Bonkdao Reports $20 Million Attack: Malicious Governance Proposal Undermines Memecoin Market

The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) behind the Bonk (BONK) memecoin has reported an attack in which an unknown person removed $20 million worth of tokens. According to them, this occurred via a “malicious governance proposal” (a mechanism by which decisions can be made within the DAO). In a message on Monday via X, the Bonk project indicated that it had engaged law enforcement to recover the lost funds and identify those responsible. BonkDAO clarified that the attackers had withdrawn $20 million worth of tokens from the project’s treasury on the Solana blockchain.

Bonk is one of the many dog-inspired memecoins, along with well-known tokens such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB). The launch of BONK took place in December 2022, with the developers distributing half of the total token supply via airdrops. Following the attack, the price of BONK dropped by approximately 7% within 24 hours to about $0,05.

The total market capitalization of the major memecoins, including DOGE, SHIB, and Pepe (PEPE), reached a two-year low last week, dropping to around $22 billion before surfacing above $26 billion again in July. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the total market capitalization was $25,3 billion at the time of publication, representing a decline of more than 54% compared to the previous year.

In May, the memecoin launch platform DxSale reported a loss of $7,3 million in tokens following a cyberattack that hit liquidity providers on the BNB Chain. Although researchers were able to trace the attacker's wallet, an expert noted that the infrastructure used to move the funds would make it difficult to actually track it.

On Saturday, the New York Times reported that approximately 1 million investors in U.S. President Donald Trump's memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), had collectively lost $3,8 million through June 30. This report, based on data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen, followed shortly after the president's revelation that he had earned more than $1,4 billion from his crypto-related activities, including approximately $635 million from memecoin projects.