PENGU reaches three-month high on growing Korean won volumes

Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) rallied by over 27% in the past day, rising to a three-month high. The recent rally arrives after PENGU managed to outperform other assets in Q2, driven by increased demand on South Korean markets. 

Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) was the top performer even during a day when the whole crypto market turned green. The near-vertical daily spike followed a gradual climb for the whole of Q2, as PENGU recovered from its lows. 

PENGU expanded to a three-month peak, with a vertical climb in the past day. | Source: Coingecko

PENGU rallied by 27.2% in the past 24 hours, returning to $0.019, its highest price in three months. The asset started Q2 closer to $0.004, achieving over 400% growth. 

The short-term strength of PENGU also surprised traders, leading to around $2.8M in short liquidations for the past few hours. The rally also sparks hopes of PENGU returning as a leading meme asset and a community-based token. 

The recent rally follows the addition of PENGU to one of the upcoming ETF , currently in the process of approval. PENGU was picked as one of the few meme tokens to create the basis for an ETF. The latest rally coincided with a statement from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, acknowledging the Canary Capital filing for a PENGU ETF. 

The success of the token did not help the underlying NFT collection, which retained a relatively low floor price of 9.38 ETH. The Pudgy Penguins community is still relatively active, adding to the hype for the token and setting up bullish expectations of a hike to $1. 

PENGU boosted by KRW trading

Since June, PENGU has seen increasing volumes against the South Korean won. The fiat currency is the second biggest source of liquidity for PENGU, creating a trading anomaly. 

PENGU has managed to tap the growing crypto adoption in Korea, as Upbit is relatively selective in adding new assets. As a result, over 32% of PENGU volumes are in pairs against the KRW. 

PENGU increased its activity against the Korean won to over 32% of its volumes. | Source: Cryptocompare

Over the past month, KRW volumes for PENGU expanded from a low baseline, growing by over 50 times. The volumes derive from PENGU activity on Upbit, where the token is the sixth most active asset. The token retains a similar ranking within the top 10 on Bithumb. 

The recent daily price rally showed the frenzy for PENGU on South Korean exchanges is still relatively low. The token is still nowhere near 

PENGU rally follows a short squeeze

The PENGU rally was already heating up after June 28, when the funding rate turned negative. After a long slide, PENGU apparently drew in short sellers, with open interest rising from $32M to over $160M within weeks. 

PENGU has also seen extreme shifts in long and short positions. However, the token has experienced negative funding since June 28, signaling a prevalence of short sellers. For the past two weeks, PENGU experienced days of peak negative funding, causing an accelerating short squeeze. 

The recent price rally combines a multiple factors, giving the price a peak daily boost. PENGU may also increase its activity after being added to the Hyperliquid spot market. Currently, only five whales have set up derivative positions for PENGU, of which three hold short positions and are currently holding large unrealized losses.

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