Bonk.fun vs Pump.fun: The Battle of Meme Launchpads Behind Same-Name Tokens
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Bonk.fun vs Pump.fun: The Battle of Meme Launchpads Behind Same-Name Tokens
Chaos is the ladder upward—there are always young people who benefit from version updates.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy: TechFlow
Bulls are back, and meme sectors are the first to return.
Recently, there's been a surge of golden dogs on-chain—seemingly reviving that lively dog-chasing frenzy.
However, unlike the previous cycle where Pump.fun dominated the meme space, this round has seen more challengers emerge, attempting to shake Pump.fun’s dominance as the premier meme launchpad.
After all, earning revenue via fees from launching memes daily is a highly lucrative business. As a result, numerous launchpads have recently sprung up, each trying to attract limited market attention with their own golden dogs.
In this environment, we’re now seeing two platforms listing the same-named meme tokens—for instance, today both letsBONK.fun (hereinafter "Bonk.fun") and Pump.fun launched identical tokens named $GLONK, with each platform fully backing their respective version.
Bonk.fun is jointly incubated by Raydium and the Bonk community. Raydium provides technical support through its LaunchLab platform, while the Bonk community leverages the influence of its meme token $BONK to provide a solid user base for Bonk.fun.
This clearly positions Bonk.fun as a strong competitor to Pump.fun.
On the surface, this appears to be a battle over tokens—users are essentially betting on which Glonk will prevail. But in reality, it represents an infrastructure war within the Solana ecosystem, one that involves not only token market caps and trading volumes but also platform technological capabilities, community support, and future development prospects.
More importantly, it concerns real platform revenues and interests.
Tokens represent popularity and attention; high-level platform competition often manifests in horse races between token prices.
Same Token, Rival Platforms: Founders Clash From Afar
Currently, $GLONK on Bonk.fun seems to be leading.
At the time of writing, the market cap of $GLONK on Bonk.fun stands at around $16.5 million, compared to $4.4 million on Pump.fun. In terms of trading volume and liquidity, Bonk.fun’s $GLONK also holds a clear lead.
Behind the price fluctuations of $GLONK lies an intense confrontation between the founders of Bonk.fun and Pump.fun.
While they haven’t directly engaged, SolportTom (@SolportTom), developer of Bonk.fun, and Alon (@a1lon9) from Pump.fun have both been vocally promoting their respective platforms.
Tom posted urging people to support Bonk.fun; just two minutes later, Alon responded with a similar phrase “SEND THE OG,” implying Pump.fun is the original pioneer in meme launches—the subtext was obvious.
What followed was even more dramatic, as both sides became increasingly explicit, naming each other and asserting that their version of $GLONK is superior.
Tom argued that the market has already made its choice—the price of GLONK says it all—and directly tagged Alon:
“The token on Bonk.fun has a market cap of $3 million, while the one on Pump.fun is only $170,000, yet someone posts about ‘supporting the OG version’—I find that quite lowbrow.”
Alon countered that price performance doesn't tell the whole story, emphasizing Pump.fun’s proud grassroots culture and community spirit, suggesting the price rise on Bonk.fun looks more like coordinated manipulation by a cartel.
This “war of words” significantly impacted market sentiment. After Alon’s “OG” comment was posted at 00:15, the market cap of $GLONK on Pump.fun briefly surged from $7.8 million to $13.4 million—demonstrating its short-term emotional pull.
Yet, within the next 10 hours, Bonk.fun’s $GLONK rebounded to $16.5 million, while Pump.fun’s dropped to $4.4 million, indicating the market ultimately favored Bonk.fun’s version.
Prior to this, Pump.fun’s official account had even blocked Tom, Bonk.fun’s developer—an act that further highlighted the tense rivalry.
For now, Bonk.fun’s $GLONK has indeed won. However, victory in a single token race may not tell the full story. The key lies in each platform’s competitive advantages and user-attracting strategies.
Alliances and Strategy: Striking Back After Delayed Entry
Data today shows that the number of “graduated” tokens on Raydium’s LaunchLab (primarily Bonk.fun) has surpassed those on Pump.fun for the first time.
While the total number of tokens created still lags behind Pump.fun, a higher graduation rate indicates that attention and liquidity are gradually being siphoned off—Pump.fun’s dominance is genuinely under threat.
Two days ago, overseas KOL @theunipcs revealed that during a chat with Tom, the Bonk.fun developer shared some key metrics for LetsBONKfun:
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6,911 tokens created in 24 hours, generating fees of 2,880.36 SOL (worth approximately $500,000 at current rates);
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26,902 tokens created since launch;
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Total fees collected since launch amount to 10,197.83 $SOL (nearly $2 million generated in just two weeks)
Beneath these numbers, the platform’s growth stems from a creator-centric incentive model:
On May 4, 2025, the platform partnered with Raydium to offer a 50,000 RAY airdrop to eligible Launchlab and LetsBonk.fun traders, boosting user engagement.
On May 11, LetsBonk.fun announced a $5,000 reward for five tokens demonstrating “rapid development and sustained growth” over the following week.
On May 13, Tom added another $15,000 reward for the top-performing project next week.
This resembles subsidy wars between rival food delivery platforms, burning cash to attract merchants and users.
Where there’s great reward, there’s bold action. The platform also plans to share 10% of LP fees with token creators after migration, attracting developers like FARTCOIN, who deployed two tokens—FANGPI and BarkCoin—on Bonk.fun. Notably, BarkCoin reached a market cap of $826,700 on May 13, bringing wider visibility and participation to LetsBonk.fun.
Perhaps most interesting is its connection with Chinese communities.
Bonk.fun not only developed tools enabling one-click creation of tokens based on content from Chinese social media, but also incorporated narrative elements tied to trending topics in China.
The recent viral success of “ikun” on Bonk.fun serves as strong evidence. The Chinese meme “Chicken, you’re so beautiful” is now spreading globally, with ikun’s market cap briefly exceeding $12 million.
Who Will Prevail?
As the two major meme launchpads in the Solana ecosystem, these platforms are engaged in a comprehensive battle across technology, community support, and market performance.
Bonk.fun has rapidly risen thanks to backing from Raydium and the Bonk community, while Pump.fun fights back with technological innovation and a massive user base. Let’s examine each platform’s strengths in detail:
Bonk.fun offers an extremely simple token creation process (just three steps: click “Create Token”, enter details, set supply), lowering the entry barrier. Raydium’s CPMM pools provide stronger liquidity support for its tokens. Additionally, Bonk.fun enhances community stickiness through revenue-sharing mechanisms (35% used for $BONK buybacks and burns), attracting many users interested in the Bonk ecosystem.
As the market leader, Pump.fun has also been innovating to maintain its position.
In March 2025, Pump.fun launched PumpSwap, offering instant free token migrations (previously required 6 SOL) and supporting cross-chain token trading (e.g., Aptos’ APT).
In early May 2025, Pump.fun introduced a creator revenue-sharing mechanism (0.05% of trading volume) aiming to address the “pump-and-dump” issue through incentives. Despite trailing temporarily in the $GLONK race, Pump.fun remains the more stable incumbent thanks to its vast user base (peak daily active addresses: 107,000) and cumulative revenue of $150 million.
For Bonk.fun to truly challenge Pump.fun’s dominance, it must further expand its user base and innovate technologically. Meanwhile, Pump.fun needs to overcome trust issues stemming from community churn and past negative events (such as the 2024 employee theft incident).
On the flip side, for on-chain players, platform competition is akin to a windfall.
Different platforms must generate wealth effects—whether through manipulation or genuine community effort—increasing the chances of spotting golden dogs. Compared to a stagnant market, having golden dogs is always better than none, restoring expectations of gains amid otherwise idle waiting.
Meanwhile, platforms will inevitably roll out more favorable rules or incentive programs to attract users—a form of meme farming, if you will.
However, the emergence of multiple platforms makes an already intensely PvP-driven trench even more crowded, shortening token lifecycles and accelerating entry timing, demanding greater vigilance and monitoring.
Chaos is the ladder—there will always be young players who benefit from version shifts.
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