CoinMarketCap Academy takes a deep dive into Bonk, which claims to be the first Solana dog memecoin "for the people by the people."
The success of the original memecoin, DOGE, spawned a whole host of other memecoins, quickly making meme projects a category in their own right. DOGE was just the first wave though, and many more pixelated moonshots have come and gone since.
At their core, memecoins allow us to celebrate the raging power of community, encouraging us to dream big and believe that any underdog can make a comeback and get that knockout.
And this year's Meme Coin of the Year winner, BONK, fully embodies that community-driven ethos. After launching as an airdrop in December 2021, the power of grassroots momentum kicked Bonk into high gear. Now boasting over 450,000 holders, compatibility across 9 chains, integration with 100+ Web3 projects, and over 4,000% gains since inception - Bonk has bonked its way to the top.
While some dismiss meme coins as superficial hype machines, we at CMC celebrate the way they drive awareness, adoption, and access for retail investors. And BONK has shown tremendous success in rallying a dedicated community behind its lighthearted ambition to be the #1 community coin in Web3.
Note: The Meme Coin Of The Year Award is presented in partnership with Trust Wallet - the world's leading trusted & secure crypto wallet & Web3 gateway, with 80 million+ users.
In today's deep dive, we'll explore the origins and meteoric rise that pushed Bonk into the limelight to be our Meme Coin of the Year...
Coinbase and Binance Listing
The leading Solana-based memecoin, BONK, went on an astonishing run recently, surging over 29,000% since the start of October.
While the Solana ecosystem has been heating up in recent months, the leading memecoin of Solana surged ahead after Coinbase, the largest U.S. based exchange, announced that they will list BONK with the "experimental label" on December 14.
Just a day later, on Dec. 15, leading crypto exchange Binance announced that they will list Bonk with the "Seed Tag" and open up trading for BONK on Dec. 16 at 8am UTC.
With two major exchange listings, the dog-themed memecoin surged even further, surpassing Floki and establishing itself as the third-largest "dog-themed" memecoin by market capitalization.
Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/view/doggone-doggerel/
But what exactly is the memecoin BONK, whose impressive rally has led to people buying the once-struggling Solana Saga phone just for a BONK airdrop?
What Is Bonk (BONK)?
Bonk (BONK) is a meme coin that calls itself “the first Solana dog coin for the people by the people.”
Bonk — or the “people’s dog coin” of Solana — was distributed via an airdrop. According to Bonk’s one-pager, its contributors were “tired of toxic “Alameda” tokenomics. This presumably refers to the collapse of FTX and its sister company Alameda Research, both headed by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). Bonk aims to be a “fun meme coin where everyone gets a fair shot.”
Bonk follows in the footsteps of other famous dog-themed meme coins like Shiba Inu and Dogecoin, albeit one that launched during a bear market.
At the start of 2023, BONK experienced an impressive rally of over 2,000%, although prices have fallen by over 66% since highs reached on Jan. 5.
This has resulted in the team burning 5 trillion $BONK tokens, worth almost $1 million at the time, to reduce tokens in circulation and backstop the price decline. The current supply is 94.1 trillion $BONK, and the token has over 117K holders, according to Solscan.
Like many other meme coins, the founders of Bonk remain anonymous. Dog coins and other meme coins have developed a reputation for being rug pulls. Therefore, investors in Bonk are advised to proceed with the utmost caution. However, it is worth noting that some meme coins, like the aforementioned SHIB and DOGE, have been trading regularly for years. The same is true for FLOKI, another dog-themed coin. Being founded by anonymous developers does not automatically mean a coin will be a rug pull or a pump-and-dump.
Bonk Airdrop and Features
Bonk follows the tried-and-tested formula of launching a hyped meme coin on the back of a strong community pledge.
Its “Bonkpaper” explains that Bonk strives to be “the true community coin of Solana.” Many other meme coins have launched with similar-sounding promises. Bonk aims to distinguish itself by not being “in the hands of VCs,” an accusation the Solana ecosystem has often faced.
Bonk aims to achieve that by airdropping a large portion of its tokens to “NFT degens and DeFi traders” in the Solana ecosystem. The “Bonk vision” will be propelled by a team of early contributors, “dedicated to the long-term success” of Bonk. All of this is to make 2023 a better year for the Solana community than 2022, according to Bonk. The Bonkpaper outlines how 2022 was a “brutal year” for the Solana community, which fell victim to “predatory actors.”
In 2023, Bonk wants to lead the charge in taking the network control back to the hands of users. For that reason, it has “many planned integrations,” a seemingly standard promise of many meme coins. It aims to “provide superior distribution mechanics” compared to other meme coins thanks to its airdrop distribution tactic.
Bonk (BONK) Coins Tokenomics
BONK is distributed in the following manner:
- 20% goes to 40 active Solana NFT projects, representing 296,000 NFTs.
- 15 goes to openbook traders. Bonk will not announce thresholds to “prevent gaming of the system” but promises even small balances can qualify.
- 10% goes to artists and collectors of 1/1 art that provide a snapshot of activity from collector.sh.
- 5% goes to Solana developers.
- 20% goes to early contributors helping with the launch. 22 individuals are included in this, with a vesting period of 36 months of linear vesting.
- 5% goes to future contribution and development incentives.
- 15% goes to a Bonk DAO.
- 5% goes to an initial liquidity distribution on different decentralized exchanges.
- 5% goes to marketing purposes.
How Is the Bonk Network Secured?
Bonk is an SPL token on Solana. The project website does not provide any information regarding a security audit. Solana is one of the most commonly used blockchains, secured by a proof-of-stake-type consensus mechanism that allows it to achieve some of the highest transaction speeds among all chains.
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