How Pump and We.Rich Sparked a Coin-Minting Craze: Steps to Build a Meme Coin with a Market Cap Over $100 Million
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How Pump and We.Rich Sparked a Coin-Minting Craze: Steps to Build a Meme Coin with a Market Cap Over $100 Million
Does the emergence of Pump-type products mean that players can transform from mere韭菜 (victims) into镰刀 (predators)?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Frank, PANews
In a bull market where no one is buying each other's bags, the Meme coin sector has entered a new phase—mass token issuance.
Since April 18, over 10,000 tokens have been issued daily on the Solana blockchain, while Base chain has consistently launched more than 2,000 trading pairs per day. The surge in token issuance is primarily driven by the explosive growth of one-click token launch tools like Pump.
The Rise of Pump Fuels Mass Token Issuance
Pump.fun is a meme coin launch tool and social platform primarily focused on the Solana blockchain. It enables users to deploy and issue tokens at extremely low cost (0.02 SOL) without any coding experience. Since its launch in January 2024, it has facilitated the creation of over 460,000 tokens. As of May 9, Pump has generated cumulative revenue exceeding $17 million (from a 1% transaction fee).
Although the industry has seen many one-click token launchers before, few have achieved the popularity of Pump. For average users, Pump offers several key advantages:
1. The token issuance process is simplified to under one minute. To launch a token on Pump, users only need to upload an image, choose a name, and write a brief description. The entire process is extremely straightforward, with no options to adjust supply or ownership settings.
2. Elimination of LP pool funding requirements. Unlike traditional one-click launchers, where users must provide liquidity pool funds beyond deployment costs, Pump introduced an innovation: no initial capital injection is required. Instead, a ~$60,000 LP pool is automatically set up. As buyers participate, once market cap reaches $60,000, all incoming purchase funds are automatically deposited into the LP pool and listed on Raydium Swap. This ensures that projects surpassing $60,000 in market cap gain a relatively stable liquidity pool independent of the founder’s integrity or financial commitment.
3. Integrated social features foster meme culture consolidation. One major pain point for many meme coins is assessing community engagement and discussion热度 (typically requiring active searching across platforms). Pump addresses this with a built-in message board function, preserving all discussions about a token in one place so newcomers can quickly grasp the project's progress.
Can Everyone Become a "Predator"?
Beyond Pump's activity on Solana, similar tools are emerging on other chains. Examples include We.rich and FriendTech on Base chain. We.rich builds upon Pump with added features and UI improvements, such as maintaining low token prices and limited minting during the initial fair launch phase. While its issuance volume and active user base still lag significantly behind Pump, its presence could introduce a new battleground for meme coins on Base, which also hosts a substantial meme market.
Additionally, various AI-integrated products essentially offer similar one-click token creation functionalities. For instance, Spectral, which recently announced an airdrop plan, uses a GPT-like conversational interface to generate smart contract code. However, these tools still fall short in convenience compared to dedicated one-click launchers.
Does the emergence of Pump-like tools mean retail investors can transform from韭菜 ("lambs") to "predators"? PANews conducted experiments revealing that although Pump minimizes issuance complexity and cost, achieving a 100x return remains highly unlikely. After launching a token, typically only a few automated trading bots enter briefly, execute rapid trades, then vanish. Most tokens on Pump remain in this dormant state, with only a tiny fraction exceeding $60,000 in market cap daily.
For issuers, these transient traders quickly drain liquidity, leaving only the founder’s initial investment in the pool. While losses may be limited, realizing profits remains a distant goal.
How to Create a Meme Coin Worth Over $100 Million
Indeed, Pump has seen numerous success stories. Several top-ranked meme coins boast market caps exceeding $100 million. Notable examples are two "Elvis Cats": michi and Shark Cat.
Next, PANews analyzes high-market-cap cases to understand how these billion-dollar meme coins emerged.
The Journey of the Two Elvis Cats
michi is currently the highest market cap meme coin on Pump, reaching $186 million, created on April 8.
Shark Cat has a market cap of approximately $160 million, created on March 26.
Content:
First, timing and theme were foundational to their high valuations. Late March to early April coincided with the peak popularity of the "cat vs. dog" meme trend on Solana, where users actively sought cat- or dog-themed memes for speculation. Both tokens belonged to the "Cat" faction, perfectly aligning with the hottest theme at the time.
Community:
Beyond timing, strong community foundations were crucial. PANews research reveals that nearly all top-ranked meme coins share one trait: their creators weren’t anonymous unknowns.
Take michi: its founder, psykø (@psykogem), is an experienced meme coin player and KOL with 4,700 followers on X, highly active on both X and Telegram, consistently generating high engagement. Before launching michi, he actively teased the project on social media.
Similarly, Shark Cat’s creator, 0xWinged (@0xWinged), is a KOL who previously succeeded with the CopyCat project. He already had over 10,000 followers on X before launching Shark Cat.
Promotion Skills:
However, mere follower count doesn’t guarantee success. Narrative-building during launch is vital for price momentum. michi’s founder emphasized sincerity: early on, he personally bought and burned 40 SOL worth of michi tokens. This move accelerated michi’s progress toward the $60,000 market cap threshold and signaled confidence—"I’ve gone all in, you decide"—inspiring trust among later entrants. Ultimately, psykø earned over $2.5 million through this bold strategy.
Subsequently, psykø sustained momentum through 1% airdrops, advertising on New York’s Times Square, and commissioning artists to create meme content.
0xWinged used a different approach for Shark Cat: an X Space event. Most early buyers joined through this live audio session.
Capital:
Meme rallies are never solo endeavors. Sustained price increases require capital backing. TEH EPIK DUCK (EPIK), the third-largest project on Pump by market cap, saw a wallet (GE4LX5DcEAfgVD1MZ1ahiUJboL3G3X4yuh2gcRytjvL5) purchase 30 SOL worth of EPIK within the first half hour, instantly filling its market cap progress bar. This user ultimately profited 1,369 SOL. While we can't know why this user dared such an early all-in bet, transaction records show that on April 3, they invested over 10 SOL each in multiple yellow duck-themed tokens. Such patterns suggest systematic, batch-style meme炒作 tactics. Similar large speculative players appeared in the early trades of other high-market-cap projects.
From this analysis, we can identify essential elements in successful meme coin campaigns: content, community, promotion ability, and capital. These four factors are indispensable for meme coin success. While not every project needs to excel in all four, having strengths in several areas is necessary to compensate for weaknesses elsewhere.
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