The Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) memecoin surged after a light-hearted exchange on X involving Justin Sun.
“OK. Everyone has become a penguin,” Sun said in a tweet on Sunday 13 July, which included an image of a distinctive pudgy penguin donning his signature haircut and a TRON t-shirt.
The Pudgy Penguins account was quick to reply that they appreciated Sun’s new look and welcomed him to the “huddle.” Traders jumped in on the fun as well, with a flurry of buying resulting in a 45% surge in PENGU since the X posts. That added some $650 million to the market capitalization of the token.
Penguin world
Pudgy Penguins is a Web-3 native brand, featuring a collection of endearing penguin avatars that has grown into a multi-faceted entertainment and consumer goods venture, including the PENGU memecoin.
The coin languished during most of Q2, failing to recover significantly along with the rest of the crypto market. It then tripled in value over the past three weeks to just under $2.2 billion, making it the fifth largest meme coin – just ahead of the Trump meme coin – trading at $0.03438 at 09:49 UTC on Wednesday.
Timely inertia
The conversation on X was not the only positive news for PENGU. Crypto commentator Ali Martinez, who has 140,500 followers in X, posted that he saw “real fundamentals” behind PENGU when compared with other meme coins.
News of the SEC’s acknowledgment of a PENGU spot ETF filing via X on 9 July also added fuel to the PENGU rally. The application was filed by Canary Capital, an institutional-focused crypto asset manager.
Canary Capital's filing adds to the more than two dozen altcoin and meme coin ETF submissions that have been sent to the SEC, including Dogecoin, Solana, and Ripple.
Not bad for a bunch of flightless birds.
