Pump.fun has raised $730 million in less than two years—Is launching tokens on pump.fun the final act for memecoins?
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Pump.fun has raised $730 million in less than two years—Is launching tokens on pump.fun the final act for memecoins?
Is Pump.fun a wild dark horse, or the final狂欢 of crypto FOMO culture?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy: SuperEx
Translation: Baihua Blockchain
Recently, Pump.fun—the so-called "meme engine" on Solana—has once again stirred market waves. Rumors of an impending token launch have triggered strong risk-averse sentiment across an already fragile on-chain ecosystem. Some hail it as a new benchmark for attention economies; others label it the “number one toxic asset” within the Solana ecosystem.
So, is Pump.fun an untamed dark horse, or the final FOMO-fueled狂欢 of crypto culture? This token launch may well be the ultimate test of its true value.
01 What’s Happening: The Pump.fun Token Launch Buzz
Here's the story: reports suggest Pump.fun plans to raise $1 billion through public and private token sales, with a valuation as high as $4 billion. The news sent shockwaves through the Solana ecosystem, triggering a surge in risk-off behavior. While no official launch date has been confirmed, hints from their social media accounts suggest action could come “within two weeks”—the same phrasing they used previously.
In fact, this isn’t the first time Pump.fun has attempted a token launch. Back in February, they considered a Dutch auction model, but were derailed when Trump and his wife launched their own MemeCoin, capturing all attention and liquidity. Now, even though the market has slightly recovered, it hasn't regained its former momentum. Can this token launch succeed? That’s not something we can easily predict—we need to look at the market data.
1-1 Cold, Hard Numbers
As of June 4, Pump.fun has generated over $730 million in cumulative revenue. Sounds impressive, right? But hold on—the platform’s daily income has plummeted from a peak of nearly $15 million in February to just a few million dollars, effectively halving.
1-2 Trading Volume
At the end of 2024, Pump.fun hit a weekly trading volume record of $3.3 billion. Today, reaching $1 billion in weekly volume is considered a win. In short, liquidity and user activity have severely dried up after the initial hype.
More concerning: the number of tokens created daily has dropped from a peak of 70,000 to around 30,000. What does this mean? User interest in this "dice-roll" game is waning.
1-3 Who’s Actually Making Money?
Pump.fun may seem like a fast track to financial freedom, but reality is far less rosy. According to Dune data, there were approximately 594,000 active wallets in May:
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Only 3.6% of users made profits exceeding $500;
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Just 0.1% earned over $10,000;
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Only 27 wallets (about 0.0045%) netted more than $100,000.
Meanwhile, 52.5% of users lost money, with some losing over $1 million.
The logic is simple: the vast majority serve as exit liquidity for a small group of winners—just like a casino. Everyone thinks they’ll win, but most end up losing everything.
02 Solana Faces Risk-Off Exodus
Amid growing rumors around the Pump.fun token, Solana-based MemeCoins have taken a major hit. Within 24 hours of the news breaking, major Solana MemeCoins recorded losses. Artemis data shows Solana ranked third among blockchains with the highest net capital outflows.
In essence, Pump.fun’s token plan is seen as an impending liquidity black hole—and markets are reacting accordingly.
03 The Controversy Over the $4 Billion Valuation
What’s the most controversial aspect? The staggering $4 billion valuation. For context, Yuga Labs had a similar valuation during the APE token launch. So how can Pump.fun justify such a lofty valuation?
Crypto researcher @Haotian bluntly called it “severely overvalued,” offering four key criticisms:
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Attention monetization is a short-term game: built on FOMO and speculation, lacking long-term fundamentals.
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No real moat: a new Solana app could easily replace it.
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Over-engineering kills meme spirit: meme culture thrives on simplicity—too many features could kill its appeal.
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Valuation incentives undermine innovation: when traffic monetization trumps real tech, crypto strays from its original mission.
Another KOL, @xingpt, pointed out that Pump.fun’s 30-day annualized revenue stands at $77.98 million. With a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $5 billion, its FDV/revenue ratio reaches about 64—an extremely high figure. By comparison, blue-chip DeFi platforms like Raydium and PancakeSwap generate more stable profits but carry much more conservative valuations, highlighting Pump.fun’s elevated risk.
04 But Not Everyone Is Bearish
Supporters have also stepped forward. KOL @CryptoV argues that Pump.fun played a pivotal role in making Solana the central hub for on-chain activity. It solves the full-stack problem—from zero liquidity to CEX listings—like the iPhone of blockchain. He believes Pump.fun captures two key metrics of the attention economy: liquidity and screen time.
He also notes that with a P/E ratio of just 5, Pump.fun might actually be a value play. No airdrops, no insider games—just pure product-driven traction. From this perspective, it appears more stable than many hype-driven projects.
05 Summary
On the surface, Pump.fun’s token plan may seem like just another market hype event. But beneath lies a deeper clash of crypto ideologies: value systems, valuation models, attention economics, and sustainability.
In the short term, the project may still spark a brief wave of excitement. But long-term, whether this FOMO-driven business model can build real defensibility remains to be seen. If it successfully builds a full-fledged meme ecosystem through this token launch, it might truly deserve the title of “iPhone of the blockchain.” But if this is merely a final exit rally, it may leave behind nothing but wreckage.
The coming weeks are critical. This isn’t just a token launch—it’s a live experiment on the mechanics of on-chain attention economies.
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