Pudgy Penguins light up Las Vegas Sphere on Christmas Eve
Pudgy Penguins projected animated versions of its NFT characters onto the exterior of the Las Vegas Sphere during Christmas week, with the display going live on Christmas Eve. The domed venue features high-resolution LED panels that broadcast large-scale visuals visible across the Las Vegas Strip.
Source: Pudgy Penguins
Launched in 2021, Pudgy Penguins was acquired in April 2022 by entrepreneur Luca Netz for $2.5 million in Ether (ETH). As NFT-related income softened, Netz leveraged his consumer products background to diversify the brand beyond digital collectibles and into physical toy lines to support cash flow.
In an interview in August, Netz said toys produce meaningful revenue but with narrow margins, noting the company is selling millions of dollars’ worth of products and that scaling the category required time.
The initiative has since become a core part of the business, with Pudgy Penguins positioned to finish the year with an estimated $50 million in revenue.
The company has also emphasized Instagram for brand distribution. As of publication, the Pudgy Penguins account has roughly 2 million followers.
Pudgy Penguins Instagram channel. Source: Pudgy Penguins
NFTs faced a challenging 2025
The NFT market began 2025 under pressure, with sales activity contracting significantly. First-quarter transaction volume declined 63% year over year to $1.5 billion, down from $4.1 billion in the same period of 2024. The slump deepened in March, when monthly sales fell 76% to $373 million from $1.6 billion a year earlier, though a handful of collections, including Pudgy Penguins, showed relative resilience.
By year-end, broader market valuations also slipped. CoinGecko data showed total NFT market capitalization at about $2.5 billion in December, the lowest level of 2025.
Despite broader weakness, certain segments continued to gain traction. Real-world collectible–backed NFTs, particularly trading cards, showed strength in 2025, with platforms such as Courtyard.io connecting authenticated Pokémon cards to onchain tokens that can be traded or redeemed.
Rare Pokémon card. Source: Courtyard.io
According to CryptoSlam, Courtyard processed more than 230,000 transactions and generated roughly $13.9 million in sales over the past 30 days.
Courtyard CEO Nicolas le Jeune said the company views blockchain as a tool rather than an end goal, adding that the value resides in the underlying asset and that tokenization offers a more efficient way to access and trade it.
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