Hedgehogs are fast, cute, and cuddly, all of which are desirable features for a monetary transfer protocol

Hedgehogs have a funny name, opening the door to many new puns, which is desirable because all the good lightning related puns are taken by various wallets and lsp services

Hedgehogs have emojis, video games, movies, tv shows, and nature documentaries, all of which are fodder for social memers to meme hedgehog into broad popularity