One year after $PUMP’s TGE, the original 12-month vesting cliff for a large portion of the token’s supply has been reached. Earlier today, July 14, the memecoin launchpad’s team wallet began distributing unlocked $PUMP tokens, moving more than $6 million worth in the first hour alone. Total distributions later totaled 52 billion $PUMP worth $76 million.
The timing adds another layer of pressure. $PUMP is trading near its all-time low, while Robinhood Chain and its leading memecoin launchpad, NOXA, have quickly emerged as new competitors for crypto’s speculative activity.
$121 Million in $PUMP Unlocks Hits the Market
Pump.fun will unlock 86.65 billion $PUMP in July, worth approximately $121.5 million. The release equals 21.35% of the token’s circulating supply and 10.14% of its total supply of 1 trillion.
The largest release came on July 12, when roughly 82.5 billion tokens unlocked following the expiration of the project’s original 12-month vesting cliff. That amount represented approximately 29% of $PUMP’s circulating supply at the time.
Pump.fun allocated 23% of the total supply to team members and existing investors under a 12-month cliff followed by 36 months of linear vesting. About 50 billion tokens from the July unlock went to the team, while 32.5 billion went to early investors.
Pump.fun’s broader tokenomics allocated 20% of the supply to the team, 13% to existing investors and 24% to the community and ecosystem. Smaller allocations went to the foundation, liquidity provisions, and an ecosystem fund. The project sold the remaining 33% during its 2025 ICO, raising roughly $1.32 billion.
Buybacks Face Their First Major Test
The unlock follows months of aggressive supply reduction. Pump.fun has spent $408.24 million on cumulative $PUMP buybacks and burns, permanently removing over 150 billion tokens from circulation. Those burns have offset approximately 38% of the token’s circulating supply.
In April, the protocol committed to another year of programmatic buybacks, allocating 50% of protocol revenue to $PUMP purchases.
July's unlock now presents the first major price test for $PUMP since its TGE and could show whether pump.fun’s buybacks can create sufficient buying pressure to absorb potential selling from team and investor vesting.
So far, the price remains under pressure despite the token handling the unlocks pretty well. $PUMP hit an all-time low of $0.001157 on June 25 and currently trades above $0.0016 after gaining more than 19% over the past 3 days since the July 12 unlocks. The token still sits 81% below its $0.0088 all-time high and 58% below its $0.004 ICO price.
Robinhood Chain's Memecoin Boom Creates a New Threat
Pump.fun also faces growing competition from outside Solana. In its first week of launch, Robinhood Chain recorded more than 17 million transactions, nearly 350,000 addresses, around $250 million in protocol TVL, and more than $1 billion in DEX volume, according to Robinhood Crypto GM Johann Kerbrat.
DefiLlama data ranked the network third by 24-hour DEX volume at roughly $808 million on July 13, ahead of Ethereum, Base and Hyperliquid. The new chain has sustained that activity with its current 24-hour DEX volume standing at $817.23 million, placing it fourth, while Solana leads with $1.903 billion. Robinhood Chain's TVL currently sits at approximately $180 million.
Memecoins have helped drive that activity, and NOXA has emerged as an early winner. Dune data shows NOXA generated more than $15.6 million in total revenue and has surpassed Pump.fun for much of July so far. For context, pump.fun’s launchpad has generated roughly $7.6 million so far this month.
Since July 8, Robinhood Chain has averaged more than 15,000 new memecoins per day. NOXA accounts for over 80% of those launches and has attracted more than 270,000 active wallets. Although Pump.fun still leads in daily active wallets and new token creation, NOXA surpassed it in protocol revenue for 5 consecutive days from July 8, generating more than $11.6 million between July 8 and July 12.
Pump.fun still leads a memecoin ecosystem that it helped define, and Solana remains the top chain by DEX volume. However, the next phase looks considerably less comfortable. Pump.fun now faces a test on 2 fronts. Its buybacks must absorb new circulating supply while its launchpad fights to defend market share. Whether it can do both may determine if the platform retains its memecoin crown.
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