Pudgy Penguins brings NFT characters to the Las Vegas Sphere during Christmas

Pudgy Penguins ran an animated display on the Las Vegas Sphere during Christmas week, projecting its penguin characters across the venue’s exterior screens.

In a post on X, Pudgy Penguins said its animations went live on Christmas Eve on the exterior of the Las Vegas Sphere, a popular domed venue wrapped in high-resolution LED panels designed to display large-scale visuals visible across the Las Vegas Strip.

Source: Pudgy Penguins

Pudgy Penguins is an NFT project founded in 2021 and acquired in April 2022 by entrepreneur Luca Netz for $2.5 million in Ether (ETH). As NFT revenue declined, Netz drew on his consumer products background to expand the project beyond digital collectibles and into physical toy production to generate cash flow.

“Toys generate significant revenue, but the margins are thin,” Netz told Cointelegraph in an August interview. “We’re selling millions of dollars’ worth of toys today, but it took time to scale into that business.”

What began as a short-term effort to extend the company’s runway has since evolved into a core business line, positioning Pudgy Penguins to end the year with an estimated $50 million in revenue.

The company also prioritizes Instagram to promote its brand. At the time of writing, the Pudgy Penguins account has around 2 million followers.

Pudgy Penguins Instagram channel. Source: Pudgy Penguins

2025 was a difficult year for NFTs

The NFT market started 2025 under pressure, with sales activity falling sharply. First-quarter transaction volumes dropped 63% year over year to $1.5 billion, down from $4.1 billion in the same period of 2024.

The downturn intensified in March, when monthly sales plunged 76% to $373 million from $1.6 billion a year earlier, though a small number of collections, including Pudgy Penguins, showed relative resilience.

By year-end, overall market valuations had also declined. CoinGecko data showed the total NFT market capitalization fell to about $2.5 billion in December, its lowest level of 2025.

But despite the overall market downturn, some NFT projects have managed to carve out a niche in the space. One area showing strength in 2025 is real-world collectible–backed NFTs, particularly trading cards, with platforms such as Courtyard.io linking authenticated Pokémon cards to onchain tokens that can be traded or redeemed.

Rare Pokémon card. Source: Courtyard.io

According to CryptoSlam, Courtyard has processed more than 230,000 transactions and generated roughly $13.9 million in sales over the past 30 days.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Courtyard CEO Nicolas le Jeune empathized the importance of using the blockchain as a “tool, not a destination.”

“The cards you buy on Courtyard aren’t worth more because they’re NFTs. The value is the underlying asset — the NFT just gives you a better way to experience it,” he said.