Pump.fun token issuance has sparked controversy, with a valuation of 4 billion dollars being questioned.

The Craze and Controversy Behind Pump.fun's Coin Issuance

Recently, the most noteworthy token generation event (TGE) in the cryptocurrency market is the issue coin of Pump.fun. This highly anticipated event has been brewing since June, continuing to ferment amid various speculations and discussions, and officially took place on July 12. Despite many doubts about its $4 billion valuation, the enthusiasm among investors remains high according to actual data. The public offering sold out in just 12 minutes, with some investors expressing dissatisfaction on social media for not being able to participate.

At present, the performance of Pump.fun can be said to be relatively satisfactory. After its launch, the token price has shown a stable upward trend. It is worth mentioning that Pump.fun recently completed its first token buyback using transaction fees. However, whether the coin price can be maintained at a high level in the long term remains a question in the minds of many.

Behind the Pump.fun issue coin carnival: Who is retreating? Who is taking over?

The rise of Pump.fun is undoubtedly one of the standout applications in this bull market. It has successfully pushed MEME coins to new heights, and its fair launch concept and convenient operation methods have completely broken the high barriers of traditional issuance models. Even as the MEME craze gradually fades, the enticing mechanism that allows the creation of a coin for just 3 dollars still maintains a high level of appeal.

From a mechanism design perspective, Pump.fun has no pre-sale or private placement phases, with pricing determined entirely by smart contracts. It even sets up a so-called "graduation mechanism," which automatically creates a liquidity pool on a decentralized exchange when the market value of the coin reaches $69,000. This nearly fully automated listing process has garnered widespread market approval, making Pump.fun a "money printer" in this market cycle.

Since its launch in January 2024, Pump.fun has issued a total of 11.44 million tokens, with over 22 million active addresses and cumulative revenue approaching $720 million. Among these, the highest daily fee income reached $5.43 million, and the peak daily income was as high as $15.88 million. It can be said that the dividends of this round of the MEME market have almost all been captured by Pump.fun, further promoting the development of the Solana ecosystem.

Behind the Pump.fun issue coin frenzy: Who is retreating? Who is taking over?

However, when this project that started with MEME suddenly announced that it would issue its own coin, it sparked widespread discussion in the market. The rumors of Pump.fun issuing coins can be traced back to February of this year, when there were reports that it planned to issue coins on a centralized exchange and had even prepared complete issuing documents. However, due to the frequent issuance of MEME coins by the Trump family at that time, which led to a depletion of market liquidity, this plan was ultimately shelved.

Until June, rumors of issuing coins resurfaced. According to a certain media report, Pump.fun plans to raise $1 billion through a token sale, with a valuation of up to $4 billion, and the tokens will be sold to the public and private investors.

On July 10th, Pump.fun officially announced that the public sale of its native token PUMP will start on July 12, 2025, at 22:00, while also revealing that the PUMP airdrop is coming soon. This sale plans to issue 150 billion coins at a unit price of 0.004 USDT, accounting for 15% of the total supply (1 trillion coins). Based on a valuation of 4 billion US dollars, the amount of this round of financing is 600 million US dollars. It is worth noting that, for compliance reasons, participants from the UK and the US are excluded from this sale.

In the economic model of the PUMP token, 33% is used for public sale, 24% for community and ecological incentives, 20% allocated to the team, 2.4% for the ecological fund, 2% belongs to the foundation, 13% allocated to existing investors, 3% for live broadcast related activities, and 2.6% for liquidity provision and exchange listing.

However, compared to the previous market expectations for issuing coins, when it actually comes to issuing coins, it has instead encountered a wave of collective pessimism. The focus of the controversy is centered on its $4 billion valuation. It is worth noting that the stablecoin giant Circle, which recently went public on the New York Stock Exchange, only has a valuation of $7 billion. A blockchain gambling platform actually asking for $4 billion, even surpassing the valuation of most current DeFi blue-chip protocols, has led the market to exclaim that it has overdrawn liquidity.

Behind the Pump.fun issue coin carnival: Who is retreating? Who is taking over?

More critically, the current market environment has undergone a significant change. Looking across the entire cryptocurrency market, except for a rebound in the last few days, the trends of most altcoins and MEME coins can be described as sluggish. This is evident from the trading volume; according to statistics from data analysis platforms, the trading volume on Pump.fun peaked at $5.44 million on January 23, 2025, and has shown a drastic decline since then. Recent daily trading volumes have remained stable at below $700,000, with a drop of as much as 87.2% from the high point. In terms of the number of tokens created, the daily token creation has decreased from a peak of 70,000 to 30,000, almost halving. The "graduation rate" of tokens is even more astonishingly low, dropping from 1.6% in 2024 to now below 1%. These data clearly indicate that the MEME market is cooling down, and user enthusiasm is rapidly fading.

On the other hand, the market is shrinking while competitors are rising. Pump.fun, which once stood alone in the industry, has recently faced significant pressure. Not long ago, the competitor letsbonk.fun, centered around BONK, developed rapidly and surpassed Pump.fun multiple times in the number of tokens issued, even briefly claiming the top market share position. Although Pump.fun quickly counterattacked, the competition between the two remains fierce, and it must be acknowledged that Pump.fun's leading position is under threat.

It is under the influence of these factors that Pump.fun's $4 billion valuation has faced severe questioning. After rumors of issuing coins emerged in June, it sparked a risk-averse sentiment in the market, leading to a widespread correction of popular MEME coins within the Solana ecosystem and a rapid outflow of funds. Some industry insiders even stated that this ICO resembles a liquidity exit operation more than a long-term development plan.

Interestingly, in March 2024, the co-founder of Pump.fun stated on social media that every presale is a scam. Coincidentally, Pump.fun chose to issue coins through a presale, which is quite ironic. This coin issuance raised 33% of the total supply, with 18% allocated for private placement aimed at institutions and 15% for public offering, with all coins fully unlocked on the first day of listing.

Behind the Pump.fun issue coin carnival: Who is retreating? Who is taking over?

From the final results, although industry insiders generally hold a pessimistic view, the attitudes of supporters and institutions are completely different. In terms of public offerings, the PUMP token completed a public offering amount of $500 million in just 12 minutes, with 6 platforms participating in the PUMP public offering, including several major exchanges. According to data, the number of wallet addresses that participated in the pre-sale on the Pump.fun official website and completed KYC is 23,959, with the number of wallet addresses that successfully purchased being 10,145, and the average subscription amount is $44,209. A total of 89.7% of the PUMP token pre-sale was completed on the official website, while sales on exchanges accounted for only 10.3%. Among the addresses in the official pre-sale, small users are the main group, with 5,758 users subscribing for PUMP within $1,000, while the number of addresses with subscriptions exceeding $1 million is 202, also demonstrating the enthusiasm of institutional investors.

The entire process perfectly illustrates the unique phenomenon of "verbal dislike but actual support" in the cryptocurrency circle. Due to technical issues at certain exchanges during the public sale process, some users found it difficult to complete their subscriptions, which even led to dissatisfaction among several users on social media. There is considerable controversy in the community regarding Pump's subsequent performance. One viewpoint believes its valuation is too high and that it will inevitably collapse after the spotlight effect ends; another viewpoint argues that Pump, as the most representative product of MEME, has a complete income logic and a cognitive foundation, and will not easily collapse.

From the current situation, the latter seems to have gained the upper hand for the time being. After GMGN launched on July 15, Pump briefly fell from $0.0065 to $0.0042, but after some fluctuations, it started to rise again, currently quoted at $0.0066, an increase of 55% compared to the fundraising price of $0.004. The fully diluted valuation (FDV) also rose from $4 billion to $6.6 billion, bringing considerable wealth effects to the subscribers.

Of course, this part of the price increase cannot rule out human factors. According to on-chain analysis, as of 8 AM this morning, Pump.fun began to use transaction fee income to repurchase PUMP after issuing the coin. In the past 7 hours, 187,770 SOL in transaction fee income was transferred to a specific address, purchased PUMP, and then the acquired tokens were transferred to another address for storage. So far, 111,953 SOL (approximately 1.83 million USD) have been used to buy 3.04 billion PUMP, with an average price of 0.006 USD. Although the repurchase operation can support the price, it inevitably raises doubts about the left hand tossing to the right hand. However, for token holders, no matter the purpose, as long as it can drive up the coin price, it is ultimately a good thing.

Whether it is to exit liquidity or purely for ecological construction, the controversy surrounding the valuation of Pump.fun precisely reflects the current state of the market. The MEME coin, once known for its liquidity, is collectively falling into difficulties, and the once booming attention economy seems to gradually become a false proposition. Nowadays, even the most representative applications are embarking on the path of issuing coins, which seems to suggest that the MEME narrative may be approaching its end. The future direction of the MEME market will depend on the performance of the Pump token, which will become an important barometer. The market's bets on it will be an effective observation of the value of the attention economy. If the token price continues to rise, it at least indicates that the market recognizes its pricing; however, if the token price plummets, people will have to rethink the true value of the MEME market, which may trigger more selling sentiment. This may also be one of the reasons why Pump chose to repurchase.

Behind the Pump.fun issue coin frenzy: Who is retreating? Who is taking over?

Back to the initial question: Who is the winner of the coin issuance by Pump.fun? Undoubtedly, the project party is the biggest beneficiary. So far, both public and private placement participants have also achieved good returns, and short-term investors have similarly made a significant profit. However, how long this profitability can last and how long the project party can maintain the coin price at a high level remains a huge unknown. There are indications that some large holders have begun to choose to cash out. According to a monitoring platform, a large holder spent 5 million USDC through 5 wallets to participate in the PUMP public sale, purchasing 1.25 billion PUMP, which was sold today at an average price of $0.0067, earning a profit of $3.416 million.

On the other hand, returning to the reality backdrop, the current improvement in the macro market will also influence the trend of MEME coins to some extent. Positive news about Ethereum continues, and mainstream tokens led by it are on the rise, directly driving the explosion of blue-chip altcoins in the Ethereum ecosystem. Taking ENS as an example, today's increase exceeded 18%, setting a new high since February this year. In the long run, although the current market uncertainty is strong, the foreseeable interest rate cut policy is on the way, and the altcoin market may be expected to welcome a small peak. MEME coins may show a trend of polarization, with high-quality MEME benefiting from sector rotation and rising, while other MEME may fall into a neglected state due to liquidity being withdrawn.

According to this logic, it is similar in nature to the lipstick economy and

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StopLossMastervip
· 07-17 13:56
I will enter after all the suckers have been played.
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Ramen_Until_Richvip
· 07-17 13:53
4 billion valuation, no one can break the ceiling!
View OriginalReply0
FOMOmonstervip
· 07-17 13:50
A valuation of 4 billion is all about the thrill!
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GateUser-cff9c776vip
· 07-17 13:37
The bubble expert said this wave is stable.
View OriginalReply0
MetaverseMigrantvip
· 07-17 13:31
4 billion USD, really dare to boast?
View OriginalReply0
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