Pumpfun mode sparks heated discussions: Is it a "successful paradigm" of the Solana ecosystem or the "last play people for suckers" at the end of the Meme cycle?

Question

The public sale of Pumpfun's PUMP Token raised $600 million in 12 minutes, reigniting controversy over the Solana Meme coin Launchpad model. A report by Alea Research pointed out that after launching its own AMM at the beginning of the year, the project achieved a profitable structural closed loop, accumulating over $650 million in protocol revenue; however, at the same time, its massive financing and high valuation have raised market concerns about capital concentration and cycle peaks.

Launchpad Mode Evolution: From Outsourcing to Self-Operated Closed Loop Alea Research released a research report on July 16 titled "Pumpfun: Asymmetric Upside or The Final Extraction," which provides a detailed analysis of how Pumpfun has gradually transformed from an early "meme casino" style product into a protocol platform with complete revenue capture capabilities.

In early 2025, Pumpfun launched its own automated market maker (AMM) PumpSwap, completely breaking free from its reliance on Raydium, achieving vertical integration of trading fees, Token creation, and liquidity migration.

According to Alea's estimates, Pumpfun's current monthly protocol revenue is between 30 million and 40 million dollars, cumulative transaction volume exceeds 100 billion dollars, and total protocol revenue exceeds 650 million dollars, ranking among the top in revenue performance among DeFi protocols.

PUMP Token financing sparks controversy, buyback mechanism calms market sentiment Despite the rapid completion of the public sale of PUMP, attracting a total investment of $130 million and a valuation of up to $4 billion, some voices in the market have labeled this as "The Final Extraction," expressing concerns about the speculation of high valuations as the Meme cycle approaches its end.

To stabilize the market, Pumpfun subsequently announced a structured repurchase plan. The report indicated that the project party has injected $30 million into the repurchase wallet, and $20 million of that has been used for the secondary market to repurchase PUMP.

In addition, the project team has disclosed the details of the Token distribution, including the community, team, investors, and treasury, for the market to track the unlocking and potential selling pressure paths.

BonkFun and LaunchCoin Competitive Landscape Alea regards BonkFun as the current strongest competitor to Pumpfun. Its Solana native incentive mechanism uses 58% of protocol revenue for BONK burn, 15% rewards for SOL stakers, and incentivizes creators to participate. This community-oriented profit-sharing model is considered more in line with the retail culture of Solana.

Despite the trading volume not matching Pumpfun, BonkFun has accounted for over 50% of new coin issuances in the Solana ecosystem across multiple aggregation platforms.

In contrast, LaunchCoin, which gained attention early on, has performed poorly. Although it has highlighted features such as multi-chain support and celebrity endorsements, its current trading activity and protocol revenue are both lower than Pumpfun and BonkFun.

The Duality of Structural Closure and Liquidity Games The Alea report conclusion points out that the Pumpfun ICO has the following characteristics:

Verifiable protocol cash flow
Complete vertical integration closed loop
Strong brand effect However, at the same time, the market remains vigilant about capital concentration, liquidity rotation, and valuation bubbles.

As Ethereum's relative strength against Bitcoin begins to emerge, Meme coins and altcoins as a whole are gaining a new round of momentum. Whether Pumpfun represents a new phase of consumer-level cash flow or a warning signal of a cycle peak remains to be seen.

Alea finally wrote:

"Pumpfun may be the closest success story of an App chain on Solana, as it integrates Meme issuance, trading, and operations into the same protocol."

Conclusion The success of Pumpfun provides a highly commercialized Launchpad paradigm for the Solana ecosystem, but issues such as massive financing, Token liquidity, and competitive models remain controversial. For crypto users, understanding the protocol revenue structure and Token economic design is key to determining whether such projects have long-term value.