Pudgy Penguins ETH NFT Collection Got Sold To Netz Capital For $2.5M

Pudgy Penguins ETH NFT collection got sold for $2.5 million to Netz Capital and now the penguins are trading hands after months of community turmoil and leadership issues so let’s read more in today’s latest cryptocurrency news.

The Pudgy Penguins ETH NFT is a collection of 8,888 ETH NFTs that was sold for $2.5 million to Netz Capital and Luca Netz who is the leader of the proejct and will receive the future royalties from the secondary sales. NFTS like the Pudgy Penguins are unique blockchains tokens that signify ownership or an asset. Netz made the announcement public over the weekend and the sale came a few months after the project voted on prominent and controversial Cole Villemain under the name “ColeThereum.” Netz made public in January that his offer is 750 ETH while ColeThereum confirmed that he and their other founders weren’t involved anymore in the project:

“The original team wanted to see our creation go to the next level and we felt Luca has the connections and experience to do that.”

Looking forward to spreading love across the Meta ❤️💙🐧 https://t.co/ZBEF3W6XV2

— Luca Netz (@LucaNetz) April 3, 2022

While the sale could seem like exciting news for holders, others raised concerns and claimed that Netz was not a well-known figure in the community before this acquisition. The collection has a troubled past and the former community moderator dubbed ColdPizza exited the project after being promoted to the community manager without having to come to an agreement on job terms like compensation. ColdPizza criticized ColeThereum’s leadership alleging that he bribed him with 1 ETH to not disclose more information about the project. Cole said:

“I have never and would never bribe anyone. We let go of one of our staff members and I offered a 1 Ethereum bonus for being helpful to the project. It was taken out of context and false rumors spread.”

A Pudgy Penguins whale also criticized Cole’s leadership saying that the project is a sinking ship and that they weren’t interested in buying the collection for 888 ETH because the project’s wallet was empty:

“Cole is the reflection of the lack of trust and transparency between the founders and community of the project. Removing Cole is like eating a painkiller when you have cancer.”

(3/7) Conflicting sources say he was paid .1-.25 eth weekly. However, there was no formal contract for his work and he went above and beyond, thus leading to burnout. He left the team and started a space telling his side of the story. Important takeaways:

— ricefarmer.eth 🍚 (@RiceFarmerNFT) December 12, 2021

In January, some holders wanted to find a way out of the proejct because they disagreed with the leadership which led to the creation of the Wrapped Penguins and allowed existing holders to be able to wrap their Penguins into a new collection that will not pay royalties to the team.