The core contributor of the most iconic Meme coin in the Solana ecosystem, BONK, recently participated in an interview on the "One-on-one" podcast. Emphasizing that BONK has transcended the mere Meme coin stage, the interview covered various topics such as the current bear market strategy, security enhancements post the BONK.fun domain hijacking incident, institutional funds and ETF narrative, brand IP expansion, and future vision.

BONK Update and Market Sentiment

Maximus: Welcome to the "One-on-one Podcast." Today, we have with us Nom, a core contributor of BONK. Nom, a lot has happened recently regarding BONK; it has evolved from a Meme coin to a vast ecosystem with products like BONK.fun. How does this current bear market feel for you guys?

Nom: Undoubtedly, we are in a bear market cycle of about 15 to 16 months. The good news is that there has been some rebound in the overall crypto market, and the traditional stock market remains robust under macro pressures. But for BONK and the community, our goal is the same as in 2023 – how to create exciting things during a bear market, how to find teams willing to build products, how to get people back onto the chain, reignite interest in the community, and prepare for the next full alt season.

So, we are refocusing on what can truly create value for the community, not just serving the token price but creating more engaging experiences for holders. How to find more meaningful partners? How to position ourselves early before the next wave of on-chain trends arrives – whether it's DeFi, the Meme coin craze, RWA & on-chain collectibles, or the AI Metaverse race; every cycle brings something exciting. BONK's goal is to lead in these trends.

Domain Hijacking Incident and Lessons Learned

Maximus: I observed the domain hijacking incident in March. The way you handled it with a 110% reimbursement left a lasting impression on me. Looking back, what was the most significant security lesson this event brought to you?

Nom: We were fortunate – the team's response was swift, identifying the issue promptly and notifying users within the ecosystem quickly. The smart contract itself was secure, but the front end was breached by a third party. Such attacks fall under social engineering tactics, targeting not only crypto teams but also top-level domain providers and other tech ecosystem participants. This situation won't disappear in the short term and is expected to continue through foreseeable bear market cycles.

The BONK ecosystem relies on multiple decentralized teams, each with its own security measures, and collaborates with various third-party vendors. The composability of the crypto ecosystem is its strength, but it also brings many implicit risks. Our current focus is to thoroughly review the security configuration of all products, examining potential attack vectors. Partners like Raydium are also undergoing a series of technical updates. The BONK DAO also relies on a multi-signature architecture, which theoretically can prevent a situation similar to the Drift hack. The most important lesson is: never think you are secure enough— you are always in an arms race with those trying to exploit you.

Post-event, we were able to fully reimburse and provide additional compensation to users. The assets of affected users were frozen for several weeks, we identified all impacted addresses, and distributed compensation one by one, which is crucial for rebuilding platform trust. Of course, dealing with a small-scale event is much easier compared to a nine-figure hack case— we also hope that the Drift and Aave incidents will be the biggest issues to deal with in this cycle.

Founding Principles and Trust Building

Nom (Continuation): BONK originated in the aftermath of the 2022 Breakpoint conference, after the FTX collapse, when the entire ecosystem was in disarray— many teams lost their project treasuries, investment funds, and even user assets. At that time, we launched BONK with the goal of creating a new token that could be used across protocols in the post-FTX era. Even today, some are still pursuing claims against FTX, demonstrating the persistent significant risks associated with working with trusted third parties. Therefore, we need to continue to promote transparency, establish better insurance mechanisms, and enable protocols to compensate for losses when issues arise.

BONK.fun Needs and Growth Catalysts

Maximus: As BONK.fun approaches its one-year anniversary (around April 25), the Q1 trading volume data looks very impressive. What do you think drove this growth?

Nom: BONK as a brand has the ability to drive users to various products. This has been previously validated on Bonk Bot, and we are now working with new partners to relaunch Bonk Bet, expected to go live in a few weeks. The strong user base in the community is the best resource for product bootstrapping. Of course, there are now several launch pads on Solana competing for market share, which is a good thing as it helps identify which opportunities are truly valuable.

As for the upcoming catalysts, there are several areas worth noting: the stablecoin market landscape (besides USDC and USDT, Paxos's USDG may enter Solana, bringing new opportunities); more importantly, changing the token launch experience— not just altering the launch mode, but transforming the overall token trading experience.

The current issue is that the on-chain behavior of "trench traders" has undergone a noticeable change: those who profit tend to have a very short holding period. In a bear market, everyone tends to lock in profits quickly for survival, leading the market into an overall "scarcity mindset." To reverse this situation, there needs to be a sustained bull market that allows the market to switch back to an "abundance mindset," which could take 3 to 12 months and requires real coin price increases to change beliefs. I currently see the emergence of this momentum on Ethereum and hope it will spread to a wider market.

Institutional Demand and the ETF Narrative

Maximus: There is currently much discussion about ETFs and institutional interest in digital assets. Can a meme coin like BONK, which has evolved into a complete ecosystem, benefit from this grand narrative?

Nom: When discussing ETFs and institutional demand now, the most easily pointed to assets are Bitcoin and Ethereum due to the numerous ETFs in progress. The current major buying pressure comes from "price-insensitive buyers" like MicroStrategy and BitMine—whose strategy is to buy in as much as possible every month, finance through the public debt market to increase holdings to enhance company value, then issue more debt and stocks, forming a positive feedback loop.

The logic behind ETFs is to provide an entry point for institutional investors who originally had no crypto allocation. In the past, no financial advisor or large institution would recommend clients allocate to crypto assets, but there were always individual fund managers holding FARTCOIN or BONK in personal accounts, or some family offices achieving good results through trading meme coins and altcoins.

By 2026, this situation is starting to change—major banks in the US, Europe, and Asia are beginning to recommend clients allocate 1% to 5% of their portfolios to crypto assets. When part of retirement accounts starts regularly buying crypto assets regardless of price, it means the price floor of tokens will be more stable, and selling pressure during each market adjustment will correspondingly weaken.

As for BONK, the narrative of "why institutions should allocate to community tokens" has not yet fully developed, but this direction is taking shape. We have already launched ETPs and applied for ETFs, and the partnership between Pudgy Penguins and VanEck is a good example— "cultural coins" also seek institutional recognition. For BONK, the fee revenue generated by the product will be used to buy back tokens, injecting into entities like BNKK, which actively reduces the circulating supply in the market without needing to rely entirely on external fund inflows.

On the other hand, projects where tokens are continuously unlocked and the supply keeps expanding find it challenging to gain institutional trust—unless you, like Hyperliquid, have significant protocol fee revenue supporting direct buybacks.

Expand BONK IP (GIPHY, etc.)

Maximus: BONK is on GIPHY now. Was this a deliberate strategy, or did it happen organically?

Nom: Since the inception of BONK, a group of strong content creators has been consistently active—creating memes on Discord, Twitter, and Telegram, developing various character personas for BONK, and participating in the development of peripheral products and an animated series. This has been an organic process of finding the brand's positioning.

The next question is: How do we bring this content to a wider audience? Content dissemination is a competition, with various brands bombarding users' attention. We have spent several years refining BONK's content ecosystem and brand image, including activities such as Guinness World Record challenges, charity partnerships, accumulating a solid foundation of brand awareness. At this stage, the goal is to push this brand to a broader audience—not just within the crypto community but also outside of it.

Pudgy Penguins have done well in this regard, demonstrating how to bring a Web3 brand into the view of the average consumer. BONK is also learning from this path, and expanding around the IP is one of the current top priorities.

Maximus: Does BONK have any upcoming plans to further expand into peripherals, film, or partnerships?

Nom: We previously did the "Bao Bao Series" in the peripheral area, which was well-received by the community (users could purchase peripherals to donate to the animal welfare charity organization Buddies for Paws, where all proceeds would be 100% donated to animal protection organizations worldwide through BFP). At this year's Breakpoint conference, we tested the waters with BONK figurines and blind boxes, with community feedback being very positive.

In the coming weeks and months, we will increase our efforts in this direction, focusing on exploring whether BONK's IP can appeal to consumers beyond the crypto community. While engaging our community is important, what we truly aim for is to make BONK interesting and appealing to ordinary people outside the crypto sphere. This is currently a key strategic priority for us.

Community and Developer Acknowledgments

Name: Whether you are helping to organize the Ukraine region community, driving the BONK Asian community, or overseeing cross-functional team work, the feedback from contributors around the world is extremely valuable to us. The NFT community and Layer 1 ecosystem often bring together truly cohesive crowds during events. BONK's goal is the same as Pudgy Penguins - to continually create exciting reasons to turn passive holders into active brand ambassadors.

In a bear market, many people enter a "wait-and-see mode," just trying to survive. But if you don't take proactive action, you can easily be surpassed by others. So we have always been looking for opportunities for those who take the initiative and lead the trend.

How to Engage with the BONK Ecosystem

Maximus: What advice do you have for newcomers who want to engage with the BONK ecosystem?

Name: The most straightforward ways are as follows:

First, pay attention to the BONK bi-weekly newsletter, which is the most comprehensive channel to understand the overall ecosystem dynamics, summarizing the latest progress of each team every two weeks.

Second, join BONK's Telegram, Discord, and Twitter, where new user incentive activities are announced in real time, such as promotional activities for Bonk Trade or information on new product launches for Bonk Fun.

Third, if you are developing a product or seeking advice, funding, or partnership opportunities, you can contact us through BONK's partnership application form, and our colleagues responsible for partnership and business development will carefully consider each application.

The simplest way is still: just go ahead and build, then show us what you have created.

User Guidance and Consumer-Grade Applications

Maximus: In the next year, what do you most want BONK to be known for?

Name: If I could only say one thing, I hope BONK can create a truly exciting new product. When we collaborated with the Bonk Bot team initially, there were hardly any trading terminals on Solana, and everyone heavily relied on the EVM ecosystem, but Bonk Bot's work truly brought more attention and opportunities to Solana. Later, in the Launchpad field, it also provided new opportunities for people.

What I want to do next is to make a breakthrough beyond DeFi infrastructure, at the consumer application layer - creating something that makes people "feel like they are not using a crypto product." We have several directions in progress with partners, but there is only one core goal: to allow ordinary people to easily enter the crypto ecosystem without experiencing the various barriers and pains of self-custody. I hope that in the future, BONK will be remembered for this: lowering the barriers so that more people are willing to manage their assets themselves, rather than being scared away by complexity.

Maximus: The conversation with Nom was very insightful. Thank you all for watching. See you next time!

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