Solana Saga phones are surprisingly high at a premium: Bonk has soared sales and will receive a large number of airdrops in the coming year

Review: Felix, PANews

A few days ago, Solana Labs’ first Web3 mobile phone, the Saga phone, released in May this year, was sold out in the US market, leaving only European inventory. At the same time, the price of the phone has been speculated to be more expensive than the iPhone 15, and now the “floor price” of the Saga phone for resale on eBay and other platforms has risen to about $2,000, and at one point two phones sold for as much as $5,000.

The sudden spike in sales of Saga’s mobile phones, even behind the crazy premium in the second-hand market, is mainly related to the skyrocketing price of the Solana meme coins it gave away BONK

The value of the **** Bonk token of the airdrop **** has exceeded the official price of the mobile phone**, and it will face a price increase in the future**

According to Solana co-founder Raj Gokal, Saga sales have increased more than 10 times in the last 48 hours and are currently expected to sell out before the new year, and prices need to be raised.

It is reported that all new users can get Saga Genesis Token when they launch their Saga mobile phone, and can claim up to 30 million BONK meme coins in the Bonk App. Although it may sound like a lot, it was about $0.00000003 per token at the time.

But according to CoinGecko data, the BONK has risen by 722.4% in the past 30 days. That said, the current equivalent of BONK tokens has soared to around $650, exceeding the official selling price of the Saga phone of $599 and completely offsetting the cost of purchasing the phone. This integration with the Solana ecosystem, especially through initiatives such as BONK token airdrops, has attracted a lot of attention from the community, increasing its popularity and sales.

In this regard, crypto KOL Tyler pointed out that the strong market interest in the Saga phone is not only because of the BONK tokens contained in it, but also because of optimism about possible future airdrops and minting NFT rights, so users trading Solana Saga phones are actually trading an NFT series with a supply of 20,000, considering that the Saga phone is similar to the PFP digital collectible series Tensorians (which allows holders to get T ensor community access and special rewards) and the Solana NFT project Mad Lads, whose holders receive a staking airdrop from the oracle project Pyth Network, the price of Solana Saga phones could rise further. (Related reading: Behind the sharp rise in the price of many leading NFTs, the “Golden Shovel” gameplay was introduced with the help of ecological project airdrops)

In addition to BONK, according to the official website, the benefits that can be obtained by buying a Saga mobile phone are as follows:

• Helium Mobile (telecommunications service): Users in the U.S. can enjoy one month of free access to Helium Mobile, a service that allows anyone to deploy a 5G hotspot and earn rewards with MOBILE tokens, and the price of MOBILE has also skyrocketed recently.
• Dialect: Stickers for Saga users.
• Audius: Exclusive music for Saga users.
• Honeyland (GameFi): Get 50 HXD and automatic upgrade to Beemium.
• Genopets (GameFi): Saga users can enjoy early access and free toys.
• Users who purchase Saga will also receive 0.01 SOL to pay for their first transaction on Solana.
• Claynosaurz NFT: Saga users have exclusive rights to mint

There will also be a large number of airdrops in the future, aiming to enhance the Web3 experience

Encrypting mobile phones is nothing new, but there are few success stories.

Prior to this, the Saga phone had also faced the dilemma of slow sales, and had to reduce the price from the original $1,000 to $600 due to poor sales. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko even said that due to disappointing sales results and changing market dynamics, the future of Solana’s Saga Phone is uncertain, revealing not long ago that Saga has only sold about 2,500 units, and sales need to reach 25,000 to 50,000 units to be considered a success and attract enough developer interest.

However, compared to other encrypted phones, according to Yakovenko, Saga phones have made significant improvements in the mobile interface, especially progressive web applications (PWAs) and keys, which have narrowed the gap between dedicated smartphones such as Saga and regular smartphones.

As a blockchain-oriented smartphone, the Solana Saga phone integrates the Seed Vault for secure digital asset custody and a dedicated dApp Store, and is based on the Solana Mobile Stack (SMS) for seamless Web3 interactions, designed to enhance the Web3 experience.

The phone’s hardware includes a 50-megapixel main camera and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, housed in a durable frame made of ceramic, stainless steel, and titanium, with a 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED display that offers a 120Hz screen refresh rate. The phone runs on Google’s Android 13 operating system.

The key to Solana Saga is its focus on on-chain functionality. Seed Vault provides encryption for private keys, enabling secure transactions and fingerprint authentication. Solana Saga can purchase mobile phones with a variety of crypto assets such as SOL and USDC by connecting the Phantom wallet directly to the Solana platform.

It is worth mentioning that Kyle Samani, co-founder of Multicoin Capital, said on December 17 that holders of Saga phones will be able to get more airdrops from the Solana ecosystem in the next year. It may further stimulate the demand for Saga mobile phones.

References: Blockworks, DataWallet, and BlockTempo

Related reading: Solana Saga first test in China: Is a $1,000 Web3 phone really worth buying?