A Beginner’s Guide to Understand Bonk – Solana’s Dog-Themed Community Meme Coin

Considered Solana’s ‘social layer,’ BONK, a dog-themed meme coin, has surged to a market capitalization of more than $1.5B.

BONK originated from the mess caused by FTX’s fall in November 2020 with the meme coin seeking to unite the Solana community.

In December last year, a BONK boom caused the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization to rise to more than $1B. This caused a sell-out in the Solana Saga smartphones after shrewd traders established that the BONK airdrop bundled with the phone had a higher worth than the individual devices. 

BONK Explained 

Considered Solana’s ‘social layer and community meme coin,’ BONK is a Solana-founded crypto whose ecosystem incorporates decentralized application, decentralized exchanges, and a dog mascot. As of last month, BONK was the sixth biggest meme coin and is the 63rd biggest crypto of any category by market cap.

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the fallen FTX founder, had strongly advocated for Solana. Hence, when his fraud started unraveling in 2022, the Solana community searched for a means to dissociate from FTX’s fall. With sentiment concerning Solana’s price being at an all-time low,’ 22 Solana developers collaborated to develop a ‘community coin’ with an appropriate ecosystem surrounding it.

Despite the BONK core team staying unidentified, they assert that they have previous experience developing nonfungible tokens, decentralized finance, and other products on Solana. Further, they noted that the group lacks a leader and are partnering as equals. 

Immediately following the token’s unveiling in December 2022, community members and Solana developers were airdropped BONK worth nearly $300 for Christmas. This was done to unite and award the community for persevering during the challenging year. CoinGecko data shows that the airdrop was worth more than $550,000 as of last month.

In January last year, BONK’s developers burned 5 trillion BONK assigned to them to avert a drop in the cryptocurrency’s value. The burn reduced BONK’s circulating supply by 5% to 94.2 trillion. However, the value kept reducing in the burn’s immediate aftermath.

BONK Ecosystem Explained 

BONK’s official website shows it has 129 integrations but highlights seven crucial projects in its ecosystem. They include BONKSwap, an automatic market maker, and BONKbot, a Telegram trading bot that permits Solana users to use the messaging service to trade. Other projects include Moonwalk, a gamified fitness platform; BuyBONK, a cross-chain bridge to purchase BONK; and OpenBONK, a decentralized exchange. 

It is critical to note BONK’s nonstop engagement with Solana nonfungible token (NFT) projects. First, the project allocated 21% of its token supply to 40 active Solana nonfungible token initiatives. Additionally, BONKz, a BONK-motivated nonfungible token suite, was unveiled last year.

Understanding BONK Name?

BONK’s name references several comic memes. In this case, dogs, often Shibu Inu, the meme-friendly breed, were stuck on the head with hammers with a ‘bonk’ sound effect. However, no harm was caused in the meme’s making. 

The KnowYourMeme website shows that the ‘bonk’ meme comes from a 2019 Instagram post featuring an ‘amusingly distorted’ Siba Inu being hit by a hand holding a hammer, with a ‘bonk’ sound and clip art. This quickly spread across Reddit and Twitter, and other dogs were also hit. Afterward, the meme changed into the ‘go to horny jail’ reaction meme, delivered to those who were horny on the main. 

Unlike most meme coins, the BONK token utilizes its proprietary logo rather than the original meme. This has aided it in evading legal wars concerning copyrights that have impacted some projects. A good example is Shark Cat, Solana meme coin stablemate.

Final Thoughts

Since its airdrop in 2022, BONK has focused on strengthening the Solana community. Moving forward, its distribution approach will remain the same. The BONKDAO decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has been allocated 15.8% of BONK’s overall supply to allow the community to pick where the BONK ecosystem moves next. 

Contributors offering BONK tokens to finance their projects are mandated to comply with a three-year-long vesting schedule. This means that incorporations are not likely to rug the financing since they are incentivized to remain around for at least three years. 

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