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PENGU, the native token of non-fungible token (NFT) project Pudgy Penguins, has debuted at a $2.3 billion market cap after the token was distributed to NFT holders via an airdrop.

The Solana-based token has a total supply of 88.88 billion and has racked up around $90 million in trading volume in the first hour since release, CoinMarketCap shows.

23.5% of PENGU's supply was allocated to the airdrop while a further 22% has been set aside from Solana and Ethereum communities. An additional 12.3% of supply will also be used as liquidity on decentralized exchanges.

The floor price of the Pudgy Penguin NFTs has risen alongside the release of PENGU, with the cheapest NFT now trading at 34.1 ETH ($136,000) to mark a 2.6% increase. It is now the second most expensive collection after CryptoPunks.

It has outperformed the wider NFT market which remains in a multi-year slump following the emergence of meme coins this cycle. NFTs were the plat du jour in 2022 amongst the more speculative crypto investors, but as hype and liquidity withered away so did asset prices. Trading volume on NFT exchange OpenSea topped $2.7 billion in a single day in 2022, whilst this month it has struggled to top $30 million.

CORRECTION: Dec. 17, 15:26 UTC. Updates headline, subheading and opening paragraph to reflect correct market capitalization of PENGU.