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.
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.
BONK is a tech platform wrapped in a social token.
Some core products include @bonkbot_io and @Bonkswap_io.
Across BONK’s product suite, they’re on a $200m revenue run rate.
They’re also wildly profitable.
Current mcap is less than 5x rev.
Misunderstood. Mispriced.
— Space Cadet (@solspacecadet) December 27, 2023
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.
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.
