In a week when Bitcoin set a fresh record high, the crypto crowd reminded everyone it still has a strong taste for absurd and irreverent coins with zero utility.
On Saturday, Pump.fun—a Solana-based platform that lets users create their own custom memecoins—raised a jaw-dropping $600 million in just 12 minutes during a public token sale, according to Bloomberg. That figure brings the platform’s total raise to a staggering $1.32 billion, after already offloading 180 billion tokens to private investors at the same $0.004-per-token price.
The sale ranks among the largest initial coin offerings (ICOs) in crypto history.
Pump.fun announced the deal on X (formerly Twitter) on July 9, while adding that investors from the U.S. and U.K. were not eligible—presumably to avoid regulatory drama, despite the White House’s leniency toward the industry and President Donald Trump’s own involvement with memecoins.
Founded in 2024 by Alon Cohen, Noah Tweedale, and Dylan Kerler, Pump.fun has become a memecoin factory and revenue machine. The platform has reportedly generated nearly $800 million in revenue since its launch by allowing retail traders to spin up and trade joke tokens on a whim.
Memecoins—crypto tokens often themed around memes, famous people, or internet inside jokes—have continued to attract speculative cash despite their often limited utility and tendency to plummet in price. The Official Trump coin (TRUMP), for example, has recently been trading near yearly lows.
Pump.fun’s meteoric rise comes amid a broader revival of ICO-style fundraising, which had largely gone out of fashion following the 2018 bubble and subsequent Securities and Exchange Commission crackdowns under former SEC chair Gary Gensler.
Today, it’s a different scenario. The current Trump administration is all-in on crypto (a treasury, meme coins, stablecoins) and Pump.fun is, well, enjoying a growth spurt.
Earlier this week, the startup completed its first acquisition, snapping up wallet analytics tool Kolscan. The deal brings real-time tracking of top onchain traders—also known as key opinion leaders (KOLs)—into Pump.fun’s suite of tools.
Kolscan offers wallet-level insights, live transaction tracking, and a leaderboard that ranks Solana traders by profit and loss. Pump.fun plans to integrate these features to create “totally new experiences” for users and enhance social, gamified trading.
Co-founder Cohen confirmed Kolscan framed the move as part of a broader vision: “onchain trading is a social sport.”
Also, Bitget Wallet recently launched MemeScan, a mobile-first trading app built for high-volume and early-stage meme coin traders. Designed with advanced users in mind, MemeScan integrates directly with Pump.fun, making it the first meme coin launchpad to partner with the new platform.
For now, Pump tokens are set to become tradeable 48 to 72 hours after the sale ends, according to the company’s July 9 update on X.
The decision to hold a token sale has not come without criticism. Cohen previously called presales “scams,” a stance that some in the community now view as contradictory. Further controversy followed when Gate.io briefly listed PUMP for pre-market trading, then delisted it and refunded users, citing ongoing negotiations with Pump.fun.
Credit: Source link
