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Memecoin launchpad Pump.fun announced Monday it will award $3 million to early-stage startups selected not by venture capitalists but by live token markets, where participants will trade shares in competing projects during a 30-day public hackathon to determine which 12 teams receive $250,000 each.
This marked an important shift for the Solana-based launchpad. The initiative is centred on the newly established Pump Fund and a Build in Public hackathon, which seeks to replace traditional venture capital selection with real-time market validation.
Founded as a meme coin launchpad that gained traction during the Solana ecosystem’s retail trading boom, Pump.fun has faced cooling activity in its core niche.
In response, the platform announced its Pump Fund investment arm, designed to catalyse early-stage innovation by distributing capital to promising projects outside the conventional accelerator framework.
Under this model, 12 teams will be selected through a competitive 30-day hackathon, each receiving $250,000 in funding at a $10 million valuation.
Unlike traditional venture capital, where founders pitch to panels of investors or judges, projects in the hackathon will launch tokens and allow market participation to determine early interest and traction.
“This framework creates a new path for founders who would otherwise lack access to capital,” – Alon Cohen, co-founder of Pump.fun.
According to Pump.fun’s communications, teams must launch a token and hold at least 10% of its supply to qualify; however, projects do not need to be strictly crypto-native. Organizers will prioritize product momentum, community engagement, transparency, and long-term viability when evaluating winners.
The Build in Public (BiP) hackathon represents the core engine of Pump Fund’s rollout. Beginning with the announcement on January 19, 2026, the event invites teams from across sectors to submit daily updates, share milestones publicly, and engage in social forums throughout the 30-day competition.
Organizers argue that open communication and community traction provide stronger early indicators of a project’s potential than traditional pitch decks or committee selections.
“Instead of having to please judges/VCs for money, tokenizing allows the market to become the judge,” Pump.fun wrote in a thread on X.
The event’s structure is designed to offer mentorship from Pump.fun’s founders, in addition to capital, with the first cohort expected to be announced by February 18, 2026. Participants are encouraged to engage users and traders directly, encouraging early liquidity and community backing.
Industry observers note that this approach not only aims to democratise access to funding but also to forge stronger alignment between startups and their end users.
As one early adopter put it, the hackathon is the biggest unlock of builder talent, arguing that while technological innovation has surged thanks to AI and decentralised tools.
The announcement has already affected market sentiment around Pump.fun’s native token, PUMP, which saw a short-term uptick following the launch news. Trading data indicate a modest gain in the token’s price as investors digest the potential impact of the new funding mechanism.
Analysts see Pump.fun’s pivot as part of a larger trend in decentralised finance and crypto innovation, where community validation and market signals increasingly influence investment flows.
By letting users bet early on projects through token engagement, Pump.fun is blurring lines between traditional startup investing and on-chain economic activity.
However, the model is not without risks. Critics caution that relying on early token markets as indicators of quality can expose investors and projects to volatility, speculation, and governance challenges, especially in nascent markets with thin liquidity.
Pump.fun’s unconventional funding strategy could signal a shift in how early-stage crypto and tech projects attract capital, particularly within decentralised ecosystems.
With the Build in Public hackathon now underway and applications open, founders and investors alike will be watching closely to see whether market-driven funding can outperform or augment traditional venture models.
Pump Fund’s progress may offer early signals on the viability of tokenised market validation as a substitute for traditional funding frameworks, a development with implications far beyond a single platform.
