Benzinga - Solana’s (CRYPTO: SOL) meme coin BONK (CRYPTO: BONK) rose 9000% year-to-date, with a market capitalization of $1.17 billion becoming the third-largest dog-themed coin, behind Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) based Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB).
Half of BONK Supply Airdropped to Solana Community
It all started in 2022 December, when the Solana community was in for a treat as half of the BONK supply was airdropped to developers, artists, NFT collectors, and others in the space.
Developers in the LamportDAO community were each granted 25 billion BONK tokens last Christmas, worth about $300 at the time. These tokens are now worth approximately $480,000 at the current price.
Then Came The Surge
BONK’s surge may have been influenced by Solana’s surge alongside Bitcoin, amid optimism surrounding the spot Bitcoin ETF. In addition to market trends, BONK’s rally was likely fueled by support from major exchanges Coinbase and Binance.
Coinbase included the meme coin on its experimental “roadmap” program, potentially indicating that it is one step away from being offered on the platform. This official backing was followed by Coinbase adding BONK on its platform.
Notably, Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, also listed BONK and opened several spot trading pairs, including BONK/USDT, BONK/FDUSD, and BONK/TRY on December 15, further contributing to the meme coin’s rally.
Saga Phone Goes BONKers
The Solana phone Saga's became a hit, with a sudden burst in sales after BONK traders found out that the flagship web3 phone included a bag of the Shiba Inu-themed tokens in the market
The growing demand for the Solana Saga, the flagship Web3 phone, led to a surge in its reselling prices on secondary marketplaces like eBay. The Solana Saga is now selling for up to ten times its original price, fetching bids ranging from $2000 to $5000. .
Some other tokens that capitalized on the racing BONK demand were Helium and Dogwifhat meme coin Tokens for the decentralized mobile network Helium surged 397% in a month.
Helium Network, operates a 5G network powered by user-operated nodes. These nodes are incentivized to share their service with nearby subscribers through the issuance of crypto tokens. Notably, the network’s tokens are minted on the Solana blockchain network.
On the other hand, another Solana-based meme coin, Dogwifhat, saw its value increase by over 2,000% in less than a month.
See More: Dogecoin HODLERs Are Beating Shiba Inu With 57% Landing In Profits, IntoTheBlock Data Reveals
Analyst Skeptic About BONK
However, despite the bullish performance of BONK, pseudonymous cryptocurrency analyst Pentoshi warned of a severe market correction. He said, “You’ll be able to buy BONK 50% lower than its current price within four to six weeks, even if it goes higher first.”
You'll be able to buy $bonk 50% lower than its current price within 4-6 weeks.Even if it goes higher first. pic.twitter.com/mEBASH523y
— Pentoshi