SOL - Is Santa Betting On BONK? How Solana's Memecoin Jingled All The Way To $1B Market Cap Club Containing Shiba Inu Dogecoin | Benzinga

Solana’s (CRYPTO: SOL)  meme coin BONK (CRYPTO: BONK) rose 9000% year-to-date, with a market capitalization of $1.17 billion becoming the third-largest dog-themed coin, behind Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) based Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB). 

Half of BONK Supply Airdropped to Solana Community

It all started in 2022 December, when the Solana community was in for a treat as half of the BONK supply was airdropped to developers, artists, NFT collectors, and others in the space. 

Developers in the LamportDAO community were each granted 25 billion BONK tokens last Christmas, worth about $300 at the time. These tokens are now worth approximately $480,000 at the current price. 

Then Came The Surge

BONK’s surge may have been influenced by Solana’s surge alongside Bitcoin, amid optimism surrounding the spot Bitcoin ETF. In addition to market trends, BONK’s rally was likely fueled by support from major exchanges Coinbase and Binance.

Coinbase included the meme coin on its experimental “roadmap” program, potentially indicating that it is one step away from being offered on the platform. This official backing was followed by Coinbase adding BONK on its platform.

Notably, Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, also listed ...