An unidentified trader turned $10,298 into approximately $5.4 within seconds while attempting to profit from the launch of the PENGU token airdrop by the NFT project Pudgy Penguin.
somebody bought $PENGU @$14T mc turning his $10k to $5 in seconds lmfao pic.twitter.com/R9X9tOu2fn
— bx1 (@bx1core) December 17, 2024
According to The Block, the smart contract and tokens were created in late November. Somehow, the trader discovered the active contract address and placed an order to exchange 45 WSOL for PENGU tokens before the official distribution began.
The trader likely intended to buy the tokens at their starting price, anticipating a rapid price increase typically seen after airdrops.
However, due to the pricing mechanics on decentralized platforms, the token’s initial price was inflated because of low market liquidity. The swap was executed at prices that implied a PENGU market capitalization of ~$14 trillion (compared to Bitcoin’s ~$2 trillion).
“Somehow, tokens leaked into private wallets, allowing someone to initialize the liquidity pool prematurely, which led to trading,” an anonymous trader familiar with the meme coin ecosystem told the publication.
He speculated that the user wasn’t deliberately sniping with bots but likely thought the official PENGU trading had started. The trader wasn’t alone in purchasing tokens at inflated prices.
The NFT project announced the Solana-based token airdrop in early December. Of the total supply of 88,888,888,888 PENGU, 25.9% are allocated for community distribution, while 24.12% will reward participants in various collaborations.
After the distribution began on December 17, users have 88 days to claim their tokens. Any unclaimed PENGU will be permanently locked in the smart contract.
$PENGU is now live.
— Pudgy Penguins (@pudgypenguins) December 17, 2024
CA: 2zMMhcVQEXDtdE6vsFS7S7D5oUodfJHE8vd1gnBouauv
Learn more & how to claim your PENGU below. pic.twitter.com/ROWgq02YbF
Following the official launch, the token was listed on major centralized exchanges like Binance, Bybit, and OKX. As of now, PENGU is trading near $0.03, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.1 billion.
In September, a trader turned ~$80,000 into over $1.2 million on the meme coin AURA within weeks, only to lose nearly all of his profits.
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