In the past few weeks, a Shiba inu-themed token took center stage in the Solana ecosystem as sentiment around the blockchain network took a hit in the aftermath of the Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX debacle. CoinDesk’s Shaurya Malwa took a closer look at Bonk Inu.

• Called Bonk Inu, the project with a cute dog holding a bat as a mascot, launched with just a homepage and a “bonk paper” in the final weeks of 2022.
• But the lack of clear team information or even a dedicated community channel didn’t deter entrants from punting their hopes: The project’s token, BONK, ran up as much as 3,200% in just three weeks, almost single-handedly inciting activity in the Solana ecosystem, as previously reported.
• Bonk Inu is a team of 22 individuals with no singular leader, all of whom were involved in the inception of the project, CoinDesk learned from one of the several developers. All of them have previously built decentralized applications (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT) and other related products on Solana.
• The bonk airdrop – amounting to 50% of its token supply – likely drove massive community interest and instant hype. Some 20% of the total airdrop supply is going to Solana non-fungible token collections – comprising 297,000 individual NFTs – and 10% to Solana-focused artists and collectors. Airdrops refer to an unsolicited distribution of a cryptocurrency token or coin, usually for free, to numerous wallet addresses and are generally used as a tactic to gain users.
• Following Solana taking a hit after the FTX’s collapse, the 22 Solana developers wasted no time in distancing themselves from Sam Bankman-Fried’s dirt. They banded together to build a “community coin” – and decided that a dog-themed protocol was the way to go.
• The team does not see itself as a dogecoin or shiba inu rival and points out BONK is already different from the gazillions of dog-themed meme coins already on the market.

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