Bonk (BONK) tokenomics

Bonk (BONK) is a community-driven, dog-themed utility token built on the Solana blockchain. Launched on December 25, 2022, it was designed to revitalize the Solana ecosystem by distributing tokens broadly among its community members, including NFT collectors, developers, and artists.

Issuance Mechanism

BONK was launched as an SPL token on Solana with an initial maximum supply of 100 trillion tokens. Unlike many projects that utilize Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) or private sales, BONK had no presale or external funding. Instead, it utilized a massive retrospective airdrop to distribute 50% of its initial supply to various participants within the Solana ecosystem.

As of early 2024, the maximum token supply has decreased to approximately 93.56 trillion due to active burning mechanisms. While primarily a Solana-based asset, BONK has been bridged to other networks, including Ethereum (ERC-20), BNB Smart Chain (BEP-20), Polygon (MRC-20), and Arbitrum (ArbERC-20). However, core project functionalities remain exclusive to the native SPL version on Solana.

Allocation Mechanism

The initial distribution of BONK was designed to minimize the influence of large "whales" and promote community engagement. The allocation breakdown is as follows:

Usage and Incentive Mechanism

BONK serves as a utility token with deep integrations across more than 130 applications in the Web3 ecosystem. Its primary use cases and incentives include:

• Liquidity Provisioning: Users can pair BONK with other assets (such as SOL or USDC) in liquidity pools on BonkSwap. Providers earn a pro-rata share of transaction fees, with advertised APYs historically ranging between 23% and 43%.
• Staking and esBONK: Liquidity providers in incentivized pools receive esBONK rewards. These rewards can be staked on BonkSwap to linearly unlock BONK tokens at a 1:1 ratio over a 365-day period.
• BonkBot and Buybacks: BonkBot, a Telegram trading bot, charges a 1.00% trading fee. 100% of these fees are used to buy back BONK. Of the repurchased tokens, 10% are instantly burned, while the remainder supports referrals, infrastructure, and the BonkDAO multisig.
• Gaming and DeFi: BONK is used in "Bonk or Bust" for binary options trading and is integrated into various sportsbooks and fitness applications like Moonwalk.
• NFT Utility: The token can be used to create and mint NFT art collectibles, typically requiring a fee of 1 BONK per NFT.

Locking Mechanism and Unlocking Time

The project employs specific locking and vesting schedules to ensure long-term alignment among contributors:

• Early Contributors Vesting: The 21% allocation for early contributors is subject to a three-year linear vesting period that commenced on January 1, 2023.
• esBONK Unlocking: Tokens earned through liquidity incentives (esBONK) are not immediately liquid. They must be staked to unlock into BONK linearly over 365 days.
• Liquidity Locking: Initial liquidity for the project was locked on decentralized exchanges to prevent "rug pulls" and provide security to early adopters.

While the early contributor vesting is scheduled to continue through the end of 2025, specific data regarding future large-scale cliff unlocks for other categories was not available in the current records. Governance over the remaining treasury is managed by the BonkDAO, where council members vote on the distribution and allocation of funds for community initiatives.