Solana’s BONK gains 30%, flips PEPE as third-largest meme coin

Bonk ranked number three among meme coins on Dec. 8, behind only Dogecoin in first place and Shiba Inu in second. 

Bonk, a canine-themed crypto on Solana, flipped fellow meme coin Pepe (PEPE) after rallying over 25 percent within 24 hours.

The price gain pushed BONK to a $770 million market cap, climbing over Pepe-The-Frog-inspired PEPE with its $630 million market cap.

Only the decade-old Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) boast higher valuations than BONK. At press time, the tokens had a market cap of over $13.9 billion and $5.9 billion, respectively.

Meme coins have been a constant in crypto throughout its history, typically increasing in price amid broader market upticks. Such virtual currencies, usually associated with an animal, were also handed a boon in 2023 as attention surrounding spot Bitcoin ETFs seemingly spurred an influx of cash injections into digital assets.

Solana’s blockchain also experienced a massive $1 billion trading volume over 24 hours. The network saw more on-chain trading activity than Arbitrum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, and Thorchain. 

Ethereum was the single network with more trading volume than Solana, per DefiLlama. Crypto’s largest altcoin blockchain recorded $1.4 billion within the same timeframe.