The Pudgy Penguins collection, which is made up of 8,888 Ethereum NFTs, was sold for $2.5 million to Netz Capital. Luca Netz, the German footballer turned entrepreneur, and now the owner of the Pudgy Penguins collection will lead the NFT project. He will reap all future royalties from secondary sales.
The Pudgy Penguins NFTs are described as “unique blockchain tokens”. It signifies ownership over an asset – the image of a penguin. Netz is looking forward to spreading love across the Meta. The sale of Pudgy Penguins comes a few months after its controversial founder Cole Villemain (Cole Thereum) was voted out.
The German footballer made his offer of 750 ETH, in January 2022, for the NFT collection. He had written, “Make your move ColeThereum”. ColeThereum tweeted that he and three other founders were no longer involved in the project. He highlighted that the original team wanted the project to go to the next level and they felt Luca had the connections and experience.
However, some NFT enthusiasts have raised concerns that Netz is “not a well-known figure” in the Penguins community before the acquisition. It should be noted that Pudgy Penguins has a troubled past – ColdPizza, a former community moderator, publicly exited the project after he was promoted as a community manager. This came about without drawing or outlining an agreement on job terms and compensation. ColdPizza is said to have openly criticized ColeThereum’s leadership on social media. He alleged the founder of bribing him with 1 ETH to not disclose any more information about the Pudgy Penguins project.
But Cole brushed off the allegations saying that he has never and would never bribe anyone. He highlighted that the team let go of a staff member and offered a 1ETH bonus for being helpful to the project. Cole said there were false rumors and his words were taken out of context.
Other critics have targeted the project for lack of trust and transparency between the founders and the community.
