On December 14th, the Solana Mobile phone ‘Saga‘ went on sale and by 2 a.m. ET had sold out its preorders.
The reason? Each phone is loaded with 30 million $BONK tokens, which after the spike in the Solana-based meme token’s price recently, is enough to cover the cost of the phone itself. Purchasers of the phone can claim the $BONK airdrop by downloading the BONK app from the phone’s custom-built app store.
The phone’s latest release coincided perfectly with $BONK being listed on Coinbase (December 14th) and Binance (December 15th). Those listings sent the coin soaring, rising as high as $.00003416 per coin, before falling to its current price of $.00001932. According to data from CoinGecko, the coin is #56 for Market Cap Rank and up over 580% during the past thirty days.
As for the phone itself, it comes with a variety of features, including fingerprint unlocking technology, a 50-megapixel main camera, a Seed Vault to protect your private keys, 512 GB of storage, and a 6.67-inch OLED display. The phone also contains a Web3 dApp, Solana Pay to facilitate QR-code blockchain payments, and Solana Mobile Stack (SMS) — a developer kit for Web3 programs.
Purchasers of the phone are hoping that when it arrives, the price of $BONK will remain high and they’ll be able to sell their coins to make a nice profit. Currently, 30 million $BONK tokens would be worth around $582. Despite the math, on eBay, phones have been selling for around $2,000, with one phone selling for as much as $5,000.
Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana Labs cofounder, said that they are hoping to “crack the App Store duopoly” with Solana mobile. He added that an “environment full of NFT power users” will hopefully “encourage developers to create apps, especially in the absence of app fees.”
The phone initially sold for $1,000 back in June 2022, but since then its price has been reduced to $599. Users who purchased the first launch of the phone also received a nice bonus: They were able to mint a ‘Claynosaurz‘ NFT for free. The floor price for that collection is currently hovering near 50 SOL on Magic Eden, or around $3,700 with today’s price of SOL.
Solana, ‘The Ethereum Killer,‘ Is Back
Solana, a Layer 1 blockchain known for its lightning-fast speeds and minuscule transaction fees, had a rough time in 2022. Its $SOL token dropped from its all-time high of $259 to less than $10 a coin, causing many believers to doubt its longevity. But 2023 has been a different story.
In 2023, Solana has outperformed most coins on the market, including Bitcoin. It’s up a whopping 480% on the year, according to data from CoinGecko. The reason for its success? Well, despite its slump in price, Solana has been busy building.
At Rarity Sniper, we’ve covered dozens of articles about Solana this year. Here are the top headlines:
- Solana NFT Project Mad Lads Soars Amid Ecosystem Boom
- VISA Expands Cross-Border Settlement Program to Solana
- Solana Unveils ChatGPT Plugin Integration
- Solana to Integrate ChatGPT onto Blockchain Network
- Solana Gaming Platform Fractal Expands to Polygon
- Solana Opens a Physical Store in Manhattan
Whether Solana can continue to thrive and eventually reclaim its all-time high remains to be seen. But considering its recent run, including the hype surrounding its meme-token $BONK, we think there’s a good chance it will. In fact, it might not be a matter of if — but when.