The Solana ecosystem now has its own dog-themed token, and its name is BONK. Meme coins came to the Limelight in 2021, and several investors have raked in huge gains. Notably, of all the meme coins, Dogecoin seems to be the King and has been ruling for a long time.

Recently, BONK has carved a niche for itself in the Solana ecosystem and is speedily gaining adoption. At the time of writing, the BONK token is valued at $0.0000013, over 1000% above its launch price in December. But what is BONK, and how did it gain its hype?

What is the BONK project?

BONK is a dog-themed meme coin built on the Solana network to bring liquidity back to the Solana ecosystem. The developers have named BONK a coin “for the people and by the people.”

BONK is a Solana Program Library (SPL) token on the Solana chain. It relies on the Proof of History and Proof of Stake consensus mechanism used on the Solana chain.

History of BONK: How the Meme Coin Rescued Solana

Although the developers of BONK are anonymous, following the steps of Shiba Inu’s creator, the team presented a little backstory to the token’s origin. While the individual creator(s) are unknown, the token creation is associated with Dexlabs – a decentralized exchange and launchpad.

Source: Bonk

In their own words, the BONK team was fed up with the toxic “Alameda” tokenomics in SOL and wanted to create a fun meme coin that would give everyone a fair shot. The token was created to rebuild DEXs’ liquidity in the Solana ecosystem, which had crumbled in the weeks before the launch of BONK.

In November and December 2022, the world seemed to be coming to an end for Solana investors. The Solana ecosystem suffered from the FTX and Alameda scandal. Alameda had $1.1 billion worth of $SOL tokens on its balance sheet, which was more than 10% of SOL’s entire supply. As Alameda tried to scramble through the turbulence after going burst, the company was forced to liquidate most of its holdings (including SOL). As expected, Solana’s price licked the dust.

Following the downfall of the SOL token, many investors lost faith in the ecosystem, and a few Solana-based NFT projects migrated from the network. This further drew down liquidity in the ecosystem. It all seemed over for Solana until BONK came to steal the show.

The BONK developers had been working on the dog-themed coin for some months before the crash of Solana. However, the time seemed to be just right to launch. The BONK token launched on December 25, and as promised, a significant proportion of its supply was airdropped to Solana artists, collectors, and developers. This helped to resuscitate liquidity on the SOL chain.

How $BONK Gained Hype

What’s a Meme coin without the hype? Meme coins are known for their extreme volatility and speedy surge in price, and BONK was no exception. After its launch, the token drew liquidity into the Solana ecosystem.

The BONK team wanted to take control away from the big players and bad actors and give the Solana network back into the hands of users. In its whitepaper, many integrations have been mapped out to achieve this.

The first step in achieving this was implementing an airdrop distribution mechanism that would favor Solana builders and users. Half of BONK’s supply was airdropped to Solana’s Degen and DeFi traders, NFT artists, and developers. This massive airdrop distribution injected more liquidity into the Solana ecosystem. Orca, a decentralized exchange on the Solana chain, reported a trading volume of over $20 million following the airdrop’s distribution.

Further, Solana’s liquidity pools gained traction again, and liquidity providers on Orca earned as much as 999% APR for the BONK/USDC pair as of January 4, 2023. This interesting development drew some investors back to the network. Perhaps, the DeGods and y00ts NFT project, which exited Solana, will have wished they never exited, as they forfeited billions of BONK tokens from the airdrop.

Initially, BONK had a slow and steady price appreciation in the closing days of December. All that changed in January 2023. BONK, which started the year trading around $0.0000002, saw a 10x price surge within four days. The token’s price further appreciated as investors’ interest in the meme coin peaked, thanks to the success of the Solana revival mission.

On January 5, BONK reached an all-time high of $0.0000049. Shortly after, though, many investors took profit, and the price dropped significantly, trading around $0.000003 at the close of the day. From January 6 to date, BONK has been trading between $0.000001 and $0.000002. Bonk’s market capitalization is over $75 million, with over 130,000 holders.

BONK’s Tokenomics

Data from Solscan indicates that Bonk has a circulating supply of 93.8 trillion tokens. This new value results from the developers’ decision to burn their supply of 5 trillion BONK to curb the price fall after the bullish movement.

https://twitter.com/bonk_inu/status/1611133296955498498?s=20&t=fohDD1vLfoO74b6GrciKKw

Here’s how the 50% airdropped tokens were distributed:

• 20% was allocated to 40 Solana NFT collections. This represents over 296,000 individual NFTs. The BONK airdrop was distributed evenly to small-capped, mid-capped, and high-capped Solana NFT projects.

• 15% of the supply was airdropped to users who placed a trade on the Openbook platform.

• 10% of Bonk’s supply went to artists and collectors of unique one-of-a-kind SOL NFTs. The value of Bonk airdropped to each wallet was not dependent on trading volume.

• The final 5% of Bonk’s supply distributed as airdrop went to BONK developers. Lamport DAO facilitated the distribution.

Here’s how the other 50% of BONK’s supply is allocated:

• 20% of Bonk’s supply was allocated to early contributors who played a part in Bonk’s token design, web development, business development, marketing, and much more. Bonk had a total of 22 early contributors in its ecosystem. The tokens will have a linear vesting period of 3 years to protect ecosystem participants.

• Initially, the project set aside another 5% of the supply for future contributors. However, amendments have been made to the tokenomics, and all 5% previously meant for future contributors have been burned.

• Bonk’s DAO will receive 15% of the token’s supply.

• 5% of the supply was used to provide liquidity for BONK on Orca, Solend, Monaco protocol, and several other decentralized protocols on the Solana ecosystem.

• The final 5% will be used for marketing promotions, giveaways, and future airdrops.

How Bonk Compares to Dogecoin and Shiba Inu

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are the two leading meme coins in the crypto ecosystem, and both have a dog theme. Dogecoin was forked from the Litecoin network, while Shiba Inu was built on the Ethereum blockchain. On the other hand, Bonk was built on the Solana blockchain, a faster blockchain network than Ethereum.

As meme coins, DOGE and SHIB have experienced extreme volatility. In 2021, most price movements in DOGE and SHIB were positive, driven by hype. Most of the hype surrounding Dogecoin was triggered by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man at the time. Elon is well-known as the Doge father, repeatedly endorsing the coin and even approving Dogecoin as a payment currency in some Tesla outlets.

For Shiba Inu, the project is now community-driven, and developers and participants have done fairly well in sustaining the project. Shiba Inu is not just associated with memes but also an NFT community with active artists and curators.

In the meantime, Bonk’s role in the crypto ecosystem has been speedily discovered. Bonk proved to be more than a dog-themed cryptocurrency but also a Solana reviver. Just like more use cases for Dogecoin and Shiba Inu were discovered as the project developed, we can expect the same for Bonk, provided the community remains active.

Future Roadmap and Possibilities

The future of new cryptocurrencies can be projected based on the intention of the team outlined in its roadmap. Although Bonk has smashed its first goal of reviving trade volume in the Solana ecosystem, the Bonk team is committed to developing the project for a long time.

Firstly, the Bonk team will strive to make the token the true community coin of the Solana ecosystem. BONK will be community-driven, and active builders and promoters will be rewarded for their efforts.

The team also has plans to get BONK listed on several other centralized exchanges. The team’s goal to get BONK to leading CEXs has already been achieved, with Gate.io listing the dog-themed coin on January 4. However, the BONK team will press for further listings to boost Bonk’s liquidity.

The better part of Bonk’s development will rest in the hands of the BONK DAO. The Bonk DAO will be responsible for forming and implementing initiatives. As time goes by, more use cases for BONK will be discovered.

How to Buy $BONK

Gate.io is currently the exchange with the highest liquidity score that has BONK listed. To purchase BONK on Gate.io, take the following steps:

• Create your Gate.io account on the official website or log in to your account if you are an existing user.

• On the menu bar at the top, select “Trade.”

• Select “Spot” to participate in spot trading.

• Scroll through the list of tradable tokens to find the BONK/USDT pair. Alternatively, you can simply use the search bar to find the pair.

• After selecting BONK/USDT, set your parameters. Input the amount of USDT you wish to buy BONK, the entry price, or the amount of BONK you wish to buy.

• Click on the “BUY” button when done.

Your Bonk tokens will be in the exchange’s wallet once your order is activated. Users can also utilize the spot tutorial on the trading page to ease the buying process.