Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Wenser (@wenser2010)
On June 29, the well-known NFT project Pudgy Penguins' parent company Igloo.Inc officially acquired the on-chain creator economy platform Frame. The latter's team will join the company to jointly create a Layer 2 network, Abstract Chain, designed specifically for on-chain culture and communities, and plans to introduce new economic mechanisms on this network. It is understood that the Frame team will be responsible for infrastructure development in the future, such as a permissionless and enforceable NFT marketplace for creator royalties, and may use some L2 Gas fees to support creators.
Odaily Planet Daily will systematically introduce this acquisition and the "consumer economy" ambitions of Pudgy Penguins and its parent company Igloo.Inc in this article.
Frame reappeared in a different role this time: as the acquired party
From the NFT track L2 network to the on-chain creator economy platform acquired by Pudgy Penguins' parent company Igloo.Inc, Frame took exactly 5 months: On January 30, 2024, as the node originally planned to launch the mainnet and FRAME token simultaneously arrived, the Frame official tweeted that, after receiving community feedback and understanding that some users had problems claiming airdrops, the official had reopened airdrop claims and would delay the mainnet launch, with specific information to be announced later.
Unexpectedly, the airdrop did not arrive as scheduled, but what came after was the project's disappearance for a full 5 months—the project's official Twitter stopped updating, and no other news was heard, leading many to lament "NFT has indeed died, even those who announced the creation of an NFT L2 cannot survive and have directly run away." After all, in December 2023, the project had announced the completion of its initial financing, led by Electric Capital and community members, with angel investors and advisors including crypto KOL dingaling, Memeland founder and 9GAG CEO Ray Chan, and Azuki founder Zagabond.
At that time, Frame had gained fame for opening the initial airdrop of FRAME tokens to users who had traded NFTs and paid royalties on the Ethereum mainnet in the past two years, but it ended in less than 2 months, leaving countless NFT players who had hoped to "recover" through this opportunity feeling regretful.
It wasn't until June 29 that the Frame official account first posted a tweet with suggestive implications, followed by an official announcement of its acquisition by Pudgy Penguins' parent company Igloo.Inc, mentioning that Frame will be involved in building @AbstractChain, a blockchain network for consumer encrypted economy, dedicated to the development of culture, community, and creativity.
In addition, the Frame official announcement mentioned that Abstract Chain will use ZK stack cryptographic technology and EigenDA to provide builders with a secure, ultra-fast, low-cost, and developer-friendly building environment. Rewards previously obtained by holders of FRAME tokens will be cashed out in the native incentive system of Abstract Chain.
Abstracting the chain, chaining the abstract
A relatively failed NFT L2 project has since transformed into an important part of the Pudgy Penguins IP group.
The Pudgy Penguins IP empire adds another member: the trident is taking shape?
After Frame announced its acquisition, Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz also retweeted the news and posted a long article to provide a complete explanation of the matter.
He mentioned, "We are pleased to announce that we have acquired @frame_xyz and its team to contribute to the construction of @AbstractChain. Through subsequent cooperation, we will provide the necessary infrastructure and distribution mechanisms to introduce cryptocurrency into the consumer cryptocurrency revolution. The existing focus of L2 has always been on technological innovation rather than cultural expansion. In my opinion, L2 is the track of on-chain cultural economy. To drive this economy, you need to consider the community, culture, and distribution mechanisms. I believe that no one in the cryptocurrency field does these three things better than us. Our mission has always been to bring cryptocurrency to the masses, and this acquisition marks an important step towards achieving this goal.
Previously, when building @pudgypenguins, we discovered an unfortunate fact: the current L2 is not prepared for the consumer cryptocurrency revolution. This acquisition enables us to address these challenges head-on and create an ecosystem that supports and enhances the consumer cryptocurrency experience. I look forward to working closely with @cashbowie and @0xcygaar (the two co-founders of Abstract Chain) to build the world's largest on-chain community, bringing builders the users they need and users the products they want."
It is worth mentioning that @cashbowie previously worked at ZKsync (@zksync) and Activision Blizzard (@Activision, @Blizzard_Ent); @0xcygaa is a contributor to the ERC-721A token standard and is active in the cryptocurrency field, having joined the NFT trading protocol Sudoswap and served as an advisor to Mocaverse, among other roles.
Frame, as an NFT Layer 2 chain, has been silent since the announcement of the extension of the pre-claim period for airdrops on January 30 this year. It wasn't until last week that Frame finally made a big move—the chain was acquired by Igloo, the newly established parent company of Pudgy Penguins.
On June 23, Pudgy Penguins and its NFT licensing platform OverpassIP jointly established the parent company Igloo.Inc, as announced. The company, composed of Pudgy Penguins, OverpassIP, and another undisclosed entity, is dedicated to building a Web3 mainstream IP ecosystem and infrastructure to support on-chain brand building and consumer participation, as shown on its official Medium page. Now, the "undisclosed entity" has finally been revealed—it is Frame and the subsequent creation of Abstract Chain.
Official promotional material from Abstract Chain
With this, the three major components of the Igloo.Inc ecosystem behind Pudgy Penguins' IP empire have finally been unveiled: the NFT IP project Pudgy Penguins, the NFT IP licensing platform OverpassIP, and the consumer economic blockchain network Abstract Chain reorganized from the Frame project.
In the future, Abstract Chain will become the underlying infrastructure for building more applications and scenarios, Pudgy Penguins will serve as the starting point and link for expanding and deriving more valuable products in the form of digital assets and IP symbols, and OverpassIP will play a role in generating commercial value and building a platform for a circular economy, collectively shaping the "complete map of the Pudgy Penguins IP empire."
In addition, it is noteworthy that in the announcement of this acquisition, the official accounts of Frame and Pudgy Penguins, as well as Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz, used certain terms frequently, perhaps hinting at the next development ambitions of the nascent IP empire of Pudgy Penguins, namely, "targeting mass consumers," "driving Crypto mass adoption," and "building the world's largest on-chain community" (Consumer Crypto Revolution, Next Generation of Consumer Crypto Adoption, Build the World’s Biggest Onchain Community).
Abstract Chain: Subverting Base, Building the World's Largest Onchain Community?
As early as June 2023, Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz stated in an interview that the Web3 IP licensing marketplace named Overpass would be launched in late June. At that time, he believed that the NFT licensing mechanism would transform the industry from a "Ponzi economics" model and promote sustainable growth by focusing on tangible, real-world income for projects. Overpass aims to simplify and solve the current complex and cumbersome licensing process through blockchain technology. Unlike the liability form of creating virtual assets and airdrops, the Overpass model represents a paradigm shift. The platform will allow businesses to obtain intellectual property licenses directly from NFT holders and use them for their products and tools, providing holders with a scalable way to earn monetary returns.
Although it wasn't until the end of January this year that the platform was officially launched in beta and launched Pudgy Toys Chapter 2 authorization based on Pudgy Penguin IP (including 88 Pudgy Penguins and Lil Pudgy).
It can be said that this step has truly laid the foundation for the business model of NFT IP licensing and opened up greater imagination for the development of the commercial value of NFT IP. After all, the connection between on-chain assets and off-chain real-world IP certification and licensing requires the existence of such a "bridge" role.
Moreover, from an individual perspective, OverpassIP provides NFT holders with a practical "IP licensing economic return model," and from a capital perspective, this will be an excellent opportunity to link a market worth hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars. It is no wonder that Hunter Horsly, CEO of the well-known asset management company Bitwise, with assets under management exceeding $3 billion, recently highly praised Luca Netz, Pudgy Penguins, and Igloo.Inc for their work over the past few years as early holders, emphasizing that "Luca Netz and his team are doing hard and important work: they are bringing millions of people into the crypto space." Similarly, on June 24, the asset management firm VanEck changed its official account avatar to Pudgy Penguins and received enthusiastic feedback from the Pudgy Penguin community and the crypto community.
In addition, the achievements of Pudgy Penguins in offline retail are also impressive: on May 17, 2023, the physical plush toys Pudgy Toys were launched on the Amazon marketplace, setting a record of "selling over 20,000 units and generating sales of over $500,000 within two days of release," surpassing well-known IP physical products such as Barbie dolls, LEGO, and Pokémon. It is worth noting that only U.S. users could make purchases in the first two days. Subsequently, in a deep interview with Luca Netz by Odaily Planet Daily, he mentioned that Pudgy Penguins' retail sales had reached $10 million, with social media exposure reaching billions of times every month.
It can be said that based on past achievements, Pudgy Penguins is at the forefront of the consumer economy in the cryptocurrency industry, and the emergence of Abstract Chain is intended to serve a broader scenario economy and experience economy.
Based on Abstract Chain, Pudgy Penguins not only can further stimulate the stronger vitality of the creator economy but also open up unlimited possibilities for more "consumer economy" applications—as Luca Netz previously stated in an interview: "We are not a children's brand, we are a family brand. In a family, there are people of various age groups. There are 50-year-old men, 40-year-old women, 5-year-old children, and 20-year-old young people, right? I think this is key, we are a brand that everyone can love. I think if cryptocurrency and blockchain want to succeed, this is the kind of consumer network we must reach. This is very important. We are targeting everyone. That's the beauty of penguins. You can belong to any ethnic group, any age, any interest, and still love the penguin image."
Assets or products may have circulation boundaries, but building a brand that creates a "consumer economic system" will transcend boundaries.
From this perspective, what Abstract Chain, Pudgy Penguins, OverpassIP platform, and Igloo.Inc group aim to do is highly consistent with the Base ecosystem's ambition of "guiding 1 billion users into the on-chain society." With physical products as the "trigger," Pudgy Penguins has already taken the lead over Base in this regard, perhaps making "building the world's largest Onchain Community" more than just a mere statement, but a highly tempting and achievable goal.
Conclusion: Aiming at the entire chain economy, Pudgy Penguins has big ambitions
If the development route of the entire chain economy map of Base adopts a "from crypto-native to mainstream crowd" approach, then the development route chosen by Pudgy Penguins leans more towards a "dual-pronged approach"—on one hand, attracting early high-quality seed users through crypto-native assets; on the other hand, focusing on building an IP economic bridge, attracting broader attention through offline physical toys, and exploring higher-ceiling business models to connect the Web2 and Web3 worlds.
In August 2023, after the success of the physical toys, community members raised questions about "NFT holders receiving no rewards," and Luca Netz responded positively and proposed the "NFT value accumulation pipeline model." Now, it seems that he has been persistently following his own path, continuously pushing for the improvement of the Pudgy Penguins IP map.
In the future, whether more NFT projects can replicate Pudgy Penguins' "value miracle" is perhaps worth the continued attention and strong support of every crypto player.
NFT Value Accumulation Pipeline Model
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
