azuki, and Mutant Ape Yacht Club has dropped by over 50% in the last 12 months as their demand has waned.

According to NFT Evening, 96% of all NFTs have “died,” with four out of 10 holders being in loss. Additionally, the average lifespan of an NFT has dropped to 1.14 years, much lower than other crypto assets.

Pudgy Penguins, founded by entrepreneur Luca Schnetzler (aka Luca Netz), has done well even as the total sales, transactions, and NFT users have continued to fall.

Total NFT sales in August dropped by 41% to $376 million, down from an all-time high of over $6 billion.

Pudgy Penguin’s sales rose a month after the developers secured $11 million funding from a group of investors to build a layer-2 network. The funding came from Founders Fund, Peter Thiel’s venture company. 

The developers have also launched branded toys that are being sold in popular retailers like Walmart and Target.

The non-fungible token market experienced a 23.4% jump in sales between Aug. 19 and 24. Ethereum currently dominates the landscape, followed by Solana and Polygon.

In the past week, CryptoSlam data shows sales volumes in the broader NFT market soared by 23.4%, to settle at just under $100 million. The uptick in activity was accompanied by a nearly 43% increase in NFT buyers, totaling 468,822, and a 41% rise in sellers, reaching 223,433.

Furthermore, the market registered more than 1.8 million transactions, with NFT traders showing growing interest in blue-chip collections and emerging projects.

Ethereum maintains stronghold

In terms of individual blockchain performances, Ethereum (ETH) once again solidified its position as the dominant blockchain for NFTs, with sales reaching $36.4 million. This was a 34% increase from the previous week.

As was the case in the previous week, Solana (SOL) and Polygon (MATIC) also had impressive performances, making big contributions to the NFT market’s overall growth in the past week. Solana recorded $18.45 million in sales, reflecting a 14.70% increase, with an astounding 61.18% rise in buyers to 202,167.

On the other hand, the weekly sales volume on Polygon increased by more than 90%, to $12.49 million. The number of NFT buyers on the blockchain also rose by 37.77% to 84,505.

Notable NFT sales and collections

The week’s NFT activity was also marked by some major individual NFT sales. For instance, on Arbitrum (ARB), the gETH Locked Deposit #158 fetched an impressive $256,513, making it one of the highest sales of the week. 

Ethereum’s Zoth_Nibiru_Pool1 #4 also made headlines with a $250,000 sale, while Solana’s BOOGLE #61 boasted the third-highest price tag of the week at $201,200.

CryptoPunks, DMarket shine

In terms of collections, CryptoPunks — built on Ethereum — took top spot after it attracted more than $7.4 million in weekly sales. The amount came from just 102 transactions — a 292% rise from last week’s numbers. 

Meanwhile, on the Mythos chain, DMarket generated $4.99 million in sales across 195,143 transactions, cementing its place as a significant player in the NFT ecosystem.

Bored Ape Yacht Club maintained its relevance with a 21.46% increase in sales, pushing the amount raked in to $3.58 million. 

Although sales of NFTs from The Guild of Guardians collection on Immutable (IMX) dropped by 12.25%, it still managed to stay in the top five, with slightly more than $3 million earned.

Finally, rounding up the top five collections by sales volume was Sorare, which continued its run with about $2.6 million in sales. However, the figure was a 27% drop from last week. The plunge was also witnessed in the number of transactions, which went down by more than 12%, according to CryptoSlam.

This past week, the overall non-fungible token market was a mixed bag.

NFT sales volume dropped by 11.92%, totaling $81.8 million, while the number of NFT buyers increased by 173.25% to 327,594.

Let’s take a look at some of the key metrics that characterized the NFT market over the last seven days based on data from CryptoSlam.

Key blockchain performances

Ethereum (ETH) continued its dominance in terms of NFT sales volume. Despite a more than 10% drop from the previous week, the network still managed to rake in over $28 million — a figure accompanied by a notable rise in buyer activity, which went up 42.5%.

Solana (SOL) came in second after it generated more than $16 million in NFT sales. However, the figure represented a 15% decline, even though the network witnessed a staggering 245.93% increase in buyers. It also saw a nearly 6% drop in wash trading activities.

Bitcoin (BTC) maintained the third spot for a third week running, even though the $13.8 million it brought in reflected a 6.1% drop from the previous week’s numbers. 

Wash trading on the network went up by more than 4%, although the $410,863 realized from that activity pales in comparison to other blockchains. For instance, fourth-placed Polygon (MATIC) had the highest amount of funds from wash trading at $9.1 million. The amount was markedly higher than the $6.6 million that came into Polygon from owner to owner NFT sales.

Rounding out the top five is Mythos Chain, which experienced the steepest decline in NFT sales volume, plummeting almost 30% to just north of $5 million.

Notable collections and sales

Coming to NFT collections, Mythos Chain surprisingly produced the best-selling NFT collection of the week, with its DMarket collection raking in $4.99 million in sales across seven days.

However, the amount was still a nearly 30% plunge from last week’s levels, with the number of transactions recorded for the collection also dropping 33%.

Meanwhile, second-placed Sorare, hosted on Ethereum, showed resilience, with sales going up 8.3% to $3.65 million. The number of transactions for the collection also went up by almost 8%, while buyer activity increased by more than 10%. 

The uptick in activity coincides with the start of popular European soccer leagues including the Premier League and La Liga, which may have caused renewed interest in the fantasy sports platform.

However, the standout performer of the week was Bitcoin’s Uncategorized Ordinals, which saw a staggering 864.66% increase in sales to $3.1 million.

Top NFT sales of the week

In terms of sales of individual NFT pieces, one of the most notable transactions was that of an Uncategorized Ordinal on Bitcoin which sold for a whopping $2.4 million.

In contrast, Ethereum’s Bored Ape Yacht Club #2579 sold for $342,542, a pretty huge amount but dwarfed by the Ordinal sale. Other notable transactions in the week included Solana’s Froganas #4559, which fetched $82,689, and a BNB Paraluni Perpetual Bond, which sold for $134,751.