Licensing Expo

For the third year in a row, Pudgy Penguins returned to Licensing Expo to represent our brand alongside some of the world’s leading IPs.

It was a packed week of conversations with partners across consumer products, retail, and long-term category expansion. Beyond the meetings themselves, the event reinforced how much interest continues to build around Pudgy Penguins as a mainstream brand.

A lot of momentum is already forming for 2027 and 2028.

IRL Events

Miami Consensus

Miami brought together three key moments for the Pudgy Penguins community.
We kicked things off with a major event at the Frost Science Aquarium alongside OpenSea and Fenbushi, bringing Penguins, partners, and the broader Web3 community together in one of the most memorable venues of the week.

Beyond the main event, holders gathered at the Pudgy Penguins office for a more intimate meetup, giving the community a chance to connect, hang out, and huddle in person.

The week also included an NFT Founders Roundtable, where Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz invited builders and leaders from across the space to discuss the future of NFTs, IP, and community-driven brands.Attendees described the conversation as productive, leaving with renewed optimism and concrete action items. Luca plans to host more of these roundtables on a regular basis.

Asia

May was packed with community activity across Asia, with Penguins gathering in China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Korea.

The month included dinner meetups, university education sessions, Bitcoin Pizza Day celebrations, and active outings like padel and pickleball. These events brought the huddle into a wide range of real-world settings, giving both longtime Penguins and new community members more ways to connect beyond the timeline.

One of the standout events was the Seoul Pudgy Pizza Day event at WEPLE NFT Gallery, where art, food, and community came together in a uniquely local way.

Together, these gatherings show the strength of Pudgy’s regional communities across Asia. Local leaders continue to create welcoming spaces, educate new audiences, and bring Penguins together through experiences that feel natural to their cities and cultures.
Follow Pengu Asia on X.

ETH Milan - Pudgy Europe

Pudgy Europe showed up bigly at ETH Milan, helping bring the huddle to one of Europe’s key crypto gatherings. Shoutout to Fifi, Roscio, and t.d.u.s for continuing to represent the community and create opportunities for Penguins to connect across the region.
Follow Pudgy Europe on X.

Pudgy Canada

Pudgy Canada continued building momentum with another IRL activation led by local community members. Huge props to LilWenz and Spiffy for helping bring Penguins together and strengthening the huddle across Canada.

LA

Shoutout to Liz for bringing the huddle together in a joint-community meetup in LA!

Community Pudgy Cafe Initiatives

One of the most unique parts of Pudgy Penguins is seeing community members build real businesses around their Penguins. Across the world, holders are opening cafes, restaurants, and beverage concepts inspired by the brand, including Penguins Café & Restobar in the Philippines, Pudgy Pho in Seattle, and Pengu Juice Co. in California. What began as digital collectibles has evolved into real-world destinations where people can gather, connect, and experience Pudgy Penguins firsthand. These initiatives show the power of digital ownership, where community members are not just fans of the brand, but active participants in bringing it into the real world.

Pengu Juice Co. in California: https://x.com/PenguJuiceCo
Penguins Cafe in the Philippines: https://x.com/PenguinsCafe_
Pudgy Pho in Seattle: https://x.com/PudgyPho

X Timeline Takeovers

May was full of moments where Pudgy Penguins showed up across unexpected corners of the X (Twitter) timeline.

U.S. Representative Maria Salazar called Pudgy Penguins one of the most recognizable brands in crypto and even changed her profile picture on X to a Pengu in celebration of the CLARITY Act’s progress. Around the same time, the huddle caught the attention of major consumer brands like Chuck E. Cheese and Wendy’s, with both joining the conversation in their own way. Chuck E. Cheese later met with Pudgy Penguins’ Head of Partnerships, Steve at Licensing Expo.

These moments are fun on the surface, but they point to something bigger: Pudgy Penguins continues to become more recognizable across culture, politics, entertainment, and consumer brands.

New Licensing Partnerships

We announced an exclusive direct-to-retail licensing partnership with IT’SUGAR, bringing Pudgy Penguins into the confectionery aisle through candy and candy-adjacent products like gummies, chocolates, and collectible containers.

Launching across approximately 105 IT’SUGAR locations in early Q3, the line expands Pudgy Penguins into playful, collectible, and highly giftable retail experiences. It’s another step in turning the brand into something people can find, enjoy, and share in everyday consumer environments.

We also announced a partnership with SNAP to bring Pudgy Penguins into beauty and wellness. The collaboration will introduce products across skincare, bath and body, fragrances, and more, expanding the brand into everyday routines and lifestyle categories.

Perfect Pair Lifestyle Collection

We introduced Perfect Pair, our first lifestyle collection, designed to bring Pudgy Penguins into everyday style. The collection featured the iconic and long awaited-on plush duffle bag, and a set of keychains centered around Pax and Polly, extending the brand into products people can carry, gift, and use in daily life.

Other Happenings

• Following the success of the first drop, the Manchester City collaboration continued, building on Pudgy Penguins’ growing presence in global sports culture.
• Pudgy Penguins surpassed 100 billion views on GIPHY, reinforcing the brand’s position as one of the most widely shared and recognizable IPs in everyday internet conversations.
• The Pengu SOL Validator surpassed 100,000 SOL staked.
• We released a commemorative Soulbound Token with MetaMask.
• Pudgy Penguins continued growing across Telegram through collectible stickers, PenguBot, and the official Telegram ecosystem.
• $PENGU continues expanding through numerous exchanges, chains, and platforms that onboard millions of users into crypto every day. Our goal is to make Pengu accessible wherever people are.

Closing Thoughts

May showed just how far the huddle continues to spread.

Whether through global licensing conversations, IRL meetups, community-led businesses, retail partnerships, or internet-wide distribution, Pudgy Penguins keeps finding new ways to show up in people’s lives.
The brand is no longer confined to one platform, one product, or one audience.
It is becoming something people can collect, use, visit, share, and experience together.

In case you missed it, you can also catch up on our April recap.