Shalini Nagarajan

Just a week into the new year, and new meme coin Bonk Inu (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/bonk">BONK</a>) has already grabbed eyeballs, this time on Solana.



“We’re here to reward everyone that made<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Solana?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> #Solana</a> what it is today,” the team behind the Solana-focused meme coin, which went live on Dec. 25, wrote on <a href="https://twitter.com/bonk_inu/status/1600943377503367168" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter</a> early last month.



The total supply of the cryptocurrency is set to 100 trillion tokens, half of which were airdropped for free to the Solana community. Buzz surrounding the bounteous airdrop, combined with its developers burning all their tokens, led BONK to surge over 2,000% this week.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Based on data from a community dashboard, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24BONK&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$BONK</a> has had more transactions over the last three days than Ethereum had over the same period of time. That’s the power of Solana. <a href="https://t.co/j9frZCazwJ">pic.twitter.com/j9frZCazwJ</a>&mdash; Bonk! (@bonk_inu) <a href="https://twitter.com/bonk_inu/status/1611242228961185798?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



About 20% of the airdrop went to Solana NFT collections, 15% to early OpenBook traders, 10% to Solana artists and collectors, and 5% to Solana developers, according to the token’s <a href="https://www.bonkcoin.com/one-pager" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">webpage</a>. Its market cap is still tiny, around $77 million, so holders should expect volatility.



The Inu tokens are a brand of meme coin common across Ethereum and BNB Chain, with Dogecoin knock-off Shiba Inu the premiere example. Token holding binds a meme coin community inspired for potential gains, whether by buzz or by burning supply to boost scarcity.



Bonk Inu is porting crypto’s long-running dog coin tradition over to Solana, albeit with a white paper with scant details on future tokenomics, which may raise red flags for some veteran crypto investors.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="553" src="https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-07-at-13.38.01-1024x553.png" alt="" class="wp-image-43544" srcset="https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-07-at-13.38.01-1024x553.png 1024w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-07-at-13.38.01-300x162.png 300w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-07-at-13.38.01-768x414.png 768w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-07-at-13.38.01-1536x829.png 1536w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-07-at-13.38.01-428x231.png 428w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-07-at-13.38.01-470x254.png 470w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-07-at-13.38.01-389x210.png 389w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-07-at-13.38.01-80x43.png 80w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-07-at-13.38.01.png 1868w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">BONK&#8217;s price has retraced by about half from its recent peak, and it may well get worse from here. Source: Blockworks Research </figcaption></figure>



<a href="https://dune.com/wagg/bonk-stats" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Data</a> shows unique BONK wallets have surged about 250% this week. Austin Federa, head of strategy and communications at Solana, has also <a href="https://twitter.com/Austin_Federa/status/1609614244672151553" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">expressed enthusiasm</a> for the coin. 



“Why Bonk? Bonk is the first Solana dog coin for the people, by the people with 50% of the total supply airdropped to the Solana community,” the project’s site reads. 



“The Bonk contributors were tired of toxic ‘Alameda’ tokenomics and wanted to make a fun memecoin where everyone gets a fair shot.”



<h3>BONK airdrop provides great excuse to try Solana</h3>



But, those concerns aside, why shouldn’t BONK be BONK? Solana has been hit negatively in the last two months for reasons including FTX’s implosion. (Investors should however do their own research before buying BONK, or any meme coin.)



Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was a vocal cheerleader and proponent of the blockchain, which has added to concerns about <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/top-solana-nft-projects-are-jumping-ship-to-ethereum-polygon">projects leaving the Solana ecosystem</a>.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/qa-solana-founders-raj-anatoly">Q&amp;A: A Conversation With Solana Founders Raj and Anatoly</a>



The network’s native token SOL <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-price-sinks-to-single-digits-for-first-time-in-nearly-2-years">plunged to single digits</a> for the first time in nearly two years last week, weighed down by its ties to Bankman-Fried.&nbsp;



His trading firm Alameda Research invested in Solana Labs’ initial coin offering for SOL and held about $1.2 billion in SOL tokens at the time questions surrounding its balance sheet surfaced.&nbsp;



Moreover, two super popular NFT projects, DeGods and y00ts, recently decided to abandon ship and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/top-solana-nft-projects-are-jumping-ship-to-ethereum-polygon">move to rival blockchains</a> Ethereum and Polygon.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/0IUuWBVL24Jt-jBmLtJZxIfAtGP4I8EDOjLOjgBU6QfSSBvo_jn4Ix5s-5M3PmI_R-_gOgqQQyKRvVmUIqc0n6TEGEEfWfZuMqX_elrBwcbaRzdmaUEARHza61ICgUbMWuoV6_RYqDrdNEEplundT0WhfeEaQ32JXqxR5elBZMjylw5iD9Lg7BeUfRSeIw" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: BONK</figcaption></figure>



But now BONK is appearing to gain steam with major platforms such as NFT marketplace Magic Eden <a href="https://twitter.com/MagicEden/status/1610007500928991232" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hinting</a> at adopting the token, even though it has only been around less than two weeks.



Solana naturally benefits from increased usage of its network, with Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko sharing a <a href="https://twitter.com/rawfalafel/status/1610840444270960642" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tutorial</a> on how to use decentralized exchange Orca to trade BONK via Twitter.



Solana’s native token SOL has risen up to 36% this past week, according to data from TradingView, having outperformed the market since the start of the year.



Solana may not have fully recovered from its FTX-laden woes, and a dog-themed coin won’t fix everything. But, apparently, it doesn’t hurt.



David Canellis contributed reporting.



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BONK: Solana’s Own Dog Coin Sparks Joy for Weathered Community

Jon Rice

According to a wallet analysis published by Crypto dot com CEO Kris Marszalek on his official Twitter feed, 20% of all reserves at the exchange are held in the highly speculative memecoin shiba inu (SHIB).



As fear of crypto contagion from the <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/news/ftx-ceo-bankman-fried-resigns-bankruptcy-proceedings-begin/">FTX meltdown</a> spreads, Marszalek seems eager to prove that any exposure to the crisis is limited, and shared links to a Nansen dashboard that illustrate over $2 billion in reserves.



 A Crypto dot com spokesperson said that “The reason our <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/news/what-are-proof-of-reserves-and-can-they-build-back-trust/">Proof of Reserves</a> include Shiba is because we hold customers balances 1:1. Thus, our Proof of Reserves are dictated by our customer holdings.”



Bitcoin accounts for 30.67% of the total reserves, while ether is 17.32%. Only 11.99% of the reserves published are held in stablecoins USDC and USDT.



It’s the 19.77% of reserves held in SHIB that will raise eyebrows.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="551" height="415" src="https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SHIB-reservest-at-crypto-dot-com.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-38507" srcset="https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SHIB-reservest-at-crypto-dot-com.jpg 551w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SHIB-reservest-at-crypto-dot-com-300x226.jpg 300w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SHIB-reservest-at-crypto-dot-com-341x257.jpg 341w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SHIB-reservest-at-crypto-dot-com-347x261.jpg 347w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SHIB-reservest-at-crypto-dot-com-291x219.jpg 291w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SHIB-reservest-at-crypto-dot-com-80x60.jpg 80w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SHIB-reservest-at-crypto-dot-com-50x38.jpg 50w" sizes="(max-width: 551px) 100vw, 551px" /><figcaption>Image: Nansen</figcaption></figure></div>


Each shiba inu token has a current value of $0.000000979 this morning, representing a market cap of $5.7 billion. CoinGecko data showed that Binance and Coinbase had trading volumes of around $32 million and $25 million respectively.



Read more: <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/news/what-are-proof-of-reserves-and-can-they-build-back-trust/">What Is Proof of Reserves and Can It Build Back Trust?</a>



SHIB also <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/news/shiba-inu-flips-solana-as-markets-play-bankman-fried-for-a-joke/">briefly flippened Solana’s token SOL</a> this week as market participants worried about the close ties of the Solana ecosystem to FTX and Alameda.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/11785379/embed#?secret=exsr7aDbUQ" data-secret="exsr7aDbUQ" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
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Australian exchange CoinJar decided to delist CRO, the native token of Crypto dot com, earlier this week, explaining that &#8220;In light of recent events, we have decided that [Crypto dot com] Coin (CRO) no longer meets our listing requirements. Unfortunately, we have to take this action on short notice due to ongoing market volatility.&#8221;



Update: November 11 2022 4:42pm ET: Added quote from Crypto dot com spokesperson, contextual update.



Macauley Peterson and David Canellis contributed reporting.



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Funds Are SHIB? Crypto.com Reserves Are 20% Memecoin

Ornella Hernandez

<div id="highlights-block_631b97c0f709f" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>A Queen Elizabeth-themed meme coin on Dex Screener has over $6 million in trade volume in past 24 hours</li>
 <li>Similarly-styled NFTs have also hit OpenSea</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The death of Elizabeth II, the Queen of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, on Thursday hit Britain hard amid a slumping pound, rising inflation and the election of a new prime minister.



All that hasn’t stopped crypto degens from creating NFT photographs, caricatures and artwork — and meme coins — of the late monarch.&nbsp;



More than 40 crypto coins rolled out on decentralized exchanges on the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) and Ethereum over the past 24 hours, sporting classy names such as “RIP Queen Elizabeth,” “Queen Elizabeth Inu,” “God Save The Queen,” “Queen Doge,” “Elizabeth II” and “London Bridge Is Down.”



“Rise Of The King” token, in reference to the Queen’s successor King Charles, has <a href="https://dexscreener.com/ethereum/0xbff37a700447ee0076c107b8ef4c6d670f49cc87" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pumped</a> around 2,000% since its creation on Friday, currently trending on Dex Screener, which maps popular digital assets on Ethereum-powered Uniswap.



The Elizabeth token, on the other hand, has <a href="https://dexscreener.com/bsc/0xde1896b4452a25271e8469139ca294c02a595496" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">seen</a> $6.1 million in trade volume over the past 24 hours on BSC-based PancakeSwap.



Most of the projects have insignificant liquidity, which may indicate a potential for short-lived pump and dumps — so would-be traders should heed caution.



<h3>NFT communities pay respects — in their own way</h3>



On OpenSea, the RIP Queen Elizabeth II “memorial” collection launched with 522 items and has seen the most activity out of Queen-related NFTs on the marketplace. Only 0.23 ETH ($394) worth of the tokens have been sold to date.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="654" src="https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-09-at-3.53.00-PM-1024x654.png" alt="" class="wp-image-30770" srcset="https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-09-at-3.53.00-PM-1024x654.png 1024w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-09-at-3.53.00-PM-300x192.png 300w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-09-at-3.53.00-PM-768x491.png 768w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-09-at-3.53.00-PM-402x257.png 402w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-09-at-3.53.00-PM-408x261.png 408w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-09-at-3.53.00-PM-343x219.png 343w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-09-at-3.53.00-PM-80x51.png 80w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-09-at-3.53.00-PM-50x32.png 50w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-09-at-3.53.00-PM.png 1374w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



While Queen Elizabeth tokens may be new, the UK is no stranger to NFTs. In fact, the Royal Mint, the maker of British coins, is <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/uk-treasury-asks-government-coin-issuer-to-mint-nft/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">supposedly developing an NFT</a>.



Back in April, Rishi Sunak, the country’s former finance minister, asked the Royal Mint to mint an NFT in a governmental effort to have the country “lead the way” in crypto. 



In any case, at 96 years old, Queen Elizabeth II set a record as the longest-reigning head of state in modern history — odds are the digital assets she inspired won’t last that long.



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