Solana Memecoin Race Flares as fomo, Pump Compete for Trader Flow

The trenches are alive with the sound of memetic warfare. Volume is returning, 8-figure runners are back in vogue, and perennial market leader pump.fun is facing off another challenger to its reign of power.

After recording 6 straight weeks of new all-time highs in weekly volume, fomo is rapidly becoming crypto’s favorite place to trade. But the social-trading app’s success hasn’t gone unnoticed, sparking allegations that pump.fun is enticing top traders into exclusivity deals.

Meanwhile, 6th Man Ventures Managing Partner Mike Dudas has stepped into the trenches, distributing profits among users of the pumpfun app.

fomo Records All-Time High Volume for 6th Straight Week

fomo, an emerging social trading app, is enjoying a blistering run. According to Dune Analytics data, fomo has just recorded its 6th consecutive week of all-time highs in weekly trading volume.

While surging activity on chains like Robinhood and BNB has brought a tremendous boost to fomo’s volume, Solana remains the app’s most popular venue, commanding 50.18% of trader volume share.

Beyond volume, fomo founder Se Yong Park opines that the application has witnessed a tenfold increase in weekly traders.

As is often the case in the onchain economy, where volume flows, revenue follows. According to Blockworks data, fomo has just recorded a new weekly all-time high in revenue generation. Netting over $2M in revenue, fomo is beginning to challenge Axiom, briefly flipping the sector leader in daily fees on August 6th.

However, fomo’s wildfire success may have put a target on its back, with the platform’s top traders allegedly getting generous exclusivity offers to abandon the venue in favor of its competitors.

Critics Take Shots at Pump’s Latest Growth Strategy

With fomo gaining ground as one of crypto’s leading trading platforms, competitors are eager to replicate its success. On August 7th, pumpfun unveiled its social trading feature, enabling users to “call out” tokens to their followers. pump.fun CEO sapijiju asserts the pump.fun app is witnessing new alltime highs in daily active users, who are evidently attracted by the platform’s fee-free model.

High-profile public traders and KOLs are flocking to pump, sparking theories that Solana’s most successful application is promising cash in exchange for trader’s exclusivity. Unverified screenshots are circulating social media platforms like 𝕏, implying that pump is offering traders up to $30k a month to shifting their activity to the iconic memecoin app.

Despite the cries of foul play from critics, reputable crypto lawyers like Ariel Givner have asserted that exclusivity deals are “perfectly fine” from a legal perspective. Other commentators have noted that deals of this nature are commonplace in business, drawing parallels to professional athlete sponsorships.

Meanwhile, the official Solana 𝕏 account has leaned into the conflict, posting a poll gauging sentiment towards the two apps from the crypto twitter hivemind.

Mike Dudas Enters the Memecoin Trenches

As Solana’s memecoin economy approaches escape velocity, some of crypto venture’s biggest allocators are tipping their toes into the trenches. 6th Man Ventures Managing Partner Mike Dudas, a pumpfun investor, made a splash over the weekend, becoming the main character behind another “overnight memecoin millionaire” story.

After taking a position in $TOAD, a memecoin inspired by the ‘original pepe’, the coin’s community and creators began sending the public figure additional tokens. In a matter of hours, $TOAD soared to an all-time high market cap of $21M, driven by the belief that Dudas was in possession of over 17% of the supply.

Similar to the $ANSEM playbook, Dudas has begun periodically distributing $TOAD tokens to the coin’s various supporters and community members. Pockets of the crypto community have called the $TOAD run a clever marketing ploy by pump, designed to attract traders to the platform in the hope of replicating Dudas’ success and transforming $200 into millions through sheer memetic energy. 

$PUMP, the platform’s native token, has been one of the great benefactors of Solana’s memecoin renaissance. With 50% of protocol revenue pouring directly into programmatic buybacks, $PUMP has been one of the network’s best-performing assets, climbing 87% in the last 30 days.

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