BONK—a memecoin on the Solana blockchain—is one of the newest and hottest crypto tokens.
In this article, we’ll give you a quick overview of BONK’s origin story and how you can buy, sell, and trade the memecoin.
What are memecoins and tokens?
Memecoins and tokens are a relatively new phenomenon, and are closely tied to the emergence of cryptocurrencies and the culture surrounding internet memes.
One of the earliest and most influential memecoins is Dogecoin, which laid the foundation for the concept of using memes as a basis for creating digital currencies.
Dogecoin, launched in December 2013, was initially created as a joke by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. It featured the Shiba Inu dog from the popular "Doge" meme as its logo.
Despite its origins, Dogecoin quickly gained traction and developed a passionate community. As such, the success of Dogecoin set a precedent for other memecoins to emerge.
Over time, numerous cryptocurrencies with meme-inspired branding and themes started to surface, often capitalizing on internet trends and social media hype.
However, the market for memecoins is highly speculative and volatile, with prices often driven by “clout” rather than an underlying technology or utility. While some memecoins have seen brief surges in value, others have experienced significant price fluctuations and faced scrutiny due to their lack of intrinsic value or real-world use cases.
Overall, memecoins represent a niche within crypto that leverages internet culture, memes, and community-driven enthusiasm, but they also come with heightened risks and speculation.
Due to their volatile nature, and potential lack of long-term sustainability, it’s always a good idea to approach memecoins with caution and conduct thorough research before investing.
If you’d like to learn more about this, read our Solana memecoin guide.
What is Bonk?
BONK is a dog-themed memecoin, similar to Dogecoin or Shiba Inu.
The BONK team designed its token with the Solana ecosystem in mind, which is why it airdropped 50% of its supply to the community in December 2022—a time in which the sentiment about all things Solana was particularly low.
The remaining 50% was allocated to five key categories: team development, marketing, initial liquidity, BONK DAO, and early contributors.
Today, BONK is well integrated into Solana DeFi, boasting over 115 integrations across 10 separate chains—reaching more than 650,000 holders.
Key BONK projects:
- BonkSwap: This decentralized exchange allows you to swap Solana tokens and provide liquidity to AMM pools.
- BonkBot: A telegram bot which allows you to trade different Solana tokens. 100% of all fees go towards buying BONK with 20% instantly burned.
- BONK or BUST: This is gambling—nothing for the faint of heart. On BONK or BUST, you place BONK bets and either win more BONK or lose it all.
- BERN: A partner token to BONK. BERN was the first token on Solana which was rolled out with the token extension program. As such, BERN is leveraging the transfer fees function of the token extension program, which is structured as follows:
- 5% token tax on all buy and sell transactions gets sent back to holders
- 1% token tax buys and burns BONK
- 0.5% token tax burns BERN
How to buy BONK?
The easiest way to trade BONK is through your Phantom browser extension or mobile app.
After logging in, select a wallet which holds crypto you’d like to trade. Next, click on the arrow (swap) icon at the bottom. In the swap widget, select the BONK token pair and the amount you’d like to trade. Then, review the order, then submit!
If you’d like to trade BONK on BonkSwap instead, head over to the website, connect your Phantom wallet, select the BONK token pair and the amount you’d like to trade, and complete the swap.
How to bridge tokens to Solana with Phantom?
If you’d like to trade BONK but this is your first time using Solana—don't worry, we’ve got you covered. With our Cross-Chain Swapper you can swap to BONK across Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon right from your Phantom wallet.
How to set up a Phantom wallet?
If you’d like a friendly multichain wallet for crypto, NFTs, and DeFi, try us out. We offer browser extensions for Firefox, Chrome, Brave, and Edge, as well as apps for iOS and Android.
First, download Phantom. Then, create a new wallet.
If you’d like to fund, or send funds to, your Phantom wallet, you can do so via the “Buy” button on your asset tab. We offer various funding options, such as MoonPay, PayPal, and Robinhood to make it easy for you to fund your wallet.
Once you do that, you're ready to go!
Disclaimer: This guide is strictly for educational purposes only and doesn’t constitute financial or legal advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.
