Author: Nancy, PANews
The moment Pump.fun officially announced its token issuance, the already tense on-chain situation tightened again. Some criticized its inflated valuation after being surpassed by the competing product LetsBONK, while others worried it might quietly exit after squeezing the last wave of liquidity.
Opening public offerings with a $4 billion valuation, contract trading started before spot trading.
On the evening of July 10, after many rumors of token issuance, Pump.fun finally broke its silence and officially announced that it would launch the initial coin offering (ICO) for its native token PUMP on July 12, promising to conduct a large-scale airdrop soon.
According to official disclosed information, the total supply of PUMP tokens is 1 trillion, of which 33% is used for ICO sales, 24% is reserved for community and ecosystem plans, 20% is allocated to the team, 13% to existing investors, and the remainder is distributed to the ecosystem fund and foundation.
This ICO will sell 150 billion PUMP tokens at a price of 0.004 USDT, accounting for 15% of the total supply, with expected total financing reaching $600 million, corresponding to an overall project valuation of approximately $4 billion.
Unlike most popular projects that often choose to launch on top platforms like Binance, this time Pump.fun's public offering will be conducted through trading platforms such as Bitget, Bybit, Kraken, and Gate.io, allowing participants to purchase with assets like bbSOL, SOL, or USDT. Surprisingly, Binance Futures announced the launch of PUMP/USDT perpetual contract presale trading ahead of the PUMP public offering. This public sale will last until the tokens are sold out or until 14:00 UTC on July 15. It is important to note that users in the United States and the United Kingdom will not be able to participate in this ICO due to compliance issues.
According to the PUMP release schedule, the tokens allocated to the team and existing investors will gradually unlock starting in July 2026; the portion allocated to community and ecosystem plans will gradually unlock from the first day of token issuance and will be fully allocated by July 2026; other portions allocated to ICO, liquidity + exchanges, and the foundation will be fully unlocked on the first day of token issuance. In addition, the official stated that the PUMP token transfer function will be opened within 48 to 72 hours after the sale ends, and free trading will not be opened in the initial stage.
Subsequently, Pump.fun founder Alon simultaneously posted a tweet revealing the future key development strategies of the project: 1. Improve the quality, sustainability, and diversity of the tokens already launched: The future creator revenue-sharing mechanism will be expanded to the CTO project, and the fee structure will also be further adjusted. 2. Increase investment in the social sector: Further invest in and focus on the Pump.fun live streaming feature. 3. Continuously invest in enhancing user experience. 4. Expand team size: The basic framework of the current team has been initially set up, with more than 70 core members covering various fields such as engineering, data, security, trust and compliance, legal, operations, and growth; they will continue to actively expand the team through recruitment and strategic acquisitions, with the first acquisition soon to be officially announced.
Pump's token issuance has been met with one-sided criticism, and the founder's past statements have been 'slapped in the face'.
Currently, the liquidity and sentiment in the MEME market have changed significantly. As a long-term leader in the MEME track, Pump.fun now faces not only a significant decline in daily revenue and daily active users but also has been overtaken in market share by competitor LetsBonk (see related reading: Letsbonk makes a comeback as the top MEME launch platform, surpassing Pump.fun on several key metrics for the first time). However, Pump.fun has launched a public offering with a valuation as high as $4 billion, triggering one-sided doubts and criticisms from the community, and is even accused of possibly draining the already limited market liquidity, further exacerbating market weakness.
The more embarrassing thing is that the past statements of Pump.fun founder Alon have been unearthed by the community, making it a 'face-slapping scene'. Alon stated in March 2024 that a presale must have market promotion to prove the valuation is reasonable, bringing enormous performance pressure. The only benefit of a presale is that it allows you to pocket the raised funds. Conclusion: Every presale is a scam. Moreover, he bluntly stated that exchange listings are dead, and the lack of transparency in listings can lead to violations and poor currency choices.
In the view of IOSG Ventures partner jocy, although Pump.fun once created a brilliant $700 million protocol revenue, recent data shows its daily revenue has plummeted by 92%, and its market share has dropped to 39.9%, overtaken by competitor LetsBonk. This round of $4 billion valuation ICO has serious issues: opaque governance structure, unclear team release terms, and over-leveraged valuation during the altcoin downturn. He believes the team has gained enormous wealth through fees and has neither the willingness nor the ability to 'pump' or 'control' the market. This ICO seems more like 'liquidity exit' rather than a long-term development plan. He advises investors to view this as highly speculative gambling, not a fundamental investment; to be patient and wait to make decisions a week after the token goes live, and to adopt a phased participation strategy to reduce risk exposure.
Regarding the valuation controversy, crypto KOL @Michael_Liu93 also raised similar doubts. If Pump's scale is still the leader, then a $4 billion valuation could be justified and may even have room for upward valuation. But the reality is that Pump is the second-largest, with a business scale only one-third that of bonk, yet it set a valuation twice as high as the leader, making it hard to convince the market to continue raising Pump's price. As Pump is a 'benchmark project', if the public sale performs poorly, it would be an avalanche for the entire launchpad track; the game is already at its end.
Crypto researcher @rezxbt sharply pointed out that Pump.fun is staging a complete 'harvest operation'. Its token economic model looks like a money-making scheme from various angles. In the past year, it generated $750 million in revenue but invested almost nothing back into the ecosystem, and now it is trying to squeeze more funds through this public offering. The team holds over 40% of $PUMP tokens, yet they are selling tokens to the community that once supported Pump.fun and helped it make a fortune; this is simply harvesting the chives.
However, there are also voices with different opinions, and there are even rumors that several leading crypto funds have sold their altcoins to participate in Pump's fundraising. KOL @0xShual believes it is unfair to single out Pump.fun and criticize it compared to other competitors. If $PUMP fails, other projects (like launchcoin or bonk) cannot stand on their own either. They are making rational financial choices, which is not a sin. Pump is a profitable company; they identified problems, proposed solutions, demonstrated delivery and growth capabilities, and thus made a lot of money. Compared to the overvalued L1 without real users, he prefers to hold shares in a profitable and rapidly growing company. If the market is willing to sell off other assets for $PUMP, it precisely indicates that it is a high-quality asset. He believes that the claim that 'the MEME track is dead' is just a temporary sentiment; if Pump can airdrop, launch a product matrix, and establish a revenue feedback mechanism in the future, the market direction could quickly reverse.
He further pointed out that the key to deciding whether a project is worth holding long-term lies in two factors: first, whether it has a sufficiently strong narrative and market following expectations; second, whether it has real sustainable income and is willing to return to token holders in a systematic way.
The token issuance storm of Pump.fun actually reveals the collective dilemma currently facing the MEME market, that is, emotional retreat, liquidity tightening, and over-leveraged valuations. However, despite the meme narrative being nearly exhausted and very few real beneficiaries, there are still some who are willing to line up to place bets as if they were scratching lottery tickets. The token issuance business has not stopped, and new platforms continue to be launched.
