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Pudgy Penguins CEO: Korea is The ‘Epicenter’ of Global Culture
00:09:02
Unpacking the Korea crypto market with Pudgy Penguins and Abstract CEO Luca Netz.
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Transcript15 lines
- [00:00]
Host 1
Foreign.
- [00:06]
Host 2
He's the CEO of Pudgy Penguins, a project that has pioneered the use of Web3IP in physical toys and retail. And the CEO of Abstract, Luca Netz. Welcome.
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Luca Netz
I'm super happy to be here.
- [00:18]
Host 2
All right, let's talk about that thesis. We were talking a little bit before we went live on air. Talk to us about how you are taking in Korea. What are you learning?
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Luca Netz
Yeah, it's been an amazing trip over the last four weeks. I've been in Asia, just bouncing around to city to city. I think from my perspective, I think I had a really interesting epiphany that I was telling you guys about just a second ago, which is I always knew Korea was super forward in how they looked at crypto, how they looked at technology and AI, but what I didn't realize was how big they were in culture. And I actually think Korea is becoming the epicenter not only of web2culture or web3culture, but also web2culture around the globe. And so there's a couple interesting statistics that I learned over the last couple of days that I think I should share. Of the top 10 women on Instagram, eight of them are Korean K pop stars. Of the top 10 music videos that have released in 2024 and 2025, nine of the 10 are most viewed are Korean K pop stars. Obviously, you just saw the success with K Pop Demon Hunters, Netflix's most viral movie of all time. And just maneuvering through the city the last couple of days, it's evident to me that this is really where culture is being conceptualized in the east, but not only the East, I think the rest of the world. And so I'm super fascinated. Obviously, you know, Igloo, the company that holds Pudgy Penguins in abstraction. Our whole mission is to own culture and crypto. I think we are the team that is both, you know, most well positioned to be the cultural hub for the industry. And so it was super fascinating to watch that. And then the statistics on the crypto side, you'd mentioned, you know, the kimchi premium, but I actually think it's a lot more serious than than that. You know, last year or in quarter one of 2025, the KRW traded about 456 billion billion in denominated asset pairs. In terms of trading volume, the US dollar between USDC and USDT traded about $480 billion. And so the entire globe who's using US dollars right to trade is barely beating the KRW denominated trading volume. And they're really close. And so it's just clear to me, man, that I think the energy here, the desire to want to be at the forefront of innovation is frankly, I think, bar none to any other place I've been in the world. And I'm super excited to be one of the companies leading the charge and pushing both blockchain technology and IP in Korea.
- [02:55]
Host 2
Could we get a pudgy penguins K pop collab?
- [02:58]
Luca Netz
So Triple S, which is one of the bigger K pop groups, I think top six or seven in all of Korea, is actually working and building on abstract chain rails and hope to do some pudgy penguin stuff with them here shortly.
- [03:13]
Host 1
You know, look, I think it's really salient what you mentioned, because I think I started paying attention to Korea about 20 years ago when they really decided that they wanted to make their culture go global. It was a very defined initiative from the government on down, and we saw it with Psy and Gangnam Style. We saw Korea barbecue open up all over the world. And as spicier flavors became indoctrinated into cuisines, I think there's something around a community and a culture and a country that decides we want to be expansive, that. That is very different than we often are used to. We are seeing in America, obviously, there's a big push towards crypto as an American brand now. And so I'm interested in your, you know, your thoughts on America is pushing crypto as we're seeing the top level of the administration, then you come to a place like Korea and you see how much they support their communities and culture. Is, I guess, is it the desire that we need these. These big communities to be working together, figuring out how this works as a global institution as opposed to sort of segmented by borders?
- [04:16]
Luca Netz
Yeah, unfortunately, I think just by proxy of the different cultures, there will be segmented by borders. I think that's just a human problem, not a crypto problem. But I do think that America is becoming the institutional hub for crypto. But it is unequivocally clear to me that. That Korea is the retail hub for crypto. I mean, they're treating, you know, there's esports, perps, you know, competitions going on in Korea. There's thousands of people sitting in gaming conventions playing web3 games. All the people that are coming to our events. You know, I do this thing where I just. I think it's just the right thing to do. But when people come to our events, I'm in the line with them, shaking their hands, greeting them. But one thing I'm also doing while I do. That is, I'm just observing and understanding who's coming into our event. And it's all 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24 year olds. And you can just tell that, you know, Internet native generation is very much taking crypto extremely seriously, almost like a lifestyle. The interesting thing about Asian cultures, Asia really cares. They care in a way that I think Americans simply do not. And I speak, I say this as an American. They just have an attention to detail and a passion for things that they ingrain it into their lifestyle in a way that I think Americans just don't. And you can just tell that crypto is not just a thing that they do when they go back from work or, you know, they spend 20 or 30 minutes, you know, at the end of their day. They really treat this like a lifestyle through and through. And it's beautiful to watch because I do think this industry is a lifestyle if you really get into it. You know, it's. It's 24 7, it's super fast paced, the cadence is incredible. And so it's just super refreshing to see this mass cohort. It's not. And you mentioned the Charles statistic. You're completely right in that 35% of people in Korea have traded crypto before. I mean, that's insane. You can basically walk down the street and every fifth person probably has heard of pudgy penguins by. You know, it's crazy to think about. And it's just something that I think a lot of founders need to take more seriously. And I have a call to action for the Korean community. I really encourage Korean entrepreneurship to take a leg up in terms of really focusing on crypto and web 3. There's not as many Korean crypto entrepreneurs as I would like to see. And just figuring how powerful this entire community is, this city, this state, I think it's just one of those things that I would love to see more of and I'd love to support more. More Korean builders.
- [06:47]
Host 2
All right, Luca, just before we go, we had OVI from Wrecked yesterday. We just had Gabby from YGG on before you. I know that they are collaborating with you over at Abstract. For our audience watching, talk to us about how and how Abstract is bringing the model that you've kind of perfected to these other firms.
- [07:05]
Luca Netz
Yeah. I think Abstract, you know, acts and its purpose is to sit as the consumer layer for Etherium. And when I think about the consumer layer, I think two things in terms of problems to solve. I think the first one is the consumer journey, the consumer journey. Is broken in crypto. I mean even functionally, you making a simple trade on Uniswap, you've got a go to a metamask, download the extension, figure out how to fund, get pushed to maybe a Moonpay or some other, you know, on ramp provider to onboard your dollars there. Then you have to go to Uniswap, then you have to connect the wallet, then you have to swap. The process is too egregious. I believe in one centralized front end in which you can do everything on chain. I think the chain itself has to be decentralized, but I think the front end and the experience that everyone uses has to be centralized. I think decentralization and consumer adoption are antonyms, they mean opposite things. But I don't think you need to compromise the integrity of the financial infrastructure that everyone at Ethereum has been building for the last 10 years or eight years. And so I do believe in centralized front ends. I think we're one of the pioneers and innovators of that in our portal product. And it has allowed us to basically take builders like Gabby and put them on the front page of our end user engagement platform and just push builders to go and ultimately get PMF and to bootstrap their product. And then on the other side of it, we are really focused on just really trying to bring fun back to the evm. I think when you think consumer, what is the first thing that's going to break out in consumer? I don't think you need to reinvent the wheel. I think every great consumer product that's broken out up until this point, opensea pump Fun, you name it, has been a fun product for the end user. So we just want to own fun. We want to bring fun back to the evm. And those are the first two problems that we're tackling here over at Abstract.
- [08:49]
Host 1
I mean, no one knows consumer crypto like you. I feel like you're the face of it. So thank you for all the work you've done as well to bring it.
- [08:55]
Luca Netz
Appreciate you guys.
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Host 2
Luca, thanks so much.
- [08:56]
Luca Netz
Thanks for having me.