The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) BonkDAO, associated with the meme coin BONK, reported that approximately $20 million worth of tokens were drained from its treasury following the approval of a malicious governance proposal. In light of the incident, exchanges Kraken and Upbit temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals of the asset.

BonkDAO was the target of a malicious governance proposal resulting in an estimated $20M worth of BONK tokens being drained from the BonkDAO treasury.

During the investigation, BonkDAO identified the exchange wallets used to purchase BONK ahead of the proposal. BonkDAO is…

— BONK!!! (@bonk_inu) July 6, 2026

"During the investigation, BonkDAO identified the exchange wallets used to purchase BONK prior to the proposal submission. BonkDAO is currently actively collaborating with exchanges, bridges, and the Solana Foundation to manage the situation effectively," the statement read.

According to the team, an unknown participant submitted a malicious proposal through the governance system, draining around $20 million worth of BONK tokens from the treasury. The project did not disclose technical details of the attack or the voting parameters.

The Record describes this type of attack as a situation where holders of a large volume of tokens use their voting power to transfer funds to their advantage. According to Decrypt, the incident occurred on July 6, and the voting took place via Solana Realms—a governance platform in the Solana ecosystem.

The publication linked the fund withdrawal to Bonk Improvement Proposal #76. According to the description, the initiative proposed to "implement Sowellian governance," appoint new council members, and monetize assets. The text also stated that those who voted "yes" would be able to receive BONK.

Is this the proposal 👀 RIP pic.twitter.com/9TMi4mfyqb

— Specter (@SpecterAnalyst) July 6, 2026

According to journalists, the tokens were not distributed among the voting participants. The funds initially went to an address that Solscan linked to a deposit through a Bybit account, and a few hours later, they were transferred to another wallet.

Source: Solscan.

Following the incident, exchanges began to restrict operations with BONK. According to The Block, Upbit temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals of the meme token. Kraken implemented similar measures, as reported by Reuters.

In the wake of the incident, BONK's price dropped by 7.7% over the past day, according to CoinGecko. At the time of writing, the meme token is trading at approximately $0.00000432.

Daily chart of BONK/USDT on Binance. Source: TradingView.

In December 2023, BONK's market capitalization surpassed $1.7 billion. Several Solana projects integrated the coin for use as payment for non-fungible tokens.

That same month, excitement around the airdrop of the meme coin fueled interest in the Web3 smartphone Saga from Solana, which began selling on eBay for over $2,000. Holders of the device were guaranteed a distribution of 30 million BONK. At that time, the value of the assets fully covered the cost of the smartphone.

It’s worth noting that in June 2026, activity at the "meme coin factory" Pump.fun significantly declined. The total number of coins launched daily dropped by 30% compared to spring levels.