Did Solana Use Meme Token BONK To Escape From FTX Debacle?

When allegations of possible fraud at Sam Bankman Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency exchange, which was the world’s second-largest at the time, first came to light, Solana’s popularity took a nosedive. However, Solana discovered a technique to swiftly change the ecosystem’s  PR. And that technique is the infant meme token Bonk (BONK).

Immediately after FTX’s fall from grace, the Solana community created BONK to refocus the spotlight on their decentralized network. 

The Launch of BONK

BONK is a meme token that runs on the Solana blockchain. It was released in December 2022 under the slogan “for the people and by the people,” and it was created by a community of users. Since its inception, the value of a single Bonk has increased by 3,200%, although at press time BONK has since decreased by quite a significant amount.

There are countless tweets from different projects and influencers advertising Bonk giveaways in exchange for retweets and likes. NFT projects are integrating Bonk into their systems.

It is possible that the Bonk airdrop, which consisted of fifty percent of the total supply of its tokens, prompted huge community interest and rapid buzz. Twenty percent of the overall airdrop supply is being distributed to Solana NFT collections, which amount to 297,000 unique NFTs; the remaining ten percent is being distributed to Solana-focused artists and collectors.

As for the developers of the token, nobody knows who they are as they’ve opted to remain anonymous. We do know that there are twenty-two people and they do not have a core team.

In addition, it is said that they have all been a part of the Solana ecosystem for a considerable amount of time and have developed relationships over the course of the past two years.

However, the developers of Bonk Inu have stated that they have no current intentions to build a dedicated blockchain network around Bonk. Their focus is entirely on boosting Solana’s transaction volume and demonstrating the value of the low-cost network. 

The creators of Bonk have stated unequivocally that neither Solana Labs nor the Solana Foundation played any role in its development.

Is The Technique Working?

Clearly. According to research that was published on Jan. 11 by crypto in-depth research platform Delphi Digital, the number of total active wallets that are communicating with Solana-based exchanges has climbed by 83%, going from around 45,000 daily to over 83,000 daily. 

Delphi analysts said in the report that the increase in activity occurred despite there being no structural shift or catalyst for the network. They noted the release of BONK in late December as the cause of the change. 

At the time of this writing, the value of BONK has dropped by 12% over the previous twenty-four hours and by 67% over the previous week.