The community treasury behind Bonk, one of Solana's best known meme coins, has been emptied of roughly $20 million after attackers pushed through a rigged governance vote and made off with the funds. The project has described the incident as a "malicious" governance attack on BonkDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization tied to the token.
The team that runs the meme coin and its various projects said it is working with centralized exchanges, network bridges, and the Solana Foundation as it deals with the fallout.
How the attack unfolded
Labeled a "drain" by the project, the theft took place around 4:00 a.m. ET on Monday. That is when more than 4.4 trillion BONK tokens, worth $19.3 million at the time, were moved out of the treasury wallet to an address ending in "JHvQ."
The transfer was buried as the second key instruction inside Bonk Improvement Proposal #76, a governance proposal that was submitted and then passed using BonkDAO's own governance platform.
The proposal that hid the theft
Titled "Sowellian BonkDAO," the proposal claimed it would "implement Sowellian governance, install new members and council, rebuild from the ashes, monetize holdings, and stop the bleeding." It also promised that everyone who voted "yes" would be eligible to receive BONK tokens.
But the tokens that landed in the "JHvQ" wallet were never handed out to anyone. According to Solana blockchain explorer Solscan, that wallet was funded through a Bybit account. Instead of being distributed, the tokens were moved again around 3:30 p.m. ET to a different Solana address ending in "eh42."
Exchanges hit pause
BonkDAO said on X that its investigation had already turned up leads. "During the investigation, BonkDAO identified the exchange wallets used to purchase BONK ahead of the proposal," the account posted. It added, "Law enforcement has been notified. BonkDAO continues to work with relevant parties to recover funds and identify those responsible."
Crypto exchanges have responded quickly. South Korean exchange Upbit and American exchange Kraken have both suspended deposits and withdrawals of the BONK token, with Upbit citing "user protection measures following the circumstances of a security incident."
Price takes a hit
BONK, once a top 100 crypto token by market cap, has slipped around 7% over the last 24 hours to trade near $0.0000043. That leaves it roughly 93% below its all-time high of $0.000058.
