In the past few days, the Solana ecosystem seems to have shaken off the gloom of 2022 and is immersed in an atmosphere of positivity and joy. Whether it’s due to positive reviews of Solana from the likes of Vitalik or the craze for a Shiba Inu-themed meme coin called BONK, Solana’s SOL token has finally broken through its single-digit curse and is rising into double digits once again. Solana’s price has been in the doldrums since the storm broke out between FTX and Alameda, but on the occasion of the New Year of 2023, it suddenly got off to an exciting start.
The rise of BONK
Since its launch in late December, the BONK token has continued to rise amid skepticism. At the time of writing, BONK was up nearly 200% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinmarketCap. The highest increase is nearly 40 times, the highest price is 0.00000349 USDT, and the current price is 0.000000086142 USDT. According to Dune statistics, as of January 4, the cumulative number of BONK users has reached 64,325, including 16,992 new users. The transaction volume and active users on the Solana chain have also increased significantly. In addition to the growth of SOL tokens, other projects in the Solana ecosystem have also become active due to participation in the BONK airdrop and integration.
What is BONK?
BONK is the first Dogecoin in the Solana ecosystem. According to BONK’s official Twitter, the project began planning on December 9, 2022, and called on other projects in the Solana ecosystem to interact. Then on Christmas Day, December 25, BONK officially launched a large-scale airdrop. The official introduction mentioned that BONK issued a total of 100 trillion BONK tokens, 50% of which were airdropped to the Solana community, including developers of LamportDAO, holders of NFT projects such as Famous Fox Federation, and even previously announced DeGods migrating to other chains.
This family-friendly “holiday airdrop” has members of the Solana community excited. BONK quickly became a hot topic among developers and community members after the airdrop. Although BONK is framed as a meme coin, it is gaining steady adoption within the Solana ecosystem. According to statistics from the BONK official website, BONK has currently integrated with 27 projects, including the open source wallet xNFT Backpack, the decentralized exchange Orca, the liquidity aggregator Jupiter, the payment tool Helio Pay, etc. Even the NFT trading market Magic Eden has expressed consideration Use BONK as the new payment currency.
BONK trading boom
It is worth mentioning that in addition to airdrops, Orca’s liquidity providers also benefited from this. According to data from Orca, the BONK/SOL trading pair has seen trading volume of approximately $29.3 million in the past 24 hours, while the BONK/USDC pair has seen trading volume of over $13.63 million. Currently, the total 24-hour trading volume between BONK and various trading pairs accounts for nearly 60% of Orca’s total trading volume. These projects also introduced a "burning" mechanism for BONK, increasing the scarcity of the token.
On New Year's Day, BONK also launched the ".bonk" domain name platform, which can mint a domain name by destroying 690 million BONKs, which undoubtedly further stimulated the community's enthusiasm for participation.
The influence of Meme culture
Analyzing from a cultural perspective, why a seemingly uninnovative altcoin can become popular, we have to mention the "Bonk" meme. This picture of internet celebrity Shiba Inu Cheems being hit on the head with a blunt instrument has become a symbol of self-deprecation and comedy. BONK’s founders were tired of the toxic economics of “Alameda” tokens, which were susceptible to price manipulation and concentrated wealth in the hands of a few. Therefore, BONK hopes to create a fun meme coin that gives everyone a fair chance.
After the FTX and Alameda scandals, the Solana community began to face difficulties bravely, trying to get rid of the shadow brought by the "VC chain" and SBF through self-deprecation and self-deprecation. Solana community member @0xbustos also created a BONK meme game where players can use BONK tokens to smack SBF over the head, a cathartic way to express emotions that resonated with the community.
future outlook
In any case, BONK has indeed injected a shot in the arm into the sluggish Solana and community. The beginning of this boom, whether short-lived or lasting, brings hope to Solana, which has just experienced a major shakeout. Judging from the rise of BONK, the degree of interaction and timing of the Solana ecosystem show that this is a long-planned "enclosure and self-emergence", and may also be a solution for Solana ecosystem developers to revive their efforts. .
It remains to be seen how much upside BONK has left in a highly uncertain macro environment. We hope that all investors can view this irrational exuberance of the Solana ecosystem rationally and act cautiously in future investments.