Pump.fun activity is grinding to a halt, Solana (SOL) inflows dry out

Pump.fun is seemingly grinding to a halt after traders left the trenches in droves. Solana (SOL) liquidity is diminishing and fewer tokens are graduating from their bonding curves. 

Pump.fun lost its main fuel – the ever-hopeful traders of the trenches. With no crowd to supply Solana (SOL) inflows, fewer tokens managed to graduate to Raydium. There was simply not enough interest in raising 85 SOL for a new token unless the team was prepared to supply the liquidity. 

New launches moved down to levels not seen since September 2024, when the token platform was once again considered dead. This time, however, there are even more doubts that a new wave of memes could revive trading. 

Both launches and revenues on Pump.fun moved down extremely fast. The fall was exacerbated by a recent incident where a trader shot himself on camera. Days after that, the platform’s X account was hacked. Later, Pump.fun was also used to launder some of the funds of the Bybit hack. All those reputational blows further erased the appetite for memes and expectations for a recovery.

Fewer tokens are graduating to Raydium

Just weeks after posting record daily launches, Pump.fun is grinding to a halt. The effect of the LIBRA token, as well as rug pulls for MELANIA and other assets, broke down the entire meme token narrative. As a result, in the past day, only 68 tokens graduated to Raydium, while previously, hundreds or even thousands of assets moved to the DEX each day. 

At its peak, the graduation rate was up to 2% of launched tokens, dwindling to 0.8% in the past week. Up to 72% of graduating tokens got a boost from the developer team, as they would otherwise never raise funds from regular traders.

Graduating tokens have been on a downward trend, with 86 successful launches on February 25. The graduation rate is down to 1% or lower, while daily graduating tokens have been on a constant downward trend since February 9. 

The trend was accelerated after the LIBRA token launch, which exposed the meme industry for its insider activities and coordinated pumps. 

Traders in the trenches are no longer sending coins ‘to the moon’ by depositing SOL, as they have grown tired of rug pulls. Most new tokens that move to a DEX were deliberately supported by the team. Gone are the days when a random livestream could raise tens of thousands of dollars in minutes, ending in more DEX volumes or a rug pull. 

At this point, Pump.fun has earned over 3M SOL, cashing out at least 50% through exchanges. Currently, the platform has stopped all speculation of an eventual airdrop, and traders can hardly be made to grind for yet another token.

Only a handful of devs launched most tokens

Pump.fun tokens turn out to be the work of only a handful of developers. On-chain data revealed a small group of accounts, just 0.3% of all token creators, launched 20% of all assets. 

A group of 10,361 creators had the most active presence on the platform. Since its launch, Pump.fun hosted a total of 3,848,478 token creators, including one-off testers, amateurs, rug pull devs and teams with elaborate strategies. 

Over 8.1M tokens launched on Pump.fun, of which between 1% and 1.4% on average moved to Raydium. Graduated tokens are valued at over $5B, though much lower than peak valuations. Out of that value, only 2,707 wallets made more than $1M in profits, with most user activity under $1,000.

Pump.fun remained resilient as long as traders and launchers expected that the next big trend was just around the corner. Pump.fun already absorbed one wave of cabal tokens, celebrity tokens with insider holdings, in addition to whale sniping. 

However, the loss of appeal for memes meant no new chances to allocate a small sum and wait for one of the tokens to turn into a sensation.

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