Jul 24, 2025
Ever wondered how people make their own cryptocurrencies? There's a Solana-based meme coin launchpad called Pump.fun that allows anyone to create tokens for just 0.015 Solana (SOL) or around $3.
In the crypto world, everyone’s talking about Pump.fun right now. Launched in January 2024, the platform has already helped create over 11.9 million tokens. It has brought in over $780 million in revenue and recently raised $600 million for its own initial coin offering (ICO) in just 12 minutes.
So, how did Pump.fun grow so quickly?
What makes Pump.fun unique?
Pump.fun stands out because of its fair launch model. That means everyone gets an equal chance to buy or sell a token right when it’s created, no early access, no insider perks.
Creating a token is simple: Just choose a name, a symbol (ticker), add an image or video, and write a short description if you want.
Here’s how it works: Token prices go up as more people buy, following a bonding curve. This just means the first buyers pay the lowest price, and later buyers pay a bit more. When someone sells, they get the current price (minus a small fee).
Unlike other decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Uniswap or Raydium, Pump doesn’t need order books or liquidity pools. Everything is handled automatically by a smart contract.
This setup works so well on Solana because it can handle thousands of tiny transactions quickly and cheaply, something most other blockchains can’t do at this scale.
Pumping Solana’s revenue
Pump.fun brings in hundreds of millions in annual fees for Solana by driving user activity and helping boost the overall ecosystem. At its peak in January, Pump.fun was behind 70% of all new tokens launched and about 56% of trading activity on Solana-based exchanges. In June, it introduced a revenue-sharing model, where around 50% of its earnings go directly to PUMP token holders in the form of SOL payouts, adding real value to holding the token.
Solana’s network fees are extremely low (typically ~0.000005 SOL to ~0.00001 SOL per transaction), but because Pump processes huge numbers of transactions, even these small fees add up fast.
Driving Solana’s meme coin culture forward
Solana’s meme coin story began in late 2022 with the launch of BONK, its first big meme coin. It was airdropped to the community, including developers and non-fungible token (NFT) holders, at a time when confidence in Solana was low. BONK helped lift spirits during the bear market and became a symbol of Solana’s community-driven culture. The success sparked a wave of new meme coins and platforms, including Pump.fun, which made it easy for anyone to launch a token.
While they’ve stress-tested blockchains with massive trading volumes, they shouldn't be mistaken for more established meme coins like Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Pepe (PEPE). These tokens are different. They’ve endured not because of hype cycles but because they represent something deeper: tokenized internet culture, forged through shared humor, sentiment, and identity.
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