Former Pudgy Penguins Executive Makes an NFT Comeback Four Years After His Ouster
22h45 ▪4min read ▪ byFenelon L.
Getting informed▪Non-Fungible Token (NFT)Summarize this article with:
Cole Villemain, former co-founder of Pudgy Penguins, sold out the 44,444 NFTs of his new collection Spritehood Wisps on Robinhood Chain this Monday, August 11, for 1,282,852 dollars according to the on-chain count by Lookonchain. The sale was full within a few hours. Is a sellout enough to erase the liabilities of Pudgy Penguins?
In brief
- Spritehood Wisps sells out its 44,444 NFTs on Robinhood Chain on August 11, 2026, for 1,282,852 dollars.
- The premium tier at 117 dollars accounts for only 12.4% of NFTs sold, but generates 50.4% of the revenue.
- Four years after his eviction from Pudgy Penguins for broken promises, Cole Villemain relaunches an NFT project under his name.
Spritehood sells out, but the revenue depends on two prices
Cole Villemain announced on August 11 on X that Spritehood Wisps had sold out, saying he was “back in the NFT game.” The large NFT collection market has been recovering for several months; however, it has not yet regained the depth reached in 2021.
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The on-chain count by Lookonchain distinguishes two prices for the 44,444 pieces: 37,430 were sold at 17 dollars and 5,526 at the premium price of 117 dollars, corresponding to the upgrade option offered on the mint page. Additionally, the deployer minted the remaining 1,488 NFTs for free before the paid sales opened.
Sales at 17 dollars total 636,310 dollars, the premium tier 646,542 dollars. The latter represents only 12.4% of the supply but generates 50.4% of the gross revenue, estimated at about 684.28 ETH at the time of mint. Fees, production costs, and possible refunds are not yet reflected in the available figures.
Robinhood Chain turns the launch into a liquidity test
Spritehood chose Robinhood Chain, the Layer 2 network launched by Robinhood for tokenized finance. Cointribune detailed this positioning in its article on the launch of Robinhood Chain. Such a layer groups operations before their settlement on a base chain, aiming to process more transactions.
This choice is not neutral: Protos documented wallet drainers, phishing pages, and rug pulls on this network in early July, according to its investigation. Nothing links these incidents to Spritehood; however, they temper the idea that a recent chain would be sufficient to secure or legitimize a launch.
The secondary market provides a first indicator: at 18:34 UTC, OpenSea’s API recorded 4,066 holders, 14,134 sales, a cumulative volume of 420.59 ETH and a floor price of 0.0179 ETH. This snapshot evolves quickly and does not directly measure the creator’s revenues, contrary to the 684.28 ETH of the initial mint.
The sellout does not close the liabilities of Pudgy Penguins
The fast sale does not answer trust questions inherited from Pudgy Penguins. In January 2022, holders voted to evict the founders after accusations of unkept promises and siphoning of the project’s treasury.
In August 2021, on-chain investigator ZachXBT accused eBoy Outlet, a dropshipping activity linked to Villemain, of delivering neither orders nor refunds to several customers, according to his thread. Villemain denied these accusations and stated he had refunded the affected customers.
Cole Villemain has passed the attention test, but not yet the durability test. The distribution of holders, the floor, and the volume over the next days will say more than the mint number alone about what this return to NFTs is worth. For now, 1.28 million dollars remains a launch success, not a lasting validation.
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Fenelon L.
Passionné par le Bitcoin, j’aime explorer les méandres de la blockchain et des cryptos et je partage mes découvertes avec la communauté. Mon rêve est de vivre dans un monde où la vie privée et la liberté financière sont garanties pour tous, et je crois fermement que Bitcoin est l’outil qui peut rendre cela possible.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.
