Key facts
- BonkDAO's treasury was drained of approximately $20 million in BONK tokens through a malicious governance proposal.
- An attacker spent around $4.4 million to acquire sufficient voting power to pass the proposal.
- The attacker transferred over 4.4 trillion BONK tokens from the treasury.
- Exchanges Upbit and Kraken have paused BONK deposits and withdrawals.
- BonkDAO has notified law enforcement and is collaborating to recover the stolen assets.
BonkDAO, the decentralized governance body behind Solana's popular memecoin BONK, has confirmed that its treasury was drained of an estimated $20 million in BONK tokens due to a malicious governance attack. The exploit occurred when an attacker spent approximately $4.4 million to purchase BONK tokens, gaining enough voting power on the Realms governance platform to pass a proposal that authorized the transfer of over 4.4 trillion BONK tokens from the treasury to a controlled wallet. The attack passed with minimal community participation and no execution delay, highlighting vulnerabilities in token-weighted voting systems. Following the incident, the BONK token price dropped by about 8%. Exchanges Upbit and Kraken have suspended BONK deposits and withdrawals, and BonkDAO is working with law enforcement and the Solana Foundation to track the stolen funds and manage the situation.