Crypto whale turns $3.46M into $1.83M, takes big hit after PENGU airdrop

One of the most popular NFT collections, Pudgy Penguins, recently launched its token $PENGU through an elaborate airdrop campaign. Crypto traders speculated on $PENGU’s price action post-launch, with one whale losing $1.6 million while another won $4.8 million.

Precisely, the Solana whale account ‘998FDp…v6Lvc’ turned a 15,300 $SOL investment into around 8,100 $SOL worth of PENGUs. According to Lookonchain, the $SOL amounts had a nominal value of $3.46 million and $1.83 million, respectively.

Yet, the losses are not entirely realized, as the whale still has 13.47 million $PENGU valued at around 1,439 $SOL or $369,000. As reported, the whale spent 15,300 $SOL to buy 65.47 million $PENGU. Then, it capitulated by selling 52 million $PENGU for 6,661 $SOL, worth $1.46 million.

Crypto investor won millions of dollars with the $PENGU airdrop

On the other hand, some crypto investors have financially benefited a lot from the $PENGU airdrop, potentially selling to buyers.

In particular, ‘AADfEY…tKQbo’ claimed and sold 177 million $PENGU from the airdrop, worth $4.8 million, according to Lookonchain. As posted on X, this $PENGU stash was worth over $10 million at its peak.

Despite theoretically missing around $5 million more gains by not selling earlier, this investor still profited a lot from a token they received for free while dumping into speculators like ‘998FDp…v6Lvc’ who were forced to capitulate after buying the hype.

$PENGU price analysis

As of this writing, $PENGU is trading at $0.034151 on Binance against Tether’s USDT stablecoin. This represents 8.5% gains from its launching price on the centralized exchange and an 11% drop from the top.

Overall, $PENGU story makes a good tale on what happens during highly expected token airdrops in the crypto market.

On one side, investors who received the airdrop can see massive gains by selling to the other side. Conversely, traders who buy the token trying to navigate its trend could experience significant losses once the selling pressure hits.

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