A Solana Saga phone appears to have sold for as much as $5,000 on eBay — more than eight times its retail cost — after a frenzy to pick up a free memecoin airdrop caused the devices to sell out on the official website for the first time.
According to a Dec. 16 listing on the online marketplace eBay, two unopened, in-box phones have recently sold, listed for $5,000 or “best offer,” while another device has sold for $3,316 or “best offer."
An additional 20 devices managed to sell for over $2,000 over the weekend, a more than $1,400 markup on the original $599 price tag on the Solana Mobile website.
Since the device launched on May 8, each new Saga phone has come with a free 30 million Bonk (BONK) token airdrop. Traders last week began noticing that a price surge in Bonk meant that the free airdrop has become more valuable than the device itself — causing the phone to become “SOLD OUT” as of Dec. 16.
Buyers of these scalped Saga phones are likely a bet that the price of the memecoin will continue to appreciate even further. In the last 30 days, Bonk surged nearly 800% as the token gained mass traction among memecoin enthusiasts and opportunistic traders.
However, for traders to profit from the eye-watering $5,000 price tag, the price of Bonk would need to grow a further 620% from its current value. This would see Bonk command a total market cap of $8.68 billion — placing it at a similar valuation to Tron (TRX) or Polkadot (DOT).
Related: Solana phone sales skyrocket as degens scramble for pumped-up BONK
However, it would seem that the phone buyers may not be solely betting on the price of Bonk, with several Solana-based projects recently announcing airdrops and other financial incentives for device users.
In a Dec. 17 post to X (formerly Twitter) the pseudonymous founder of the DeFi protocol, Solend confirmed that the team would be working on an airdrop for Saga phone holders.
Additionally, a fellow memecoin project called Samoyed Coin (SAMO) announced they would be releasing an airdrop for Saga holders, with more details “coming soon.”
On Nov. 15. decentralized storage provider GenesysGo previously announced that users would be able to mine its native Shadow (SHDW) token by way of an application on the Saga phone.
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