THE DIVE · FREE
THE DIVE: PUMP
Wad up grippers. Welcome to another edition of THE DIVE, a series where i break tokens down to the mechanics. No shilling, no fud. Today: $PUMP from pump.fun.
pump.fun (@Pumpfun) is a no-code Solana memecoin launchpad operated by Baton Corporation Ltd. Founders: Noah Tweedale (@NoahTweedale, CEO), Alon Cohen (@a1lon9, COO) and Dylan Kerler (CTO). Every coin launched there mints with a fixed supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens and trades on a constant-product bonding curve inside the launchpad program; when the curve completes, liquidity migrates atomically to the platform's own PumpSwap AMM and the position is locked. It generates real fees and, since April, burns a slice of them. It also carries a live RICO suit.
| Name | Network | Contract | Website | Category | MC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PUMP | Solana | pumpCmXqMfrsAkQ5r49WcJnRayYRqmXz6ae8H7H9Dfn | pump.fun | Launchpad | $2.94B |
The Product
The core loop is simple: launch a coin for 0 SOL, trade it on the curve, pay 0.015 SOL to graduate to PumpSwap. Around it the platform runs a stack of lines: Terminal, the multichain front end picked up with the Padre acquisition (October 2025), a mobile app, livestreaming, Mayhem mode, GO, Callout, and since September 2026 Custom Pairs and Holder Rewards.
The numbers are large. DefiLlama puts ecosystem fees at $176.91M over 30 days: PumpSwap $112.70M, the launchpad line $50.44M, mobile app $8.32M, Terminal $5.45M. All-time ecosystem fees are $2.2438B. The project page's own annualized revenue is $552.60M, about $1.51M a day on a 90-day average.
Durability is the open question because it is all memecoin volume. The project reports 908.2K daily active wallets on Solana and 126.4K excluding Pump activity (as of Oct 4), so roughly 782K Pump-active wallets, about 86% of the base. PumpSwap is 63.7% of the last 30 days of ecosystem fees and the launchpad line 28.5%, so the whole thing scales with the cycle.
The Tokenomics
Allocation. Max supply is fixed at 1,000,000,000,000 PUMP, minted in full at the 12 July 2025 TGE. Nothing has been issued since, and the mint, freeze and metadata update authorities are all null on-chain. Split: ICO 33% (private 18% plus public 15%), Community & Ecosystem 24%, team 20%, existing investors 13%, livestream incentives 3%, liquidity & exchanges 2.6%, ecosystem fund 2.4%, foundation 2%.
The ICO raised $1.32B at $0.004: $720M private (180B, 18%) and $600M public (150B, 15%). Both tranches were fully unlocked at TGE with no cliff and no vest, and the public sale sold out in 12 minutes. It is $720M private, not the $700M in press.
Unlocks and float. Circulating supply is 464.26B, 46.43% of max, per CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap. The project's own page still shows 399.46B, a 64.8B gap no source reconciles. The insider pool is 330B, team 20% plus existing investors 13%, locked for 12 months from TGE. The first cliff released 82.5B on 2026-07-12, then 6.875B releases monthly on the 12th through approximately July 2029. About 96.25B of the 330B is out. Next tranche: 2026-10-12. Per the launch lock-up schedule, 55% was unlocked at TGE: the ICO plus the smaller buckets (livestream, liquidity, ecosystem fund, foundation) and the first half of the Community & Ecosystem allocation. The second half was set to release monthly over year one, but that plan has not been followed; part of the community allocation sits in Squads vaults, undistributed.
The Team
| Name | Role | Social |
|---|---|---|
| Noah Tweedale | Founder and CEO | @NoahTweedale |
| Alon Cohen | Founder and COO | @a1lon9 |
| Dylan Kerler | Founder and CTO | no verified handle |
The operating entity is Baton Corporation Ltd, a private limited company in England and Wales (14743013, incorporated 2023-03-20). The platform terms name a second entity, Bracket Ltd, and reference a Pump Foundation with no disclosed legal name, jurisdiction or officers. There is no DAO and PUMP holders cast no votes.
The Revenue
Three fee streams: protocol, creator and LP. On the bonding curve the protocol takes 0.95% and the creator 0.30% of a 1.25% total; PumpSwap canonical pools scale from 1.25% down to 0.3% as market cap rises. Graduation costs 0.015 SOL.
What reaches the token is a buyback and burn. From August 2025 to 2026-04-27 the platform allocated 100% of revenue to open-market PUMP purchases held in treasury wallets. On 2026-04-28 it burned the whole inventory, about 127.25B PUMP across two transactions (123.1B plus 4.15B), described by pump.fun as around $370M of purchases. Since then it is 50% of net revenue locked into buyback and burn for one year, expiring about 2027-04-28. The Global config on-chain carries buyback_basis_points = 5000.
Where it stands: 169.97B burned on the official tracker, 16.997% of max, on $475.02M of cumulative buyback spend. Derived on-chain it is 170.25B, 17.03%, from the live 829.75B total supply. September 2026 burned about 5.56B; the week of Sep 23 to 29 did 1.5917B.
The Risks
- Supply overhang: 535.7B not circulating, 53.6% of max, against a 6.875B monthly insider unlock running to roughly July 2029.
- Float conflict: the project page shows 399.46B circulating versus 464.26B at CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap, a 64.8B difference.
- Unlock versus burn: about 5.56B burned in September against the 6.875B tranche released on 2026-09-12.
- Revenue cyclicality: monthly revenue fell from $55.4M (Sep 2025) to $25.0M (Jun 2026), recovering to $53.4M (Aug 2026); September's burn was below August's 8.28B.
- Burn program expiry: locked for one year from 2026-04-28, and the allocation policy has already changed twice.
- No contractual claim: pump.fun states PUMP confers no equity, debt, revenue, profit or dividend right.
- Reporting caveat: pump.fun says its own fee dashboard does not correctly reflect revenue and buybacks since Custom Pairs launched.
- Litigation: on 2026-08-31 SDNY let substantive RICO and RICO conspiracy claims proceed against Baton, Cohen, Kerler and Tweedale; answers were extended to 2026-10-15.
- Access: the UK FCA has warned about pump.fun and it geo-blocks UK users; the iOS app was pulled from the US and India App Stores on 2026-09-10 and restored 2026-09-18.
Closing: the fees are real, the burns are real, and the float question is still open. The next hard date is the 2026-10-12 unlock.
As always stay safe stay gripping.