Solana Memecoin Giant Pump.fun Raises $500M in Just Minutes

Pump.fun’s tokenomics reflect a complex allocation strategy designed to balance growth and community incentives. A total of 33% of the PUMP supply was allocated to the ICO, split between private and public buyers. The team behind the platform holds 20% of the supply, while 24% is earmarked for ecosystem growth and user incentives. Another 13% has been assigned to early investors, with approximately 2.6% going to liquidity provisioning. An additional 2.4% has been dedicated to a general ecosystem fund. Remaining percentages are directed toward platform operations, live-streaming rewards, and foundation efforts.

Launched in January 2024 by co-founders Noah Tweedale, Alon Cohen, and Dylan Kerler, Pump.fun enables virtually anyone to mint and trade memecoins on the Solana blockchain using a simplified bonding curve-based automated market maker. The platform is credited with having democratized access to token creation, fueling a wave of experimentation and parody coins.

Despite its meteoric rise, Pump.fun’s activity has shown signs of slowing in recent months. According to data from DeFiLlama, the platform’s monthly launchpad volume dropped from approximately $11.6 billion in January to around $2.6 billion by June. Over the same period, quarterly revenue also declined significantly. In response, the platform launched PumpSwap in March 2025, a decentralized exchange that quickly gained traction, processing billions in trading volume within days and generating millions in protocol fees. While precise monthly figures vary, PumpSwap has played a key role in sustaining user engagement and offsetting the downturn in launchpad activity.

While the scale of the raise drew headlines, it also underscored the speculative frenzy driving much of today’s memecoin economy. With minimal utility and an outsized valuation, PUMP’s success reflects a broader shift in retail appetite, from fundamentals to hype-driven participation.

This high-profile public sale is among the largest ever for a memecoin-related project. Earlier in the year, Pump.fun reportedly considered raising up to $1 billion at the same $4 billion valuation, raising concerns about liquidity impacts across the wider memecoin market.

Following the close of the sale, Pump.fun has stated that token distribution will begin immediately, but assets will remain locked for up to 72 hours. This means public trading and staking of PUMP tokens will likely begin sometime between July 14 and 15, depending on the specific exchange and wallet used by each participant.

In just 12 minutes, the platform has gone from buzzy upstart to billion-dollar juggernaut. Whether that status proves fleeting or transformative will depend on how Pump.fun chooses to spend its war chest and how much longer retail investors are willing to bet big on memes.