Pump.fun (pump.fun) is the Solana memecoin factory that changed how tokens get launched. Here’s a thread breaking it down 🧵 1/ What is Pump.fun? A no-code launchpad on Solana where anyone can create a token in under a minute. Upload an image, pick a name + ticker, and it’s live. No coding, no liquidity seeding required by the creator, and (currently) free beyond tiny network fees. Launched January 19, 2024 by Alon Cohen, Noah Tweedale, and Dylan Kerler. 2/ The core idea: fair launches. No presales. No team allocations. No insider dumps at launch. Everyone buys from the same starting point on a bonding curve. Price rises automatically as more people buy. Early buyers get better prices; later ones pay more. Liquidity is built-in from the first trade. 3/ How the bonding curve works (simplified): • Standard supply: 1 billion tokens. • Most go onto the curve. • You buy/sell against the curve. • When the token hits a market-cap threshold (historically ~$69k–$90k+, numbers have shifted), it “graduates.” Liquidity then moves to a proper DEX (now mainly their own PumpSwap; previously Raydium). 4/ Why it exploded: It removed every barrier. Anyone with a Solana wallet can launch a meme in seconds. Result: millions of tokens created (reports range 11M–13M+), hundreds of millions to over $1B in platform revenue, and a huge share of Solana’s daily token launches and volume at peaks. It became one of the fastest-growing crypto apps ever. 5/ Notable graduates & culture: Coins that started on Pump.fun include big names from the 2024–2025 meme waves (Fartcoin, Peanut the Squirrel / PNUT, Moo Deng, Chill Guy, Shark Cat, and many others). The site feels like a live casino mixed with meme culture — trending boards, live streams, voice chat, constant new launches. Creators often go live to promote. 6/ The PUMP token: In July 2025 Pump.fun ran a massive ICO (public sale alone raised ~$600M in minutes; total ~$1.3B including private). PUMP is the platform token. A large portion of protocol revenue goes to buybacks and burns, tying the token’s value to platform activity. 7/ Risks (important): • The vast majority of tokens go to zero. Low barriers = extreme noise. • Extreme volatility and speculation. • While the fair-launch + bonding curve design reduces classic rug-pull mechanics (no huge team bags to dump at launch), scams, coordinated pumps, and social engineering still exist. • Meme coins are pure speculation with no underlying utility in most cases. DYOR. Never risk more than you can lose. 8/ Impact: Pump.fun democratized token creation and turbocharged Solana’s memecoin season. It turned “launch a coin” into something as easy as posting a meme. Competitors exist, but it remains the dominant name associated with this style of fair-launch memecoins.