Nom, a core contributor to BONK, the most representative Meme coin in the Solana ecosystem, recently gave an interview to the podcast "One-on-one." He emphasized that BONK has transcended the simple Meme coin stage. The interview covered a variety of topics, including current bear market strategies, security improvements following the hijacking of the BONK.fun domain, institutional funding and ETF narratives, brand IP expansion, and future vision.
BONK's Recent Performance and Market Sentiment
Maximus: Welcome to the One-on-one podcast. Today we have invited Nom, a core contributor to BONK. Nom, a lot has happened with BONK lately; it has evolved from a meme coin into a huge ecosystem with products like BONK.fun. How are you feeling about this current bear market?
Nom: There's no doubt we're in a bear market cycle that's been going on for about 15 to 16 months. The good news is that the overall crypto market has seen some rebound, and traditional stock markets have remained strong despite macroeconomic pressures. But for BONK and the community, our goal remains the same as in 2023—how to create something exciting in a bear market, how to find teams willing to build products, how to get people back on-chain, how to rekindle their interest in the community, and how to prepare for the next full altcoin bull market.
So we're refocusing: what truly creates value for the community, not just serving token prices, but creating more engaging experiences for token holders? How do we find more meaningful partners? How do we position ourselves before the next wave of on-chain trends arrives—whether it's DeFi, the Meme coin craze, RWA and on-chain collectibles, or the AI agent race, each cycle brings exciting new developments. BONK's goal is to stay ahead of these trends.
Domain hijacking incidents and lessons learned
Maximus: I followed the domain hijacking incident in March. Your handling of the matter with a 110% compensation was very impressive. Looking back, what was the biggest security lesson you learned from this incident?
Nom: We were fortunate—the team responded quickly, identified the problem immediately, and promptly notified users within the ecosystem. The smart contract itself was secure, but the front-end was compromised by a third party. This type of attack is a form of social engineering, targeting not only crypto teams but also other participants in the technology ecosystem, such as top-level domain providers. This situation is unlikely to disappear in the short term and will continue to occur during the foreseeable bear market cycle.
The BONK ecosystem relies on multiple decentralized teams, each with its own security mechanisms and partnerships with various third-party vendors. The composability of the crypto ecosystem is its strength, but it also introduces many hidden risks. Our current focus is on a comprehensive review of the security configurations of all our products, examining potential attack vectors. Partners like Raydium are also undertaking a series of technical updates. BONK DAO also relies on a multi-signature architecture, which theoretically prevents attacks similar to those on Drift. The most important lesson is: never think you're secure enough—you're always in an arms race with those trying to exploit you.
Following the incident, we were able to provide full compensation and additional reimbursement to users. The affected users' assets were frozen for several weeks, and we identified all affected addresses and distributed compensation individually, which was crucial for rebuilding trust on the platform. Of course, smaller incidents are much easier to handle than nine-figure theft cases—and we hope that these Drift and Aave incidents are the biggest issues we need to address this period.
Principles of Creation and Trust Building
Nom (continued): BONK originated after the 2022 Breakpoint conference and the FTX crash, when the entire ecosystem was in disarray—many teams lost project funds, investment capital, and even user assets. At that time, we launched BONK with the goal of creating a new token usable across protocols in the post-FTX era. Even today, people are still fighting for FTX claims, demonstrating the persistent significant risks associated with partnering with trusted third parties. Therefore, we need to continue pushing for greater transparency and establishing better insurance mechanisms so that protocols can compensate for losses when problems arise.
BONK.fun: Demand and Growth Catalysts
Maximus: BONK.fun's first anniversary is approaching (around April 25th). The Q1 trading volume data looks very impressive. What do you think drove this growth?
Nom: As a brand, BONK has the ability to drive users to various products. This has been proven on Bonk Bot, and we are now relaunching Bonk Bet with a new partner, expected to launch in a few weeks. A strong community user base is the best resource for a product's cold start. Of course, there are many launchpads on Solana vying for market share, and competition is a good thing, helping to identify which opportunities are truly valuable.
As for the next catalysts, several directions are worth noting: the competitive landscape of the stablecoin market (in addition to USDC and USDT, Paxos' USDG may enter Solana, bringing new opportunities); more importantly, changing the token launch experience—not just changing the launch mode, but changing the overall token trading experience.
The current problem is that the behavior of on-chain "trench traders" has changed significantly: those who profit tend to hold positions for extremely short periods. In a bear market, everyone tends to lock in profits as quickly as possible to survive, leading to a general "scarcity mentality" in the market. To reverse this situation, a sustained bull market is needed to shift the market back to an "abundance mentality," which will take 3 to 12 months and requires genuine coin price increases to change perceptions. I am currently seeing the beginnings of this momentum on Ethereum and hope it will spread to a wider market.
Institutional Demand and ETF Narrative
Maximus: There is a lot of discussion about ETFs and institutional interest in digital assets. Can BONK, a Meme coin that has evolved into a complete ecosystem, benefit from this grand narrative?
Nom: When discussing ETFs and institutional demand, the easiest examples to point to are Bitcoin and Ethereum, given the large number of ETFs being continuously developed. Currently, the main buying drivers come from "price-insensitive buyers" like MicroStrategy and BitMine—their strategy is to buy as much as possible each month, raise funds through the public debt market, increase their holdings to enhance company value, and then issue more debt and stock, creating a positive flywheel.
The logic behind ETFs is to provide an entry point for institutional investors who previously did not have a crypto portfolio. In the past, no financial advisor or large institution would recommend that clients allocate to crypto assets, but there were always individual fund managers holding FARTCOIN or BONK in their personal accounts, or some family offices achieving good results by trading Meme coins and altcoins.
Entering 2026, this situation began to change—major banks in the US, Europe, and Asia began advising clients to allocate 1% to 5% of their portfolios to crypto assets. When retirement accounts start to have a portion of funds regularly buying crypto assets regardless of price, it means that the price floor for tokens will be more solid, and the selling pressure during each market correction will be correspondingly reduced.
Regarding BONK, the narrative of "why institutions should allocate community tokens" is not yet fully formed, but this direction is emerging. We have already launched ETP and applied for an ETF. The collaboration between Pudgy Penguins and VanEck is a good precedent—"cultural tokens" can also seek institutional recognition. For BONK, the fee revenue generated by the product will be used to buy back tokens and inject them into entities such as BNKK. This mechanism can proactively reduce the circulating supply in the market and does not need to rely entirely on external capital inflows.
In contrast, projects that continuously unlock and release tokens, resulting in a constantly expanding supply, find it difficult to gain institutional trust—unless, like Hyperliquid, they have substantial protocol fee revenue to support direct buybacks.
Extend BONK IP (GIPHY, etc.)
Maximus: BONK is on GIPHY. Is this a deliberate strategy or organic growth?
Nom: From the very beginning of BONK, there has been a group of very strong content creators who have been continuously creating content—they have been promoting memes on Discord, Twitter, and Telegram, creating various BONK character images, and participating in the development of merchandise and anime series. This has been an organic process of finding the brand's positioning.
The next challenge is: how to get this content to a wider audience? Content dissemination is a competition, with various brands bombarding users' attention. We've spent several years refining BONK's content system and brand image, including Guinness World Record challenges and charitable collaborations, building a solid foundation of brand awareness. The current stage is to reach a broader audience—not just those within the crypto community, but also those outside of it.
Pudgy Penguins has done a great job in this regard, demonstrating how to bring a Web3 brand to the attention of ordinary consumers. BONK is also learning this approach, with IP expansion being one of its current key priorities.
Maximus: Does BONK have any near-term plans to further expand into merchandise, film and television, or collaborations?
Nom: We previously created the "Bao Bao series" for merchandise, which was very well received by the community (users could donate to the animal welfare charity Buddies for Paws by purchasing the merchandise, and all proceeds would be 100% donated to animal protection organizations around the world through BFP). At this year's Breakpoint conference, we tested BONK miniature figures and blind boxes to gauge community feedback, and the results were quite positive.
Over the next few weeks and months, we will be investing heavily in this area, focusing on exploring whether BONK's IP can resonate with consumers outside the crypto community. While attracting our own community is important, what we really want to achieve is make BONK fun and engaging for ordinary people outside the crypto world. This is currently a key strategic priority for us.
Community and builders express their gratitude
Nom: Whether you're helping organize the community in Ukraine, driving BONK's Asian community development, or managing teams across different functional areas, this feedback from contributors around the world is invaluable to us. NFT communities and Layer 1 ecosystems often attract truly cohesive groups when hosting events. BONK's goal is the same as Pudgy Penguins'—to continuously create exciting reasons to transform passive token holders into active brand ambassadors.
In a bear market, many people enter "wait-and-see mode," merely seeking survival. But if you don't take initiative, it's easy to be overtaken by others. That's why we're always looking for opportunities to take the initiative and stay ahead of the trend.
How to participate in the BONK ecosystem
Maximus: What advice do you have for newcomers who want to get involved in the BONK ecosystem?
Nom: The simplest and most direct ways are as follows:
First, follow BONK's bi-weekly newsletter. This is the most comprehensive channel for understanding the dynamics of the entire ecosystem, summarizing the latest progress of each team every two weeks.
Secondly, join BONK's Telegram, Discord, and Twitter accounts, where you'll be the first to see announcements of new user incentive programs, such as promotions for Bonk Trade or information on new product launches for Bonk Fun.
Third, if you are developing a product, or seeking advice, funding, or cooperation opportunities, you can contact us through BONK's cooperation application form. Our colleagues in charge of cooperation and business development will take every application seriously.
The simplest way is to just build it and then show us what you've made.
User guidance and consumer applications
Maximus: What do you most want BONK to be known for in the coming year?
Nom: If I could only say one thing, I hope BONK can create a truly exciting new product. When we first collaborated with the Bonk Bot team, there were almost no trading terminals on Solana, and everyone was still heavily reliant on the EVM ecosystem. Bonk Bot's work truly brought more attention and opportunities to Solana. Their later moves in the Launchpad space also provided new opportunities.
What I want to do next is to make breakthroughs beyond DeFi infrastructure at the consumer application layer—to create something that "doesn't feel like using a crypto product." We are working with partners on several directions, but the core goal is the same: to make it easy for ordinary people to enter the crypto ecosystem without having to go through the various barriers and pains of self-custody. I hope BONK will be remembered for this: lowering the barriers, making more people willing to manage their own assets, rather than being scared away by complexity.
Maximus: This conversation with Nom was fantastic. Thank you for watching, and see you next time!
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