Pump.fun

Submission 86

Part of a series on Meme Coins. [View Related Entries]

About

Pump.fun is a cryptocurrency protocol and decentralized platform on the Solana (SOL) blockchain that allows users to create tokens for free and launch them on Solana. The site was launched in early 2024. It became a well-known hub for meme coins by late 2024, including memetic tokens like the Chill Guy coin ($CHILLGUY) and Goatseus Maximus ($GOAT), among others. Pump.fun also allows users to livestream after creating a token. This resulted in viral moments like the Gen Z Quant Rug Pull in November 2024.

History

According to the ICANN Lookup,^[1] the Pump.fun domain was created on September 19th, 2023. However, the site wasn't officially launched until January 19th, 2024.^[2]

On the day of its launch, the official Pump.fun Twitter / X^[2] account shared a preview of the site, advertising itself as, "Launch a coin and begin trading it in under 1 minute without having to seed liquidity for a cost of < $2." In subsequent tweets,^[3] the company reached out to the meme coin community.

The creator of Pump.fun goes by the pseudonym Alon and posts to the X^[4] account @a1lon9. On July 29th, 2024, Alon was interviewed by YouTuber^[5] threadguy, receiving over 12,700 views in four months (shown below).

On October 3rd, 2024, Alon hosted an Ask Me Anything on the subreddit /r/AMA.^[10]

On November 19th, 2024, Pump.fun recorded a record-high number of 175,910 active wallet addresses. The month of November 2024 also awarded the company a record $27.7 million in monthly fees.^[11]

Pump.fun Attacker Jarrett Dunn

On May 16th, 2024, the X^[12] account of @pumpdotfun shared a post reading, "We are aware that the pump.fun bonding curve contracts have been compromised and are investigating the matter" (shown below).

It was later reported that an attacker had liquidated and siloed off at least $2 million worth of SOL.^[13] The attacker was later revealed to be Pump.fun employee Jarett Dunn.^[14]

Gen Z Quant Rug Pull

The Gen Z Quant Rug Pull refers to a viral controversy involving a kid, pump.fun^[17] user Fi2hrx, who reportedly made roughly $30,000 before school while livestreaming the creation of his meme coin Gen Z Quant ($QUANT), which rapidly gained a high market capitalization only for him to "rug pull" all the investors' money.

The boy's stream clip went viral on Twitter / X^[18] in late November 2024, sparking viral discourse about meme coins and the ethics of crypto rug pulls. Some called him the Quant Kid in memes and reactions. The kid was later doxxed by pump.fun users who created coins based on the kid's parents and sister, called QUANT DAD, QUANTMOM and QUANT SIS.

Features

Pump.fun allows users to launch a coin on Solana for free. Each coin requires a name, ticker, description and image. The platform also allows users to livestream.^[15]

Coins

BILLY

On June 16th, 2024, a Meme Coin called BILLY was launched on Pump.fun.^[6] The coin used the image of the Ouppy meme.^[7] The coin reached a peak market capitalization of about $117 million on July 2nd, 2024.^[9] By September 15th, the market cap had increased to over $218 million.^[8] BILLY is cited by crypto news outlet Decrypt^[15] as Pump.fun's first largely successful Meme Coin.

Chill Guy Coin

On October 5th, 2024, Pump.fun^[16] user mrowl minted a Meme Coin called $CHILLGUY that was based on the Chill Guy meme. By November 19th, the coin reached a peak market cap of over $47.3 million.