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Solana meme coin BONK went from boom to blah, down 11% after Coinbase announced yesterday it would soon list the token on its exchange.
BONK is currently trading for $0.00001051, according to CoinGecko. It did initially spike in price after the announcement from Coinbase, which led to the token surging 15%. But it was short-lived: The price later sank as low as 20%.
This comes a week after BONK set a new all-time high and flipped the Elon Musk-themed coin FLOKI.
Late last night a Solana wallet labeled “Coinbase 2” on Solscan transferred 500,000 BONK, worth approximately $5—proof positive the exchange is actively running tests with the token. The price recovered slightly, but is still looking sluggish as of Wednesday afternoon.
Even so, the announcement sparked jealousy among fans of Pepecoin. The frog-themed meme coin exploded in popularity in May, leading to calls from its fans for the token to be listed on Coinbase.
https://twitter.com/3orovik/status/1734844827517219237
The exchange declined and said in a newsletter (that’s since been edited to remove the comment) that its decision was driven by the fact that the Pepe the Frog meme had been “co-opted as a hate symbol by alt-right groups.” The community started a #DeleteCoinbase hashtag and eventually got an apology from the exchange.
In the past, Coinbase listings have led to big price spikes—so much so that it’s been coined the “Coinbase Effect.” Many of them, like with BONK, were short-lived gains. But the phenomenon had some unintended consequences. Earlier this year, unpublished blog posts about token listings were at the center of an insider trading case.
In May, former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi, 32, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Later that month, Wahi and his brother Nikhil, 27, settled civil charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission over insider trading allegations.
Prosecutors said Wahi used insider knowledge to buy tokens before their listings were announced and sold them when their prices spiked, raking in huge profits.
Since then, Coinbase has overhauled the way it handles token listings. It now adds them to its roadmap, an April 2022 blog post with the names of assets under consideration. But it’s not the same as an official listing. As of this writing, BONK isn’t yet available on the exchange.
Meanwhile, Solana (SOL) started the day at $64.36, but has since rebounded. It’s currently changing hands at $67.13—an 0.7% dip from its price this time yesterday. SOL is still trading 7.4% above what it was a week ago.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.