Crypto traders are searching for the next big story to produce returns despite the flat market and contagion risks, and in the Solana (SOL) ecosystem, a meme coin is at the centre of that.


Since its release on December 25, the Shiba Inu-themed coin Bonk has returned 2,220% to investors, with a 150% increase just in the last day. According to Tuesday's report from CoinDesk, the token's airdrop to Solana NFT (non-fungible token) groups and developers quickly generated interest in it and increased trading activity.


However, those who invested early aren't the only ones that profit. For trading pairings including BONK, liquidity pools on Solana-based decentralised exchanges (DEXs) like Orca have drawn over $20 million in activity, together bringing in thousands of dollars.


Investors that function as liquidity providers stake their cryptocurrency tokens on DEXs in exchange for transaction fees, which are typically paid out as token rewards.


According to Orca data, the BONK/SOL combination has seen trading activity of over $14 million, while the BONK/USD coin pair has seen trading volume of over $6.2 million. Both pools distribute more than 24% of their daily payouts, or around 1%, to liquidity providers.


Bonk became the most popular token on Orca, a well-known Solana DEX, thanks to the metrics, with trading volumes exceeding even solana, which is often the most popular trading pair with USDC.


As a result, if the excitement and demand for BONK slowdown in the upcoming weeks and traders take profits, the returns are probably going to be fleeting.


Despite being designed as a meme coin, the Solana ecosystem is rapidly adopting Bonk tokens. For use as payments for listed NFTs, some Solana projects have already incorporated Bonk tokens. Some of these projects have introduced "burn" methods for NFT-based events. Tweets indicate that more than 1 billion BONK have been burned in the last 24 hours.

In the meantime, the demand for SOL tokens has probably been influenced by the viral buzz. The Solana network's native coin has gained 16% over the past day, recouping losses from a sharp dip last week