PENGU Token Surges 30% on NHL Partnership Announcement Amidst $108 Million Sell-Off Concerns

The PENGU token, the community token of the Pudgy Penguins NFT project, rallied over 30% in early December 2025, trading at approximately $0.01246. This surge was directly triggered by the announcement of a major collaboration between Pudgy Penguins and the National Hockey League (NHL) for the 2026 Discover NHL Winter Classic.

The partnership, spanning from December 2025 through January 2026, was launched at Art Week Miami. The campaign includes activations, giveaways, and live appearances at NHL events, supported by an animated video featuring cartoon penguins. This move is part of Pudgy Penguins' broader strategy to expand from an NFT collection into mainstream entertainment, including toys, physical events, and global licensing.

The bullish momentum was further supported by a spike in decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume to a monthly high and notable whale accumulation in late November, where large investors acquired about $273,000 worth of PENGU. Additionally, Bitso Exchange, a leading Latin American crypto platform, announced plans to feature PENGU as a primary asset in a perpetuals aggregator launching in Q1 2026, targeting the region's $1.37 trillion remittance market.

However, on-chain data presents a contrasting and concerning picture. Analysis reveals persistent, large-scale transfers from the PENGU project's deployment address to centralized exchanges. Since mid-July, the address has moved 3.881 billion PENGU tokens, valued at approximately $108 million, to exchanges. These transfers have continued into early December, with routine movements of around $3 million every few days.

This sustained selling activity from what is likely team or ecosystem wallets has historically correlated with price declines, challenging the sustainability of the recent rally fueled by the NHL news. While retail buying showed a resurgence with a positive Buy Sell Delta for the first time in four days and exchange netflows turned negative (indicating tokens moving off exchanges), whale activity remains bearish. Data shows PENGU's top holders recorded a negative cumulative balance change, selling more tokens than they bought in early December.