P. 011
Plate 011 · Figure 1
Fig. 1 — “Pump.fun”, 2024.
Entry No. 011
Pump.fun
The bonding-curve launchpad that turned coin creation into a casino game.
“Pump.fun is not a coin — it's the bar where every coin gets born. Some are legends. Most are footnotes. All are honest about what they are.”
I. Origin
Launched January 2024 on Solana. Anyone can deploy a token in seconds against a bonding curve; if it raises enough SOL, it 'graduates' to Raydium with liquidity. Spawned thousands of tokens daily and an entirely new trading subculture.
II. Chronicle
Jan 2024
Pump.fun launches.
Mid 2024
Becomes Solana's #1 fee generator some weeks.
Ongoing
Defines an entire era of meme-coin trading.
III. Cultural Impact
Compressed the 'idea → tradeable coin' loop from weeks to seconds.
IV. Honest Audit
In favour
- Permissionless
- Real distribution layer
Against
- Signal-to-noise problem
- Rug-friendly by default