Pump.fun Co-founder Denies Token Launch Rumors Amidst Legal Woes

Months after its co-founder Sapijiju hinted at the app’s upcoming airdrop, rumors suggesting pump.fun will launch a token via centralized exchanges are flooding social media.

While pump.fun co-founder alon resolutely denied these rumors, the controversial figure gave traders a glimmer of hope, promising Solana’s trench warriors that “good things take time”.

Amidst the chaos, pump.fun faces mounting legal pressure over alleged misuse of the firm’s intellectual property to “intimidate our clients and interfere with ongoing litigation."

Pump.fun Token Launch Rumors Run Wild

On February 9, Wu Blockchain reported that pump.fun was collaborating with various centralized exchanges to launch its native token. Claiming to have confirmed the launch with “several insiders” from exchanges, Wu Blockchain asserted the pump.fun token would be sold to the public through a dutch auction model.

According to the rumors, an internal document indicated that the pump.fun token would have a total supply of 420M. Half of the supply (210M tokens) was to be set aside for the public sale, with the team and early investor allocations accounting for 25% and 22.05% respectively, distributed over a 4-year vesting period.

These allegations come following strong criticism toward the pump.fun application, which has generated over $550M in revenue since launch. The proposed tokenomics and dutch auction could be considered a last-ditch effort to extract as much liquidity from the ecosystem as possible.

These tokenomics suggest that a mere 2.95% of the supply would go towards pump.fun’s eagerly anticipated airdrop, which Sapijiju previously claimed would “probably be a lot more lucrative than anyone else in the space.”

Hebi555, the analyst who initially broke the rumor, contended that pump.fun’s token launch was originally scheduled for December 2024. In a separate post, hebi555 insinuated that it is now unlikely that pump.fun will launch a token until the outstanding class-action lawsuit against the company is resolved.

Alon Denies Claims

pump.fun co-founder alon wasted no time denouncing these rumors, advising the wider crypto community not trust any information that didn’t come directly from the pump.fun 𝕏 account.

Despite alon’s resolute position, Solana’s onchain traders shouldn’t lose hope. The pump.fun co-founder assured users that the team “has always been committed to rewarding its users properly”, implying that an eventual pump.fun airdrop will provide a fair distribution to the app’s avid user base.

Alon’s denial of the rumors sparked a snarky response from Wu Blockchain, the outlet that originally circulated the rumors. While admitting that no timeline for launch has been determined, Wu Blockchain asserts they are in possession of Coin Issuance Preparation documents, and can publish them after obtaining necessary permissions.

Pump.fun Lawsuit Rages On

A native pump.fun token launch would undoubtedly be a seismic liquidity event for the Solana ecosystem. However, Solana’s trench warriors might still have a long time to wait. Social media commentators have argued that pump.fun is unlikely to launch a token amidst ongoing legal battles.

On February 5, crypto law firm Burwick Law filed a cease-and-desist letter claiming pump.fun facilitated the launch of a token, $DOGSHIT2, impersonating the firm through unlicensed use of its intellectual property.

While Burwick Law claims to “have not launched any memecoins onchain”, court documents suggest that an address linked to the firm created $DOGSHIT2 to support its case against pump.fun. 

Dated January 30th, Burwick Law’s class-action suit against pump.fun claims the platform’s “core function is to work alongside influencers to co-issue and market unregistered securities. Inherent to its operations are a novel evolution in Ponzi and pump-and-dump schemes”.

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