5 Pudgy Penguins NFTs sold for just... $175

The cryptocurrency and NFT community on X is in cahoots about an unlikely transaction that occurred on the end of December 31. An anonymous cryptocurrency wallet sold 5 NFTs from the Pudgy Penguins collection for “cheap as for” prices — just $35 per NFT, for a total of $175.

It's worth mentioning that Pudgy Penguins currently has a floor price of up to 21 ETH (about $73,909), which means that this investor could have lost almost half a million dollars in just one trade.

According to Xeer, founder of ApeEventuresVC and a well-known influencer in the cryptocurrency sector, 5 Pudgy Penguins NFTs were sold including: #5222, #5996, #2009, #7743, and #1550. All are trading at a price of $34.99.

Xeer noted that it is likely that this investor intends to sell his 5 Pudgy Penguins NFTs for 35 ETH — a fairly reasonable price in the context of the current NFT market. However, it appears that this person accidentally forgot to exchange the currency on the dashboard, resulting in a disastrous mistake that cost them $370,000.

Pudgy Penguins is an NFT collection launched in 2021 by digital asset company Igloo. The collection includes 8,888 adorable animated penguins, released on the Ethereum blockchain.

Over time, Pudgy Penguins have become one of the most sought-after NFT collections on the market. Last December, Pudgy Penguins even took the lead in terms of trading volume, with a floor price of $73,909 and a market capitalization exceeding $650 million.

Recently, on December 17, 2024, the NFT project Pudgy Penguins was issuance of PENGU tokenson the Solana network and allows users to check and receive airdrops. According to published information, about half of the 88.88 billion PENGU has been distributed to the Pudgy Penguins community, other communities and FTT holders.

The massive airdrop made Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) worth $3.064 billion the third largest airdrop in history, behind only Hyperliquid and Starknet.

The sacrilegious mis-selling of anonymous cryptocurrency wallets has sparked debates on X. Many users claim that this is not a silly mistake, but a sophisticated tax evasion ploy.

Some suggest that this investor deliberately sold NFTs cheaply to evade taxes. They may have made deals with outside buyers and sold at low prices to avoid tax issues, while creating a fake scene that resembles a trading error. Some even predict that they will acquire Pudgy Penguins from another wallet in the near future.

In addition to the tax evasion hypothesis, some users argue that this is a “tax-loss harvesting” strategy — a financial method used to minimize tax liability. By selling assets at a loss, the investor can compensate for the profit from the sale of other assets, thereby reducing the amount of tax payable.

Since all Pudgy Penguins NFTs are sold to the same wallet, the “tax hole harvesting” hypothesis has even more basis.

At the moment, there is no exact answer to this. The cryptocurrency and NFT community is still waiting for the latest information to shed light on the case.