- Trending
- Comments
- Latest
Meme coin minting is under fire as Pump.fun’s native token, PUMP, nosedives just days after its record-shattering debut.
Despite raising a jaw-dropping $600 million in just 12 minutes, the token has plunged more than 22%, slipping from a post-ICO peak above $0.006 to around $0.004, according to CoinMarketCap.
This sharp fall effectively returns the PUMP token to its launch price, indicating potential turbulence ahead for the meme coin that once revitalized Solana’s meme ecosystem.
Meme coin minting, once seen as the engine behind Pump.fun’s meteoric rise, is facing stiff headwinds.
The project, which allocated 15% of its total 1 trillion PUMP supply to the public, stunned the market with its $600 million ICO.
An additional 18% was sold privately, valuing the fully diluted market cap at a staggering $4 billion.
But the post-launch performance tells a different story.
“Retail investors jumped in fast, but without sustained demand or fresh incentives, early sell-offs are inevitable,” said David Gokhshtein, founder of Gokhshtein Media and a vocal crypto commentator.
Even as Pump.fun aimed to dominate the meme coin minting space, the landscape shifted quickly.
On-chain data shows that LetsBONK, a new entrant focused on the BONK ecosystem, has overtaken Pump.fun in terms of token creation volumes.
This transition occurred just two weeks ago and reflects broader saturation in Solana’s meme token market.
“LetsBONK is the first real competitor to challenge Pump.fun’s monopoly on meme coin minting,” noted Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs, during a recent podcast.
“Their growth has been explosive, and BONK’s 64% price jump reinforces that momentum.”
In response to dwindling price action and increased competition, Pump.fun’s team has doubled down on token utility and community features.
On Tuesday, the platform repurchased nearly 188,000 SOL—roughly $31.3 million—in PUMP tokens at an average price of $0.0064.
The move temporarily boosted the token by 17%, topping $0.0067 before retracing.
Pump.fun also pledged to funnel 25% of protocol revenues into ongoing buybacks. However, fee revenues on Friday came in at just $968,000, below the platform’s daily average.
To rekindle interest, co-founder Alon Cohen introduced a bold new feature: Community Takeover.
This function lets users claim abandoned meme coin projects and redirect creator fees toward active community contributors involved in raids, content, and development.
“We’re flipping the script,” Cohen said in a Telegram AMA. “Meme coin minting should reward the builders and the raiders, not just the whales.”
In a bid to differentiate itself, Pump.fun recently completed its first acquisition—Kolscan, a wallet-tracking platform that monitors top Solana traders.
The integration will allow users to track whale activity, mirror trades, and access analytics—all for free.
“Trading is a social sport,” Cohen emphasized. “Adding Kolscan to our arsenal turns meme coin minting into a data-driven experience, opening the door to smarter strategies and better community engagement.”
The move aligns with Pump.fun’s broader ambition to evolve beyond meme coin minting into a full-fledged crypto social network, combining financial speculation with social clout.
As meme coin minting cools across Solana, questions loom over Pump.fun’s ability to sustain momentum.
Though the project still boasts tens of thousands of users and is rolling out aggressive upgrades, it now faces a crowd of imitators—and an increasingly fatigued retail audience.
Still, some remain bullish. “Pump.fun laid the foundation for modern meme tokenization,” said Mira Christanto, former Messari analyst.
“But sustaining that hype requires more than fast minting—it requires staying power.”
The volatile saga of Pump.fun describes a hard truth in crypto: Meme coin minting success isn’t guaranteed by hype alone.
Copyright © 2025 - The Bit Gazette.
