Pudgy Penguins expands onto DeFi with PenguSOL launch on Solana

Pudgy Penguins aims to boost its presence on Solana beyond the meme space. The platform will issue its own liquid staking token, PenguSOL.

Pudgy Penguins will become the latest liquid staking project on Solana, moving beyond its status as a meme project. The platform will start issuing its own liquid staking token, PenguSOL.

Introducing the penguSOL LST with @sanctumso.

With penguSOL, you can now stake and earn yield through our Pengu validator and support $PENGU without any lockups on your $SOL.

More info below. pic.twitter.com/B15OcoJ0QD

— Pudgy Penguins (@pudgypenguins) October 9, 2025

Pudgy Penguins will lend its brand to a growing sector on Solana, challenging other earlier and bigger LST providers. The LST space is picking up speed, as it may be one of the avenues for treasury companies to park their SOL for passive income. Pudgy Penguins launched its LST through Sanctum, a provider of staking-as-a-service.

Sanctum offers white-label LST services, allowing teams to simply apply their brand. The tokens have full validator logic, redemption rules, and DeFi access. PenguSOL is thus a fully functional token. Sanctum’s LST services have been also used by Bybit, Jupiter, and the Backpack exchange.

Solana liquid staking already contains over $14B in value locked, while Sanctum validators lock in $2.41B. Value in Solana’s LST protocols doubled since April, as the chain’s DeFi sector grew and built demand for unlocking liquidity.

Pudgy Penguins spread its PenguSOL in the Solana ecosystem

Pudgy Penguins provides SOL holders with staking income, without using liquidity. PenguSOL is immediately compatible with DeFi on Solana, and is already listed on Jupiter’s services.

The Pudgy Penguins LST will add to the liquidity of Sanctum, which already holds near-record value locked from other clients building their own brands of LST. | Source: DeFiLlama.

Pudgy Penguins uses the SOL Strategies validator, with 6.2% annualized yield. PenguSOL can also be redeemed at any time with no lockups or delays. The token is also accessible through the Sanctum page.

The APY proposed by Pudgy Penguins is moderate, but staking with PenguSOL and Sanctum supports the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem and is seen as appealing to the community. Pudgy Penguins already spans the memes and NFTs space, in addition to its physical brands.

PENGU remains the top Solana meme token

PENGU remains the top Solana meme token, though still stuck with a price of $0.03. The Korean won is still important for PENGU, making up over 15% of trading volumes.

PENGU has been trading with choppy price moves, abandoning previous rallies. Despite this, the token remains just 25% from its previous high, expecting a potential breakout as altcoins and tokens are still considered capable of having an even stronger season.

The Solana meme space has been more subdued, allowing PENGU to remain at the helm. For now, most tokens with the exception of USELESS are in the red, as the market has lost its exuberance for memes.

Pudgy Penguins is still the third most prominent collection on Ethereum based on its floor price. The collection sank to a floor of 9.25 ETH, close to the lower range for the past three months.