Origin & Launch of BONK

Bonk was conceived in late 2022 when Solana’s ecosystem was reeling from the collapse of FTX. Solana had plunged below $10 (from ~$36 pre-crisis) and its DeFi activity and TVL were in freefall. The broader crypto market was deep in a bear market with Bitcoin and Ethereum at multiyear lows. Memecoins like DOGE and SHIB, which had seen meteoric rises in 2021, were fading in interest by late 2022, and there was a growing skepticism around the longevity of many altcoins and doubly so for memecoins. Against this backdrop, the idea for Bonk emerged as a community-driven Solana memecoin to rally the community and restore morale in Solana.

Bonk officially launched on December 25, 2022, branding itself as “the dog coin of the people” on Solana. The launch did not involve a private sale or VC funding; instead, 50% of the 100 trillion supply was airdropped to the active Solana ecosystem spanning nearly 300,000 wallets. This airdrop - one of the largest in Solana’s history - targeted key community segments to maximize grassroots uptake.

The goal was explicitly to reward the active Solana community at the time by airdropping various groups within the ecosystem. Notably, core Solana developers received small BONK airdrops as a gesture of appreciation. The wide distribution quickly made BONK one of the most widely held tokens on Solana.

A majority of the token supply was immediately liquid except for the 21% early contributor allocation which follows a linear vesting schedule that began at the end of December 2022. Thus, only a small remainder of locked supply remains to be vested over the following few months until January 2026. The other large project-associated chunk of tokens is the 16% initially provided to BonkDAO. The DAO as initially structured is a council of 11 members from the community and core contributors. This council controls the multisig holding the DAO treasury. The DAO has promised to gradually decentralize and, in July 2024, they allowed open voting on a proposal to burn BONK tokens received from BonkBot and ultimately integrated Realms (Solana’s governance platform) for community governance votes. Many BonkDAO proposals have centered around incentives for marketing campaigns and various token burns (Burnmas, BonkBot burn, November Burn).

Bonk’s launch coincided with a surge of speculative interest. The token was immediately available to trade on Solana DEXs. Several centralized exchanges also quickly listed the token - Huobi, MEXC, Bybit, Gate.io, and others all listed the BONK token around the first week of January 2023. This sudden exchange support helped BONK reach several hundred million in market cap within weeks. The initial excitement surrounding the launch and airdrop largely faded until later in the year. In late 2023, Solana experienced a broader memecoin boom, with new tokens like WIF gaining attention, but BONK remained the flagship Solana memecoin and rallied significantly during this period. By the end of 2023, BONK had firmly entrenched itself as a Solana staple, often moving in sympathy with SOL’s price, though with higher beta.

Integrations & Applications

From the start, Bonk’s strategy was to embed itself throughout Solana’s ecosystem. The purpose of this has been twofold - to capture and maintain mindshare as well as create various verticals to collect fees and/or reduce BONK circulating supply. Below are some major integrations and applications of BONK:

DEXs and Liquidity Pools (Jan 2023): Solana DEXs quickly embraced Bonk. Orca and Raydium featured BONK liquidity pools early on, often with incentivized yields. Additionally, a Bonk-branded DEX, BonkSwap, also popped up in early 2023.

Trading Bots - BonkBot (mid-2023): One of the most impactful Bonk-affiliated applications is BonkBot, a Telegram trading bot which we’ve covered in a prior report on the trading bot sector. BonkBot lets users trade any Solana token via a chat interface. The bot charges a 1% fee on trading volume and allocates 10% of those fees to buyback and burn BONK. At its peak, BonkBot was the leading trading bot for several months in early 2024 during the initial Solana meme craze. The app has stagnated within the trading bot sector since then. However, sticky users have continued to provide a consistent flow of fee income to the app and therefore to BONK burns.

Token Launchpads – Bonk.fun (Q2 2025): Following Raydium’s release of LaunchLab, a modular launchpad platform, Graphite Protocol in partnership with BONK released Bonk.fun as a Bonk-themed launchpad built on top of the LaunchLab product. Similar to Pump.fun, Bonk.fun allows anyone to permissionlessly launch new SPL tokens with a strong lean towards memecoin activity. Bonk.fun captured an immediate flash of activity at launch achieving north of $400 million in daily volume within a few weeks. This traction waned for a few months until early July when Bonk.fun suddenly gained dominance over Pump.fun, capturing 60%+ of Solana’s launchpad trading volume at its peak. As with BonkBot, Bonk.fun uses a portion of the fees generated by the platform to buy and burn BONK. We explore the impact of these major burn drivers in more detail in the following sections.

Gaming – Bonk Arena (June 2025): Bonk entered the GameFi arena with Bonk Arena, a “kill-to-earn” arcade shooter developed by Bravo Ready. Launched in June 2025, Bonk Arena is a web/browser game where players pay 10,000 BONK (about $0.15 at launch) to spawn in a deathmatch; defeating opponents lets you earn their BONK stakes. Half of all BONK used in the game is allocated to token burns, BONK staking rewards, and charity. Bonk Arena is accessible directly via Phantom wallet and planned for Solana’s Saga phone and PSG1 gaming handheld.

Cross-Chain Bridges (2023–2024): As Bonk grew, it expanded to other chains. Wormhole and other bridges enabled BONK on Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base, and more. By 2025, BONK was available on 13 blockchains either via bridges or wrapped tokens, improving its accessibility. However, Solana remains by far the main chain for BONK activity.

Multichain Deployments: Bonk is exploring the launch of DeFi products across various blockchain platforms as well. In the near term, Bonk plans to launch BONAD, a memecoin launchpad similar to Bonk.fun, on Monad. Redeployment and/or expansion of existing Bonk products into additional blockchain ecosystems could drive additional buy and burn pressure to the BONK token in the future.

This broad integration demonstrates the desire to position BONK as more than a memecoin. By inserting the token in many different contexts, Bonk has aimed to create organic demand beyond pure retail meme speculation.

Supply-Side Evidence: “Deflationary Dog Money”

While nearly all memecoins fade after their initial hype secedes, Bonk’s community pivoted towards building a sustainable ecosystem. A narrative began to emerge in 2024 that “BONK is more than a memecoin”. The crux of this narrative is fee generation and token burns.

Fee Generation & Routing

As mentioned earlier, BonkBot and Bonk.fun have been the most impactful applications in terms of driving application fees towards BONK buyback and burns. 

BonkBot charges a flat 1% fee on each trade: 10% of which are used to market-buy BONK and burn it and another 10% is sent to the BonkDAO multisig wallet. Thus, 20% of all BonkBot fees directly benefit BONK holders - half via permanent burns, half via accumulation in the DAO (which so far has ultimately led to burns via governance).

To date, BonkBot has generated over $87M in total trading fees, thus approximately $8.7M has been driven to BONK burns and another $8.7M has accumulated to the DAO over BonkBot’s lifetime. While 2024 was a great year for BonkBot, recent volumes and fees have been far more modest. Past 30 day fees stand at roughly $667k which would imply approximately $810k in annualized BONK burns (and potentially up to $1.6M total if the 10% DAO fee allocation is also burned).

In addition to BonkBot, Bonk.fun emerged as a major contributor to BONK burns in mid-2025. As a platform, it charges a 1% fee on bonding curve trading volume. Up until August 11th, 50% of Bonk.fun trading fees were directed towards market-buy and burns of BONK. This has since been reduced to 35%, but Safety Shot committed to reinvest 90% of its 10% share of Bonk.fun revenue into buying BONK, setting the effective buyback and burn rate of BONK to 44%. As shown below, Bonk.fun saw a massive surge in revenues over the month of July as it flipped Pump.fun in market share. In July alone, Bonk.fun generated over $37M in revenue, 50% of which was fed into BONK burns. Since July however, Bonk.fun activity and revenues have fallen over 90%. Past 30 day revenues sit at $812k, which would imply roughly $3.5M in annualized BONK burns with 35% of revenues directed to buyback and burns.

Other Bonk ecosystem apps are fairly niche but frequently follow the same pattern of using a portion of earned fees to buy and burn BONK. These other apps include things like BonkSwap, Bonk Arena, the Bonk Validator, among many other Bonk-affiliated apps or integrations. The key takeaway is that fee-driven buyback and burns for BONK have been driven almost entirely by the successes of BonkBot and Bonk.fun, whereas the various smaller apps have been largely immaterial to BONK’s overall burn rate. Nevertheless, the Bonk core team and community’s willingness to consistently spin out new Bonk-related apps, games, and integrations provide a pathway to new sources of BONK supply reduction in the future.

Discretionary Burns and Lockups

Beyond the major Bonk-related applications, the other largest source of token burns have come from discretionary DAO votes, events, and community/cultural decisions.

• Bonk DAO burns: The DAO periodically proposes to burn tokens accumulated in the treasury from revenue sharing. For example, the April 2024 burn of ~278B was a council vote, whereas the July 2024 ~84B burn was a community vote (any holder could temporarily deposit BONK to vote).
   
• Event burns (e.g. BURNmas): BURNmas was an incentivized marketing campaign with the DAO committing to burn varying amounts of BONK for tweets and other social engagement activities. From Nov 15 through Dec 24, 2024, the DAO and community burned tokens daily, aiming for 1 trillion. They ended up burning 1.69 trillion BONK in that span.
   
• DeGods Allocation burn: The entire DeGods airdrop allocation (500B BONK) was burned in January 2023. As a Solana NFT collection, DeGods were initially included in the BONK airdrop. However, after DeGods announced their decision to bridge to Ethereum, the community and Bonk team aligned around burning the DeGods allocation.

In addition to burns, Bonk introduced a locking (staking) mechanism via Bonk Rewards in mid-2024 to encourage long-term holding. Users can lock up their BONK for durations from 1 month up to 1 year with a duration-based reward multiplier. In return, lockers receive a share of the Bonk Rewards Pool, which is funded by Bonk ecosystem revenue. Rewards are paid out periodically in a mix of tokens (primarily USDC and a smaller BONK amount). Currently, 3.5 trillion BONK is locked in Bonk Rewards equating to roughly 4% of the total supply.

Demand-Side Drivers: Access & TradFi Products

The Osprey Bonk Trust, launched in October 2024 by Osprey Funds, is a Delaware Grantor Trust designed to give accredited U.S. investors passive exposure to BONK without the complexities of direct token ownership. Offered as a 506(c) private placement with a $10,000 minimum investment, the trust charges a 2.5% annual management fee and is close-ended, meaning it does not allow for direct redemption of its shares. As of November 21, 2025, the trust held approximately $20.2 million in assets across 10.97 million shares, with each share backed by about 209,000 BONK.

The trust thus holds roughly 2.3 trillion BONK tokens in custody - approximately 2.6% of BONK’s total supply. This is a significant chunk taken off-market for long-term holding. Osprey has stated an intention to list the trust on OTCQX once it meets seasoning and asset requirements, potentially giving public market investors a way to trade BONK via a stock ticker (similar to Grayscale’s GBTC). However, until listed, liquidity is only via periodic private placements as no redemption mechanism is currently offered. There are some risks to consider here: 1.) lack of redemptions means that shares can only be traded on the secondary market; 2.) when the trust is listed on OTCQX it could end up trading at a premium or discount to NAV. These risks have played out historically with closed-end funds of this nature - for example with GBTC.

Parallel to the trust, Osprey partnered with REX Shares to file for a Bonk ETF. This would be an exchange-traded fund offering daily creations/redemptions in the primary market and holding BONK directly. Several Rex-Osprey memecoin ETFs including BONK, TRUMP, and DOGE are all set to begin trading September 12th after clearing the SEC’s 75-day review window. Tuttle Capital is also pursuing a 2x leveraged Bonk ETF product, among other levered crypto ETFs, however SEC approval remains unclear. If approved, these Bonk ETFs could drive marginal inflows to BONK as they provide a regulated, exchange-listed way to gain exposure to the token. The mere speculation of the 2x Bonk ETF in July 2025 saw BONK’s price jump ~10% intraday, showing how the market anticipates easier access could lead to higher demand. Ultimately, it’s unclear how impactful these products will be until trading goes live and we can observe measurable inflows.

In August 2025, Safety Shot, a Florida-based wellness drinks company, rebranded itself as the first publicly traded BONK digital asset treasury company (DATCO) by adopting BONK as its core treasury asset. The company committed to purchasing up to $115 million of BONK - about 4-5% of total supply - starting with a $25 million acquisition in partnership with the Bonk DAO which also gave Safety Shot a 10% revenue stake in Bonk.fun. The company has since been renamed to Bonk, Inc. (Nasdaq: BNKK) to better reflect its association to the BONK ecosystem. Like many other DATCOs now in the market, Bonk, Inc. positions itself as a quasi-fund, raising capital through convertible preferred shares and ATM offerings to then buy and hold BONK; the firm has also committed to reinvesting 90% of its Bonk.fun revenue into further BONK purchases. While BNKK still nominally operates its beverage business to maintain listing status, the real play is providing traditional investors stock-based exposure to BONK. The move sparked immediate volatility - its stock dropped nearly 50% on the announcement - but in advance of the Bonk ETFs it provides a vehicle for BONK exposure in the public equity markets while also driving an indiscriminate bid into BONK up to the $115 million commitment amount. 

In summary, the demand-side story for BONK is one of financialization: an originally grassroots memecoin is now available through investment funds, potentially ETFs, public companies, and derivative markets. These products could channel significant capital into the token if successful - but they also introduce new considerations like fund flows, premiums, and regulatory approvals into what was once purely a retail-driven market.

Tokenomics: Supply and Demand Accounting

BONK’s total supply is now approximately 88 trillion tokens as the various burns have reduced it from the initial 100 trillion supply. Of this 88 trillion, we have already discussed several large sources of non-circulating supply such as Bonk Rewards lockups, BonkDAO holdings, and BONK held in the Osprey Bonk Trust and by Safety Shot. Together, these sources account for over 14% of the remaining total supply that is essentially off-market. Note that there are another ~2T tokens remaining to be vested from the original Bonk Contributors allocation, but these tokens will become fully vested over the next few months.

We can also demonstrate the effect that BonkBot and Bonk.fun may have on supply by projecting their revenue run rates into token supply removal. From the 30 day annualized revenues we arrived at previously, BonkBot and Bonk.fun are expected to burn roughly 84B and 370B of BONK tokens per year at current prices, which combined approximates to 0.5% of the total supply.

In essence, Bonk’s story hinges upon constrained supply and ongoing burns. Positive catalysts would include new vehicles to lock up additional supply or reacceleration of burns due to increased Bonk-affiliated application revenues. On the flipside, if the arrival of Bonk ETFs enable the Osprey Bonk Trust to begin offering redemptions and/or market share of apps like BonkBot and Bonk.fun decline further we would expect BONK price to respond to the downside.

Risks

Operational Risk: BONK’s value has become more closely tied to the performance of BonkBot, Bonk.fun, and other apps due to their impact on BONK burns. The ability of the Bonk team and community to repeatedly latch on to new narratives, deploy apps that generate fees to drive additional token burns, and maintain relevance within the crypto universe has become a key driver of success. As part of this, the cyclical success of certain products can be incredibly constructive while trending up yet equally reflexive to the downside when the hype fades. We’ve observed this narrative reflexiveness with both BonkBot and Bonk.fun where BONK surged during flashes of dominance for these apps but has also suffered to the downside as market share was lost back to competitors.

Ecosystem Competition: Solana’s memecoin ecosystem is not a monopoly. If a new meme coin on Solana emerges with more hype, such as with TRUMP coin earlier this year, users could rotate out of BONK. Similarly, Bonk products have dealt with the difficulties of increasing competition within the Solana ecosystem. At one point in 2024, BonkBot was handling the most volume of any trading bot but has since been relegated to a minor position within the trading bot market. Similarly, Bonk.fun achieved majority marketshare of Solana launchpads for about a month in July of this year. However, Pump.fun quickly regained dominance following this brief bout of success for Bonk.fun. If Bonk products continually lose share to competitors then the narrative of driving fees into BONK burns breaks down. Bonk needs to maintain cultural relevance as the meme community is fickle and prone to frequent rotations, but also must adapt to an increasingly competitive ecosystem of DeFi and trading apps on Solana. 

Reputational & Ethical Risks: By its nature, Bonk is associated with speculative mania. There’s a risk that if a major scam or rugpull happens under the Bonk brand, it tarnishes all things Bonk. For example, if a malicious token launched on Bonk.fun rugs users, some might blame the platform or Bonk by extension. Or if influencers promote the BONK token and then it crashes, it could become labeled a pump-and-dump in the media. The team has tried to position Bonk as community-friendly, but memecoins have a history of viral negativity too - e.g., celebrity promotions leading to lawsuits as well as “celeb coins” which received a ton of flak within the crypto Twitter sphere. Furthermore, Safety Shot’s stock plunge upon announcing its BONK treasury strategy may indicate that the market views it as “not serious”. If that narrative grows (like media mocking a Bonk Treasury as folly), it could deter more adoption, e.g. in Bonk ETF products, or lead regulators to scrutinize memecoin treasuries.

Closing Thoughts

BONK’s evolution from a holiday airdrop to one of the most entrenched Solana-native assets reflects the power of community, experimentation, and countless integrations. Its model of fee-driven burns and cultural stickiness has given it greater longevity than most memecoins, while its embrace by traditional financial vehicles signals a new chapter of legitimacy. However, BONK’s future depends on the community’s ability to continually innovate, defend its cultural moat, and sustain meaningful burn mechanics in the face of competition and shifting narratives. If successful, BONK could remain a defining example of how a memecoin can transition into a lasting ecosystem asset.


This research report has been funded by BONK. By providing this disclosure, we aim to ensure that the research reported in this document is conducted with objectivity and transparency. Blockworks Research makes the following disclosures: 1) Research Funding: The research reported in this document has been funded by BONK. The sponsor may have input on the content of the report, but Blockworks Research maintains editorial control over the final report to retain data accuracy and objectivity. All published reports by Blockworks Research are reviewed by internal independent parties to prevent bias. 2) Researchers submit financial conflict of interest (FCOI) disclosures on a monthly basis that are reviewed by appropriate internal parties. Readers are advised to conduct their own independent research and seek advice of qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.