Pudgy Penguins are cooling off, after some attention from the New York Times prompted a red-hot run on the NFT avatar project late last week.

The “floor” (minimum) price for a penguin has slipped to 1.68 Ether (US$5,300), after topping 3 Ether over the weekend.

While this penguin wearing a crown sold for 15 Ether (US$47,343) this morning, that’s been it for eye-popping sales for the past few days. The left-facing penguin that sold for 150 Ether (US$4743,000) last week was lately getting offers for under 1 Eth (US$3,150); its owner has listed it for 500 Eth. (US$1.6 million).

To be sure, folks who minted a penguin during their July 23 launch – or bought before the hype set in – are still sitting on a tidy profit. The collection of 8,888 pengu sold for just 0.03 Eth, plus whatever they sold for gas.

This penguin in a top hat sold this morning for 2.15 Ether (US$6,829), after its owner bought it August 8 for 0.29 Eth (US$921).

Pudgy Penguin
Pudgy Penguin #7463 sold this morning for 2.15 Eth.

The artist Beeple also paid homage to the project with a depiction of a penguin eating a Chromie Squiggle — an Art Blocks project that has attracted even more outrageous prices.

On Sunday, this Chromie Squiggle changed hands for 750 Ether (US$2.3 million). (So really, shouldn’t the squiggle be eating the penguin? We guess that’d be harder to draw).

If you’re interested in buying a squiggle, the full collection is here. They’ve recently been selling for around eight to 10 Ether (US$25,000 to US$31,7000). But, y’know, DYOR.

Chrome Squiggle
Recent squiggle sales. (Opensea)

 

Market down 2.3%

Overall, the crypto market is back under US$2 trillion at lunchtime Tuesday Sydney time, falling 2.3 per cent to US$1.99 trillion.

Bitcoin had fallen 2.9 per cent to US$46,320, while Ethereum was down 4.0 per cent to US$3,178.

crypto market
Coingecko

Audius (AUDIO) was by far the biggest winner in the top 100, soaring 74.4 per cent to US$2.82 after partnering with TikTok.

Solana was up 31.8 per cent to an all-time high of US$73.12 as the high-performance blockchain project gains traction for NFTs.

Terra (LUNA) hit an all-time high yesterday afternoon as well, at US$23.59. It was trading this morning at US$21.84, up 19.7 per cent from 24 hours ago.

The two projects are the first top 20 coins to reach all-time highs since the May 19 crash. Solana is No. 10 on Coinmarketcap, while stablecoin project Terra is No. 16.

On the flip side, XinFin Network (XDC) was the biggest loser in the top 100, dipping 10.5 per cent to US12.48c after a strong recent run.

Among other top 10 projects, Ripple’s XRP token had fallen 8.5 per cent to US$1.19 and Cardano was down 1.7 per cent to US$2.12, while Polkadot was up 11.5 per cent to US$26.08.