Author: Nancy, PANews
The moment Pump.fun officially announced its token issuance, the already tense on-chain atmosphere became even more taut. Some criticize its overvaluation after being overtaken by competitor LetsBONK, while others worry it might quietly exit after draining the last wave of liquidity.
Launching ICO with a $4 billion valuation, with futures trading opening before spot trading
On the evening of July 10, Pump.fun, which had repeatedly leaked token issuance news, finally broke its silence, officially announcing the launch of its native token PUMP's Initial Coin Offering (ICO) on July 12, and promising an imminent large-scale airdrop.
According to official disclosure, the total supply of PUMP tokens is 1 trillion, with 33% for ICO sales, 24% reserved for community and ecosystem plans, 20% allocated to the team, 13% to existing investors, and the remainder to ecosystem funds 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 an expected total fundraising of $600 million, corresponding to a project valuation of around $4 billion.
Unlike most popular projects that typically choose to launch on top platforms like Binance, this Pump.fun public offering will be conducted through exchanges such as Bitget, Bybit, Kraken, and gate.io, with participants able to purchase using assets like bbSOL, SOL, or USDT. Surprisingly, Binance Futures announced the listing of PUMP/USDT perpetual contract futures trading before the PUMP public offering. The public sale will continue until the tokens are sold out or until July 15 at 14:00 UTC. It's worth noting that users from the United States and the United Kingdom will be unable to participate in this ICO due to compliance issues.
According to the PUMP release schedule, tokens allocated to the team and existing investors will begin gradual unlocking from July 2026; tokens for community and ecosystem plans will be gradually unlocked from the first day of token issuance and fully distributed by July 2026; other token allocations for ICO, liquidity+exchanges, and foundation will be fully unlocked on the first day of token issuance. Additionally, the official stated that PUMP tokens will enable transfers 48-72 hours after sales end, with free trading initially not available.
Subsequently, Pump.fun founder Alon simultaneously released a tweet disclosing the project's future key development strategies: 1. Improve the quality, sustainability, and diversity of listed tokens: The future creator revenue sharing mechanism will be extended to CTO projects, and the fee structure will be further adjusted. 2. Double down on the social domain: Further invest in and focus on Pump.fun's live streaming functionality. 3. Continuously invest in user experience. 4. Expand team size: The current team's basic framework is initially established, with over 70 core members covering engineering, data, security, trust and compliance, legal, operations, and growth; the team will continue to actively expand through recruitment and strategic acquisitions, with the first acquisition about to be officially announced.
Pump token issuance faces one-sided criticism, founder's past remarks "slapped in the face"
Currently, the MEME market's liquidity and sentiment are vastly different from before. As the long-term leader in the MEME track, Pump.fun now not only faces a significant decline in daily revenue and daily active users but has also been overtaken in market share by competitor LetsBonk. However, Pump.fun launched a public offering with a valuation of $4 billion, triggering one-sided questioning and criticism in the community, even being accused of potentially draining the already limited market liquidity and further exacerbating market weakness.
More embarrassingly, past remarks by Pump.fun founder Alon have been dug up by the community, creating a "face-slapping scene". Alon previously stated in March 2024 that pre-sales must conduct market promotion to prove reasonable valuation, bringing enormous performance pressure. The only benefit of pre-sales is putting the raised funds in one's pocket. Conclusion: Every pre-sale is a scam. Moreover, he directly stated that exchange listings are dead, and lack of transparency in listings leads to misconduct and poor currency choices.
In the view of IOSG Ventures partner jocy, although Pump.fun once created $700 million in protocol revenue, recent data shows its daily revenue has plummeted by 92%, with market share dropping to 39.9% and overtaken by competitor LetsBonk. This round of $4 billion ICO valuation has serious issues: non-transparent governance structure, unclear team release terms, and excessive valuation during the Altcoin downturn. He believes the team has already obtained enormous wealth through fees and has neither the willingness nor ability to "pump" or "control" the market. This ICO is more like "exiting liquidity" rather than a long-term development plan. He advises investors to view this as a highly speculative gamble, not a fundamental investment; wait patiently for a week after token listing before making decisions, and use a batch participation strategy to reduce risk exposure.
Crypto KOL @Michael_Liu93 also raised similar doubts about the valuation. If Pump is still the leader, a $4 billion valuation could be justified, even with potential upside. However, the reality is that Pump is the second-tier, with business volume only one-third of Bonk, yet setting a valuation twice that of the leader, making it difficult to convince the market to continue raising Pump's price. As a "benchmark project", if the public offering performs poorly, it could be an avalanche for the entire launchpad track, signaling the end of the game.
Crypto researcher @rezxbt more sharply pointed out that Pump.fun is staging a complete "harvesting operation". Its token economic model looks like a financial scam from every angle, having generated $750 million in revenue over the past year while investing almost nothing in the ecosystem, and now attempting to squeeze more funds through the public offering. With the team holding over 40% of $PUMP tokens, selling these tokens to the community that once supported Pump.fun and helped it earn a fortune is essentially "cutting leeks".
However, some voices offer different perspectives, with rumors that several top crypto funds have sold their Altcoins to participate in Pump's fundraising. KOL @0xShual believes criticizing Pump.fun in isolation is unfair. If $PUMP fails, other projects like Launchcoin or Bonk cannot remain unscathed. They made rational financial choices, which is not a original sin. Pump is a profitable company that discovered problems, proposed solutions, demonstrated delivery and growth capabilities, and earned significant money. Compared to high-valuation L1s without real users, he would rather hold shares in a profitable, rapidly growing company. If the market is willing to sell other assets for $PUMP, it precisely indicates it's a quality asset. He believes the narrative that the "MEME track is dead" is just a temporary sentiment, and if Pump can introduce airdrops, launch a product matrix, and establish a revenue feedback mechanism in the future, the market sentiment could quickly reverse.
He further pointed out that determining whether a project is truly worth long-term holding depends on two key factors: first, whether it has a strong narrative and market follow-up expectations; second, whether it has real, sustainable income and is willing to feed back token holders through a systematic mechanism.
The token issuance controversy of Pump.fun actually reveals the collective dilemma currently faced by the meme market, including emotional recession, liquidity tightening, and over-exhausted valuations. However, despite the meme narrative being nearly depleted and few truly profiting, people are still willing to queue up and bet like buying lottery tickets. The token issuance business has not stopped, and new platforms continue to come online continuously.
