Pump platform's 4 billion valuation raises controversy, market questions its dominance

On July 9, a certain MEME token launch platform officially announced the launch of its platform token PUMP. The maximum supply of this token is 1 trillion pieces, of which 33% will be used for fundraising during the initial token offering. The private placement and public offering tokens are uniformly priced at $0.004 each, with a total valuation reaching $4 billion, all of which will be released during the initial token offering. This means that after PUMP is listed, there will be at least $1.32 billion in potential selling pressure. As of July 11, its pre-market trading price on a certain derivatives trading platform and a certain centralized exchange is approximately $0.0051, a premium of about 22% over the fundraising price.

The announcement of this token issuance adds pressure to the already tense on-chain sentiment. The current market is facing liquidity tightening and low sentiment. As a leading MEME launch platform, the platform's daily income and user activity have significantly declined compared to peak periods, and its market share is gradually being eroded by new competitors. Against this backdrop, its high valuation public offering is generally considered to have structural issues: the tokens lack actual value, there is significant selling pressure in the early stages, the team's unlocking plan is opaque, and the valuation is clearly overdrawn during the altcoin downturn cycle. Furthermore, due to the platform's team continuously selling off the fee income obtained instead of replenishing the community, many are concerned that this round of high valuation fundraising resembles a liquidity exit operation rather than a long-term development plan for the project.

Since its launch in January 2024, the platform has accumulated nearly $670 million in revenue, with a single-day transaction fee peak approaching $7 million. This allowed it to briefly monopolize the dominant position of the Solana ecosystem MEME token launch platform. However, just as PUMP was about to be issued, the competitor letsbonk.fun emerged strongly. letsbonk.fun issued tokens 15,600 times, surpassing the platform's 11,500 times, capturing a market share of 49.8%, disrupting the latter's 40.9% monopoly. This marks the first time since January 2024 that the platform has been surpassed by a competitor in the Solana MEME market share. Although it subsequently regained the market's top position, this experience of being surpassed has raised questions about its monopoly status and indicates the possibility of being replaced by other platforms in the short term.

PUMP Token Economic Model

• 33% for Initial Coin Offering
• 24% allocated to community and ecosystem programs
• 20% allocated to the team
• 2.4% for ecosystem fund
• 2% for the foundation
• 13% to existing investors
• 3% allocated to live streaming
• 2.6% for liquidity and exchange

PUMP Token Related Information

Token Sale: 33% of the total supply was raised in the initial issuance. The private placement round accounted for 18% (targeting institutions), while the public placement round accounted for 15% (public fundraising on 6 centralized platforms). The fundraising price for both rounds was $0.004 per token, with a total valuation of $4 billion, and all tokens will be fully unlocked on the first day of listing.

Schedule:

• Start: July 12, 2025 (Saturday) UTC 14:00
• End: July 15, 2025 (Tuesday) UTC 14:00 or when tokens are sold out
• Token Distribution: Within 48-72 hours after the sale ends, and can be freely transferred within 48-72 hours after distribution.

Participation Requirements:

• KYC verification must be completed.
• Residents in certain areas are prohibited from participating.

PUMP token usage:

• Only for promoting the platform, it does not confer rights such as equity, profit rights, voting rights, or platform fee sharing.
• Sales revenue is used for platform operation reserves or to pay service provider fees.

Competitive Analysis

| Project Name | Pump.fun | letsbonk.fun | Believe | Jup Studio | |------------|-----------|---------------|---------|------------| | Market Share (24H) | 51% | 36.8% | 5.07% | 1.97% | | Trading Volume (24H,$) | 521 million | 377 million | 51.8 million | 20.2 million | | Number of Transactions (24H) | 387,000 | 220,000 | 18,300 | 24,800 | | Market Cap of Related Tokens ($) | 4 billion | 2.03 billion | None | 3.24 billion |

In terms of market share and trading activity, Pump.fun still maintains a leading position, but its market dominance is being eroded. In terms of the token economic model, PUMP has obvious flaws. The official statement indicates that PUMP is only used for platform promotion and does not possess any economic rights, which brings its intrinsic value close to zero and makes it difficult to incentivize long-term holding.

In comparison, the token mechanism design of the competitor letsbonk.fun is more advantageous. Although BONK also does not grant holders platform equity, it has built a strong value support logic by introducing an economic cycle and deflationary model: the platform uses a portion of the trading fees to repurchase and burn BONK and inject into the liquidity pool, forming an automatic market-making mechanism. This dual mechanism of deflation and liquidity effectively enhances the holding attractiveness and price support capability of BONK.

Summary

In the current market environment, the issuance of PUMP tokens faces the following main risks:

1. Overvaluation: A valuation of $4 billion is significantly higher than competitors, raising doubts about its reasonableness.

2. Token model flaws: PUMP lacks basic economic rights and relies solely on brand narrative to support its value, lacking long-term holding incentives.

3. Poor market environment: The liquidity of the altcoin market is tight, and users maintain a cautious attitude towards tokens with high valuations and high selling pressure.

4. Selling pressure risk: The public offering amount reaches up to $600 million, far exceeding industry norms, which may lead to insufficient buying in the secondary market. At the same time, 33% is unlocked for first-tier financiers at the opening, exacerbating short-term price pressure.

The future performance of PUMP will depend on whether the project team can timely build a sustainable token value system and reinforce market dominance and user confidence through product innovation or ecological integration.