BonkDAO Confirms $20M Loss Through 'Malicious Governance Proposal' Attack
The team behind the memecoin initiative revealed they have contacted law enforcement agencies following the breach and are actively pursuing efforts to "recover funds and identify those responsible."
The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) responsible for managing the Bonk (BONK) memecoin has confirmed that an unidentified actor successfully extracted $20 million worth of tokens in what the organization characterized as an exploitation through a "malicious governance proposal."
Through a Monday statement posted on X, the Bonk development team revealed that law enforcement authorities had been notified following the $20 million breach and that efforts were underway to "recover funds and identify those responsible." The BonkDAO team stated that the malicious actors had successfully siphoned $20 million in tokens directly from the project's treasury located on the Solana blockchain.
Positioned among the canine-inspired memecoins, sharing the category with tokens such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB), BONK made its debut in December 2022, during which its development team distributed half of the token's total supply through an airdrop. The valuation of BONK experienced approximately a 7% decline within a 24-hour period following news of the breach, settling at around $0.05.
The aggregate market capitalization encompassing the leading memecoins, which includes DOGE, SHIB and Pepe (PEPE), reached a two-year bottom last week, plummeting to approximately $22 billion before experiencing a rebound to exceed $26 billion throughout July. Based on information from CoinMarketCap data, the combined market cap stood at $25.3 billion as of publication time, representing a decline exceeding 54% compared to the preceding 12 months.
During May, the memecoin launching platform DxSale disclosed the loss of $7.3 million in tokens after experiencing a cyberattack that impacted liquidity providers operating on the BNB Chain. Despite blockchain investigators successfully identifying the attacker's wallet address, one security expert indicated that the infrastructure employed to transfer the funds could present significant challenges in tracing them.
Trump memecoin holders lose big as president reports billions in crypto earnings
This past Saturday, the New York Times published a report stating that approximately 1 million investors who purchased US President Donald Trump's memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), had experienced collective losses totaling $3.8 million as of June 30. The publication, which referenced data obtained from blockchain analytics firm Nansen, emerged several days after the president made public disclosures revealing he had generated more than $1.4 billion through his cryptocurrency-related business ventures, which included approximately $635 million derived from memecoin projects.