Top Solana token launchpad pump.fun has reached a new all-time high in weekly trading volume, marking a notable shift in onchain activity on Solana at a time when broader sentiment around memecoins remains cautious. This week, the platform has processed $6.601 billion in trading volume so far, the highest weekly figure recorded since its launch. The milestone follows several consecutive weeks of rising activity, with daily volumes repeatedly setting new highs.
The surge in volume has reignited debate around whether memecoins are experiencing a genuine resurgence or whether traders are positioning ahead of a potential $PUMP airdrop. While activity levels have clearly increased, underlying metrics around token creation and graduation suggest a more complex picture.
Token Launches Rebound but Stay Below 2025 Peaks
Token creation on pump.fun has recovered from mid-year lows but remains far below the levels seen during the peak of meme coin speculation earlier in 2025. According to Dune data, users have launched more than 27,000 tokens on the platform over the past 24 hours. This figure reflects a steady rebound, yet it still represents less than half of the daily launch counts observed in January 2025, when daily creations regularly exceeded 60,000 tokens.
Monthly data reinforces this trend. In December 2025, users launched approximately 601,420 tokens, up from 451,942 in October and 514,323 in November. Despite this improvement, monthly launch counts remain well below the more than 1.7 million tokens deployed in January 2025. The data indicates that while there has been greater interest in launching new tokens, it has not returned to earlier speculative extremes.
Graduation Rates Remain Low
Graduation metrics provide additional context to the volume surge. Dune data indicates that over the last 24 hours, only 192 tokens graduated from more than 27,000 launches, placing the daily graduation rate below 1%. Weekly graduation rates have shown a modest improvement since October lows, though they remain well below prior benchmarks.
So far this month, the weekly graduation rate has climbed to approximately 0.96%, up from lows near 0.51% in October 2025. Even with this rebound, current graduation levels remain significantly below early 2025, when monthly graduation rates regularly exceeded 1.3%.
This disconnect between rising volume and subdued graduation rates suggests that much of the trading activity concentrates on a relatively small subset of tokens rather than broad-based success across new launches.
$PUMP Price Recovers as Buybacks Accelerate
The protocol’s native token, $PUMP, has shown signs of stabilization following a prolonged decline. CoinGecko data shows that the token reached an all-time low of $0.001686 on December 24, 2025, and has since recovered to above $0.002. Despite the rebound, $PUMP continues to trade well below its ICO price of $0.004 and its all-time high of $0.0088.
A central factor behind this price support is pump.fun’s ongoing buyback program. To date, the protocol has spent 1,360,153 $SOL, equivalent to approximately $236.5 million, to repurchase $PUMP tokens. With a fixed total supply of 1 trillion tokens, these buybacks have absorbed nearly 18% of the circulating supply, materially altering the token’s supply dynamics.
Yesterday, January 8, pump.fun executed one of its largest single-day buybacks, purchasing 654.9 million $PUMP tokens at an average price of $0.002202. This brought the total to 10,583.70 $SOL, or roughly $1.44 million. Notably, the protocol spent slightly more than its total daily revenue of $10,408 $SOL, with buybacks accounting for 101.7% of earnings.
This approach comes amid growing scrutiny of buybacks across the Solana ecosystem. Earlier this week, Helium announced it would halt $HNT buybacks, with its leadership arguing that routing millions in protocol revenue into token purchases failed to produce durable price support. Jupiter has echoed similar concerns, disclosing that more than $70 million in $JUP buybacks delivered a limited impact despite sustained revenue.
Pump.fun’s experience highlights the same tension. Even after committing effectively all protocol revenue to buybacks since August 2025, $PUMP remains down more than 70% from its all-time high and continues to trade well below its ICO valuation. The data raises broader questions about whether market participants have overestimated the effectiveness of programmatic buybacks
Wash Trading Concerns Follow Volume Surge
As pump.fun posts record volumes, skepticism has grown within the trading community. A recurring criticism centers on the authenticity of the reported activity, with many observers questioning whether the market can sustain this level of activity.
Some of this skepticism coexists with renewed optimism driven by the emergence of a small number of high-profile tokens. Most notably, $WHITEWHALE has become the first meme coin in several months to surpass a $100 million market capitalization on pump.fun, currently trading around $108 million. Its rapid ascent has fueled speculation that memecoins may be staging a comeback, providing a tangible narrative for traders re-engaging with the platform.
At the same time, traders continue to debate how much of the recent volume reflects conviction versus incentive-driven behavior. Some believe that airdrop speculation plays a significant role in the recent surge.
Since announcing that an airdrop was “coming soon” in their July 9th post, pump.fun users have been none the wiser about when the $PUMP airdrop is going to be distributed or whether there will be one at all. The protocol hasn’t released any information since then.
If participants expect an upcoming $PUMP airdrop to reward volume or engagement, they may artificially inflate trading activity, effectively gaming incentive expectations.
The combination of rising volume, low graduation rates, and community skepticism lends weight to these concerns. While onchain data confirms the volume figures, it cannot fully distinguish between organic trades and wash trading behavior without additional analysis.
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