The proposed BONK ETP — potentially the first-ever exchange-traded product — could bridge the gap between crypto investors and Wall Street.
Punk Looks to Wall Street
Bonk (BONK), a leading cryptocurrency built on Solana (SOL), has announced plans to launch an exchange-traded product in the United States.
Nom, one of the core developers of Bonk, revealed the news at Solana’s Breakpoint event, which took place on September 20 and 21. The meme coin is partnering with Osprey Funds, a New York-based firm known for bringing crypto assets to traditional markets.
As with any cryptocurrency ETP, this move aims to lower the barriers to accessing cryptocurrencies for traditional and institutional investors. An ETP acts as a representation of the price of the underlying asset — in this case, the asset would be BONK — and can be traded on traditional exchanges, removing the complexities specific to crypto wallets and exchanges.
According to the announcement, the ETP will be funded by “Bonk DAO and strategic partners” and will be available to both individual and institutional investors. However, an official launch date has not been confirmed yet.
If the move is successful, it would be the first time a meme coin has entered the realm of exchange-traded products — a crucial shift for a crypto asset class that is often seen as particularly speculative, as well as short-term and not at all serious.
Is the Bonk ETF a done deal?
While the Bonk community has announced its plans to launch an ETP in the US, it is important to understand that this does not guarantee that the product will be approved for trading anytime soon – or at all.
This announcement is just the first step in what could be a long and uncertain journey, and regulatory approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission remains a major hurdle.
In the past, the SEC has been cautious about approving ETPs even for the top two cryptocurrencies, citing concerns about market manipulation, volatility, and lack of investor protection.
In order to approve Bonk’s ETP, the SEC will likely need to evaluate several things:
- Market transparencyThe SEC wants to ensure that the markets where Bonk tokens are traded are stable, transparent, and resistant to manipulation. Meme coins like Bonk are typically considered particularly volatile and speculative, which could raise concerns.
- investor protectionThe SEC’s primary mission is to protect investors. The SEC will examine whether individual and institutional investors have sufficient information to understand the risks of investing in an exchange trading Bonk as an underlying asset. Since meme coins can fluctuate significantly in price, this could be a point of contention.
- Market impactThe SEC will also consider whether the launch of an ETF called Bonk could disrupt financial markets or create unexpected risks. It will carefully evaluate how an ETF for a meme coin would behave differently than an ETF for a more established asset like Bitcoin or traditional stocks.
While Osprey Funds, which handles the Bonk ETP, has experience with other crypto financial products, including Bitcoin ETFs, that doesn’t guarantee success.
Even applications for ETFs for the most popular cryptocurrencies have faced delays and rejections from the SEC. For example, a spot Bitcoin ETF took years to get approved, and several applications were rejected before the first fund launched in January 2024.
In short, the SEC can approve an ETP, but it may also reject or delay it if it feels the risks are too high or the product does not meet its standards.
The price of the Punk remains constant.
The major announcement of the launch of the first-ever exchange-traded coin created some buzz over the weekend, although it didn’t move the spot price of BONK significantly.
As of September 23, BONK is trading at $0.0000175, a 4.3% increase over the past 24 hours and a notable 8% rise over the past seven days, which appears to be part of a broader meme coin rally over the past week.
However, compared to its peers in the leading meme coins, BONK has been trading sideways recently. For example, Shiba Inu (SHIB) has seen a larger price increase, rising by over 11% in the past seven days to trade at $0.0000145.
Similarly, Pepe (PEPE) outperformed BONK with gains of over 13% over the week. Meanwhile, Dogwifhat (WIF) was the biggest gainer among the top meme coins, up 18% over the past week and now trading at $1.75.
Meme coin investors, who are known for jumping into highly speculative assets, appear to be focusing more on tokens like SHIB, PEPE, and WIF, which have shown stronger price action in recent days.
Additionally, BONK’s relatively low level compared to SHIB or PEPE could mean that it is overshadowed by more established meme coins.
At the moment, BONK’s price remains subdued. The meme coin’s price is still trading in a relatively tight range, down from its recent highs in July and August. It remains to be seen whether this trend will continue, or whether more traders will start paying attention as the ETP’s regulatory registration process unfolds.
Punk’s announcement of the launch of its electronic product has sparked mixed reactions on social media, with both excitement and skepticism.
For some, the move signals a breakthrough, with one X user calling it “crazy” (in a good way) and highlighting how Bonk could become the first meme coin to enter the ETF space.
However, not everyone agrees that the industry needs traditional financial products based on meme coins to move forward. Another user on X expressed concern that this could undermine the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies. In their view, the push to legitimize meme coins for traditional financial players may be more about inflating the value of the asset for its current holders than providing real value to the broader crypto industry.
The concern here is that such moves could shift focus away from what cryptocurrencies were initially supposed to achieve, at least in part, — providing decentralized alternatives to the traditional intermediary financial system — and instead lead to speculative bubbles.
Others added a layer of sarcasm, suggesting that meme coins like Punk are simply trying to find “alternative exit liquidity,” especially as competition within the meme coin space escalates.
The coming months will reveal whether this exchange-traded product brings real value or simply adds fuel to the speculative fire that often surrounds meme coins.