BonkDAO lost $20M in a governance attack, rattling solana meme coin trading as Kraken and Upbit pause BONK deposits amid a price slide.
Solana meme coin trading took a hit this week after BonkDAO, the governance body behind the Bonk token, lost roughly 20 million dollars from its treasury in what the project called a malicious governance attack.
What Happened to the BonkDAO Treasury
The incident unfolded around 4:00 a.m. ET on Monday, when more than 4.4 trillion BONK tokens, worth about 19.3 million dollars at the time, moved out of the treasury wallet to an address ending in JHvQ. The transfer traced back to a governance proposal known as Bonk Improvement Proposal 76, titled Sowellian BonkDAO. That measure was pitched as a plan to install new leadership, reshape governance, and monetize holdings, with language promising BONK rewards to anyone who voted yes. Solscan data shows the JHvQ wallet was funded through a Bybit account. None of the moved tokens ever reached the voters who were promised rewards. Instead, around 3:30 p.m. ET the same day, the funds were shifted again, this time to another Solana address ending in eh42, according to blockchain records.
Exchanges Respond With Deposit Freezes
The fallout moved fast across trading venues. South Korean exchange Upbit and U.S. based Kraken both suspended deposits and withdrawals of BONK, with Upbit pointing to what it called user protection measures tied to the security incident. Pausing transfers is a standard defensive step exchanges take when a token's supply integrity is in question, since it limits the ability of an attacker to launder stolen funds through liquid markets.
How BONK's Price Has Reacted
BONK itself dropped about 7 percent over the past 24 hours, trading near 0.0000043 dollars. That level sits roughly 93 percent below the token's all time high of 0.000058 dollars, a reminder of how far the coin has fallen from its peak as a top 100 cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The price move is modest compared to the scale of the theft, suggesting the market had already priced in a good deal of risk around meme coin governance structures, though sentiment could shift quickly if more details emerge.
Who Is Investigating the Missing Funds
BonkDAO says it has identified the exchange wallets used to buy BONK ahead of the proposal vote and has alerted law enforcement. The team is coordinating with centralized exchanges, network bridges, and the Solana Foundation to trace the funds and identify those responsible. In a post on X, the project described the episode as a drain and said it continues to work with relevant parties to recover the assets. Governance exploits like this one expose a persistent weakness in decentralized organizations: a proposal that looks routine can carry instructions capable of draining a shared treasury if voters or reviewers miss the fine print.
