BONK DAO has confirmed that attackers drained an estimated $20 million worth of BONK tokens from its treasury through a malicious governance proposal.
The stolen funds have reportedly started moving to exchanges, prompting the project to coordinate with exchanges, the Solana Foundation, and law enforcement in an effort to recover the assets. The BONK meme coin fell over 10% on this news.
BONK DAO Confirms $20 Million Governance Attack
BONK DAO has become the latest victim of a high-profile decentralized governance attack after confirming that approximately $20 million in BONK tokens was drained from its treasury.
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According to the project’s official statement, the attacker successfully passed a malicious governance proposal, allowing treasury funds to be transferred to wallets under their control. BONK said it has already identified the exchange wallets used to accumulate voting power before the proposal was executed.
The team is now working alongside exchanges, the Solana Foundation, bridges, and law enforcement to track the stolen assets and explore recovery options.
How the Attack Worked
Preliminary on-chain analysis shared by blockchain investigators suggests the attacker purchased roughly $4 million worth of BONK to secure enough voting power for the proposal.
Once approved through BONK DAO’s governance system on Solana’s Realms platform, the proposal authorized the transfer of an estimated $20 million from the DAO treasury.
Unlike a smart contract exploit, the incident appears to be a governance attack, where token-weighted voting was used to legitimately approve a malicious treasury transaction.
“Basically $4M worth of BONK was used by the drainer to vote YES for taking $21M worth of BONK tokens from the DAO,” one expert highlighted.
Reports also indicate that portions of the stolen BONK have already begun moving to cryptocurrency exchanges, raising concerns that the attacker may attempt to liquidate the holdings.
What’s Next for BONK?
The investigation remains ongoing, with BONK stating that recovery efforts are underway.
The incident is expected to renew industry debate over DAO governance security, particularly around safeguards such as timelocks, multisignature approvals, and treasury execution delays designed to prevent single governance proposals from draining protocol funds.
Investors will now be watching for updates on potential fund recovery, exchange actions, and whether BONK introduces governance reforms to strengthen treasury protection.
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