BONKbot volumes rise as the memecoin’s DeFi uses grow

BONK’s DeFi applications show tech being built around the Solana memecoin

article-image

BONK and Adobe modified by Blockworks

share

BONK became the latest dog-themed coin to see parabolic returns this month, buoyed by viral interest among crypto traders and holders. 

But this particular memecoin seems to be gaining technological infrastructure.

The team behind BONK also released a trading bot that, according to available market data, owned more than 70% of the volume created by decentralized exchange (DEX) bots every day for the past week. This activity created roughly $4.8 million in fee revenue in the time frame. 

Read more: Dog coins are back: BONK leads Dogecoin, Floki and Shiba with 1400% rally

The so-called BONKbot’s fees over the past 24 hours are on par with those generated by well-known DeFi protocols Aave and Curve. 

When BONK debuted on Christmas Day 2022, it was viewed as a fun attempt to renew interest in the Solana ecosystem. But BONKbot’s recent prowess suggests that the memecoin’s developers may have bigger plans.

“BONK might just be a tech company wrapped in a memecoin after all,” Blockworks Research analyst Dan Smith said of BONKbot’s revenue on X. 

Loading Tweet..

Priced at a fraction of a cent, BONK’s recent price chart reads like a magnified version of Solana’s. BONK’s price rose by 227% in the past month as Solana (SOL) gained 73%. As Solana’s momentum slowed more recently, BONK followed suit. 

Solana is up 9% in the past week, while BONK shed a quarter of its price

BONKbot’s elevated usage is being driven in part by BONKmas, a rewards promotion whereby users receive rewards for depositing at least one SOL token into the trading bot. 

To be clear, the technology underlying BONK isn’t revolutionary. Its growth strategy so far has largely been focused on integrating with established platforms where BONK can be bought on exchanges or moved around the DeFi ecosystem.

As for BONKbot itself, the tool has an auto-buy function that lets investors trade slightly faster. It partnered with Jito Labs to create maximal extractable value (MEV) protection to keep buyers from receiving a worse price due to slippage or slow sending. 

Read more: What to know about Jito’s $165M JTO airdrop

These functions aren’t new to crypto by any means. But they are real pieces of trading technology that require real developers working with the token.

Developers outside of the BONK team launched BonkSwap in April as a community-centric DEX. Liquidity providers can receive escrowed BONK tokens on certain pools in the DEX, and BonkSwap developed a one-minute futures betting game called BonkOrBust. 

Despite a recent slowdown, BONK’s price has greatly increased overall in the past two months to make it a top-100 digital asset by market capitalization

And even if it’s not at the bleeding edge of crypto tech, the fact that any BONK tech exists suggests it may defy the memecoin stereotype. 

“It gets viewed as a memecoin, but it’s more akin to a traditional protocol token,” Smith said.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

recent research

LTIPPanalysis.png

Research

This report is a retroactive analysis of Arbitrum's Long Term Incentives Pilot Program (LTIPP). We collect relevant data at a protocol level and review bi-weekly updates to analyze recipients, their strategies, and the impact of the incentives on high level growth metrics. In particular, we want to highlight outperformers and underperformers, and glean any best practices or lessons learned for protocols distributing ARB incentives in the future. The overarching goal is to synthesize lessons learned that the DAO can reference as it begins thinking about future incentives programs–namely, the working group for incentives that is being actively discussed–especially as Timeboost introduces new conditions for trading and economic activity.

article-image

Sponsored

AI project Zerebro intersects the spheres of artificial intelligence, finance, art, music, and culture

article-image

Allmight is focused on furthering the United States’ leadership in crypto

article-image

The conditions Charles Schwab is waiting for before jumping headfirst into crypto could take shape soon

article-image

The FCA’s director of payments and digital assets shared some takeaways from chats with crypto companies and law firms

article-image

Let’s take a look at how US equities typically perform this time of year and what we might see in the coming days

article-image

Lumina introduces transparency and permissionless integration via an OP stack-based optimium, challenging traditional oracle designs