The Most Profitable App in the Crypto World Starts to Decline
From going head-to-head with bonk.fun, to conducting and completing one of the largest ICOs in cryptocurrency history, this year's pump.fun, while not as spectacular in terms of making money as last year, is still enjoying some success. As of today, pump.fun has spent nearly 1 million SOL tokens (around 188 million USD) in fee income to buy back $PUMP, accounting for 12.227% of the total supply.

However, the continuous and substantial buyback has not boosted pump.fun's token price in any way, and it continues to decline. The actions of pump.fun and its co-founder Alon are increasingly unsettling the market. The day before yesterday, Mario Nawfal, a prominent figure with over 2.6 million followers, publicly criticized pump.fun on his alternate account:

"Even though pump.fun is a for-profit company, their actions are baffling. While Solana has been struggling, they sold billions worth of SOL. They completed the $PUMP ICO months ago with a promise of an airdrop, which has yet to materialize, and there has been no reinvestment in the entire ecosystem. Regardless of the ethical obligation for this company to do good, from a purely business perspective, how can their ecosystem thrive if they are so indifferent to it?"
This may be the largest KOL-led public criticism of pump.fun we have seen to date. Just hours after this tweet, pump.fun announced a $10,000 community grant to each of the 6 meme coins in its ecosystem, a move that only added fuel to the fire and was ruthlessly mocked as "trench warfare."

Underneath this tweet, many responses read:
"I see you, lol."
"This is seriously hilarious."
"You make so much money every day, and then only give these hard-working meme coins in your ecosystem $10,000? What can you do with $10,000?"
In August of this year, when pump.fun faced a fierce challenge from bonk.fun, they launched the Glass Full Foundation, spending around 1.7 million USD to acquire some well-performing meme coins within their ecosystem. However, since then, pump.fun has not supported any of the meme coins in its ecosystem with actual funding. About two weeks ago, the "last survivor" in the Glass Full Foundation, $neet, also dropped below the price at which pump.fun bought in. The foundation's holdings have all suffered losses, totaling approximately 1.37 million USD.

Players who firmly stood on the side of pump.fun during the battle against bonk.fun, as well as those players who hoped that pump.fun would be able to take on the responsibility of revitalizing the meme market, can be said to be as disappointed as they come. They hoped that pump.fun would properly support its own ecosystem, rather than suddenly rushing to do CCM (Celebrity Coin Masternode), then rushing to do ICM (Influencer Coin Masternode), ending up making a mess of everything.
A significant amount of buyback but a languishing $PUMP token price, amid this increasingly gloomy player sentiment and disappointment, has also gradually come under scrutiny.

"How do you explain $PUMP conducting a buyback of over 10% but still trading below its issuance price?"
And in this situation, the pump.fun official account, as well as the official account of pump.fun's co-founder Alon, inexplicably fell into a silence lasting about 10 days, without a single tweet. Even the previous important pump.fun update, "Mayhem Mode," was not even mentioned by the pump.fun official account.
By the way, "Mayhem Mode" was also an update that players heavily criticized. This was because in the slump of the Solana meme market, the lowering of the token graduation threshold in "Mayhem Mode" and the mechanism of random purchase of tokens by opening this mode through fees from the tokens were seen as pump.fun exploiting the situation.
The nonsensical silence prompted even the AI aixbt to come out and fire shots at pump.fun:

"pump.fun has collected $300M in fees but the token graduation rate is now only 0.7%. There are 12,610 launches per day, with only 98 successful launches. The platform profits from 99.3% of failed token launches. The team disappeared 13 days ago, which was the highest trading volume week in history. Supposedly, their buyback is just moving funds around, and the product itself is a value-extracting machine."
Later, a tweet from Lookonchain sparked rumors in the market that "pump.fun has exit scammed":

"It appears that pump.fun has cashed out at least $4.365 billion since October 15."
This tweet finally made pump.fun "rise from the dead." Pump.fun's co-founder Sapijiju tweeted claiming that Lookonchain's tweet was completely unfounded, stating that pump.fun had not cashed out any funds but simply transferred the funds raised in the ICO to different wallets for the company to use for investment and business development.

This explanation seemed feeble and unconvincing. The only disclosed acquisitions by pump.fun so far are Kolscan and Padre, the former being a tool to track Key Opinion Leader (KOL) transaction profits and losses, and the latter being a trading terminal. When the acquisition of Padre was announced, pump.fun also declared that the Padre token would no longer be used on the platform and that there were no further plans for its future.
Imagine a scenario in Web2 where a company is acquired, and just as the shareholders are joyful for not even 2 minutes, they are informed that all their shares are now worthless. That was the cruel and heartless tragedy that occurred that evening, where those who did not carefully read the entire tweet thread ended up being left hanging on a cliff, with the original $PADRE holders having nowhere to turn for help.

Holding a coin of a product -> Finally seeing it being acquired by a major industry player -> Instantly feeling joyful and excited -> Only to find out the acquiring party declared the token useless from now on with no future plans -> Brutally cut off at the knees
Ultimately, although the rumors of pump.fun's exit scam currently lack any foundation and pump.fun has responded, this incident is a concentrated manifestation of market dissatisfaction. If pump.fun was merely a cunning business, in their cunning, they completely disregarded human emotions, making them far from being called shrewd strategists.
Of course, it's also possible that they have made enough money and no longer care. After all, the airdrop went from a tweet on July 9 saying "coming soon" to today with no sign of anything soon in sight. Alon said the fourth quarter would be a brilliant one, but it turned out to be a complete dud. The lack of respect for the community through opaque communication and a community reward that feels like a joke has only served to further alienate players.
How does this make "trench" feel about saying "I love you," pump.fun?
You may also like

Crypto Price Prediction Today 18 February – XRP, Bitcoin, Ethereum
Key Takeaways XRP’s potential as a replacement for SWIFT is bolstered by regulatory approvals, potentially driving its price…

XRP Price Prediction: XRP is Outpacing Solana and Targeting Binance Coin Next – Should You Invest Now?
Key Takeaways XRP Ledger has moved into the sixth place by tokenized real-world asset value, surpassing Solana and…

New AI Predicts the Price of XRP, Dogecoin, and Solana By 2026
Key Takeaways ChatGPT anticipates significant price increases for XRP, Dogecoin, and Solana by the end of 2026. XRP…

Arthur Hayes Shares Two Scenarios for Bitcoin Price, Calling for a Major Crypto Rally
Key Takeaways Arthur Hayes predicts a significant crypto rally fueled by a $572 billion liquidity injection from the…

Bitcoin Price Prediction: Abu Dhabi Gov Funds Buy $1 Billion in BTC – What Do They Know?
Key Takeaways Abu Dhabi has revealed a $1 billion stake in Bitcoin through major ETF investments, signaling strong…

Bitcoin’s Divergence From Nasdaq Signals Dollar Liquidity Risk, Says Arthur Hayes
Key Takeaways Arthur Hayes highlights a concerning divergence between Bitcoin and the Nasdaq, pointing to a potential dollar…

Lagarde’s Possible Early Exit Could Alter Digital Euro Plans and Stablecoin Oversight
Key Takeaways Christine Lagarde’s potential departure as ECB president may disrupt the digital euro timeline and stablecoin policies.…

HYLQ Strategy Invests in Hyperliquid Quantum Solutions Pioneer qLABS, Acquires 18,333,334 qONE Tokens
Key Takeaways HYLQ Strategy Corp has made a strategic investment in qLABS, purchasing over 18 million qONE tokens…

WLFI Crypto Surges Toward $0.12 as Whale Purchase Precedes Trump-Linked Forum
Key Takeaways Whale accumulation has spurred a rally in WLFI crypto prices, reaching towards $0.12 ahead of a…

Cathie Wood Reverses Path with $6.9 Million Purchase in Coinbase Stock – Is ARK Strategizing a Rebound?
Key Takeaways ARK Invest acquires 41,453 shares of Coinbase, showing renewed interest post recent divestment. This acquisition by…

Crypto Lobby Establishes Working Group to Advocate for Prediction Market Regulatory Clarity
Key Takeaways The Digital Chamber announced the Prediction Markets Working Group to promote federal oversight of prediction markets.…

Peter Thiel Discreetly Withdraws from Ethereum Treasury Venture ETHZilla – A Cautionary Note for the DAT Model?
Key Takeaways Peter Thiel and Founders Fund have completely exited their position in ETHZilla. Thiel’s withdrawal raises questions…

Coin Center Advocates Protecting Crypto Developer Liability
Key Takeaways Coin Center is actively lobbying the U.S. Senate to safeguard crypto developer liability protections. The ongoing…

$150B in US Tax Refunds Could Catalyze Fresh Crypto Inflows, Historical Trends Indicate
Key Takeaways The IRS anticipates distributing approximately $150 billion in tax refunds to U.S. consumers by the end…

Oracle Error Leads DeFi Lender Moonwell to $1.8 Million in Bad Debt
Key Takeaways A critical oracle pricing glitch caused Moonwell to incur nearly $1.8 million in bad debt. The…

Crypto Price Prediction Today 18 February – XRP, Solana, Dogecoin
Key Takeaways XRP targets a $5 move, driven by its role as an alternative to SWIFT for cross-border…

China’s DeepSeek AI Predicts the Price of XRP, PEPE, and Shiba Inu By the End of 2026
Key Takeaways DeepSeek AI suggests significant potential price increases for XRP, PEPE, and Shiba Inu by 2026. XRP…

XRP Battles Key Support Amid Grayscale Sentiment Surge
Key Takeaways XRP has experienced a 29% price drop recently, creating a tense atmosphere among traders eyeing key…
Crypto Price Prediction Today 18 February – XRP, Bitcoin, Ethereum
Key Takeaways XRP’s potential as a replacement for SWIFT is bolstered by regulatory approvals, potentially driving its price…
XRP Price Prediction: XRP is Outpacing Solana and Targeting Binance Coin Next – Should You Invest Now?
Key Takeaways XRP Ledger has moved into the sixth place by tokenized real-world asset value, surpassing Solana and…
New AI Predicts the Price of XRP, Dogecoin, and Solana By 2026
Key Takeaways ChatGPT anticipates significant price increases for XRP, Dogecoin, and Solana by the end of 2026. XRP…
Arthur Hayes Shares Two Scenarios for Bitcoin Price, Calling for a Major Crypto Rally
Key Takeaways Arthur Hayes predicts a significant crypto rally fueled by a $572 billion liquidity injection from the…
Bitcoin Price Prediction: Abu Dhabi Gov Funds Buy $1 Billion in BTC – What Do They Know?
Key Takeaways Abu Dhabi has revealed a $1 billion stake in Bitcoin through major ETF investments, signaling strong…
Bitcoin’s Divergence From Nasdaq Signals Dollar Liquidity Risk, Says Arthur Hayes
Key Takeaways Arthur Hayes highlights a concerning divergence between Bitcoin and the Nasdaq, pointing to a potential dollar…