In this episode, Luca Netz shares how he took a failing NFT collection and turned it into one of the fastest-growing Web3 brands. We dive into his three-pillar model of ecosystem, attention, and revenue; and explore how Pudgy has sold over 1.5M toys through Walmart and Target, signed 45+ licensing deals, and built a business where culture and cash flow compound.In the episode, talk about:

• How 80% of Pudgy’s revenue comes from licensing (45+ active deals)

• Why arcade machines, toys, and games beat token drops in driving brand value

• What “tokenized culture” actually means—and how it becomes a moat

• The future of consumer crypto and Luca’s bet on Abstract’s Portal

• Why the next big crypto success might not feel like crypto at all

• How to fix crypto’s broken consumer journey

• How to turn IP into retail + social currency without losing the core community.

Chapters

0:00 – Intro

2:45 – Tokenising Culture, Memes & Influence

10:48 - The role of speculation

15:30 – The Three Pillars of Crypto Value: Ecosystem, Attention & Revenue

21:55 – The Pudgy Playbook: Community, Marketing & $50M Revenue

27:56 – What Luca knew when he bid $2.5 million on Pudgy IP

30:45 – What's Broken in Consumer Crypto

38:20 – Fixing Onboarding: Abstract Portal & The Future of Adoption

49:43 – Building for Gen Z & Gen Alpha

51:10 – Lessons from $PENGU Airdrop

54:09 – Is Token a Product?

If you want to know more about Luca, we recently published a story on him here — https://www.thetokendispatch.com/p/the-luca-netz-story

👥 Guest: Luca Netz – CEO at Pudgy Penguins and Igloo

Twitter: https://x.com/LucaNetz 🎙️

Host: Saurabh Deshpande – DCo Podcast

Twitter: https://x.com/desh_saurabh

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