The Power Shift of Solana Meme Token Platform

"The king is dead, long live the king." This phrase echoed in the Palace of Versailles in 1774, marking a swift transfer of power. Today, this ancient ritual is being played out in the realm of meme Token issuance platforms on the Solana chain.

Power never belongs to anyone; it flows like water, always seeking new containers. The once-dominant may quickly become a footnote in history, with change coming swiftly and ruthlessly. On the Solana meme Token issuance platform, we are witnessing yet another validation of this eternal law.

Once occupying 88% of the market share, Pump.fun now only holds 13%. The new challenger Let'sBONK has already captured 86% of the territory. This is not only another manifestation of volatility in the crypto world, but also a textbook case of an empire's collapse: when ignoring attention is the ultimate moat, even the greatest first-mover advantage can instantly vanish.

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The Rise and Fall of Pump.fun Empire

To understand the fall of Pump.fun, one must first grasp how powerful it once was. In January 2024, three young people in their 20s launched this platform, completely overturning the issuance logic of meme coins: by simply uploading an image, choosing a name, and clicking a few times, one could issue a Token for less than $2, without any programming knowledge.

This satisfies an underlying impulse to transform "worthless" into "valuable." In the crypto world, this is not a fantasy but a business model. By January 2025, Pump.fun generated over $458 million in revenue, launching thousands of new coins daily, with peak daily revenue surpassing $7 million.

More importantly, it has won the attention battlefield, becoming synonymous with Solana meme coin culture. On crypto Twitter, issuing tokens has almost become the patent of Pump.fun. It not only occupies the infrastructure but also firmly controls the cultural discourse.

However, the tragedy began with one of its most "innovative" features: live streaming. Originally intended to allow token issuers to promote their Tokens, the situation quickly spiraled out of control. Starting in November 2024, in an effort to gain attention, some users engaged in extreme behaviors during live streams, including simulating self-harm, threatening suicide, abusing animals, and even serious incidents involving underage users threatening their family with guns.

Pump.fun was forced to urgently shut down its live streaming feature, but its reputation has already been severely damaged. Weekly revenue plummeted by 66%, public opinion backlash ensued, and competitors began to seize the opportunity. Faced with declining revenue and competitive pressure, Pump.fun made a decision that seemed smart but was actually fatal: to issue a Token (ICO) for self-rescue.

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This ICO is technically considered successful: it raised $500 million from over 10,000 wallets in 12 minutes, plus $700 million in private placement. However, a deeper analysis reveals issues: over 200 wallets hit the $1 million cap, and the top 340 buyers consumed 60% of the share. All sold tokens are fully unlocked, with only a 48 to 72-hour transfer restriction set.

The token price initially soared 75% to $0.007, but enthusiasm quickly cooled. It fell 60% within weeks, continually setting new lows, presenting a typical "death spiral" trend. The token economics itself is also very aggressive, with only 33% allocated to public and private offerings, while the remaining 67% is held by the project party, and the allocation schedule is unclear.

Despite users generating nearly $750 million for the platform, there were no immediate community rewards; meanwhile, private investors sold $160 million worth of tokens on the exchange, creating significant selling pressure.

The last straw that broke the camel's back was when the co-founder publicly announced that the long-promised airdrop "will not happen in the foreseeable future." For months, the project has hinted that the upcoming rewards "will be more generous than anyone in the industry," creating huge market expectations. Yet, at the moment when community trust was most fragile, they announced the cancellation of the airdrop. The Token price plummeted by 15% within 24 hours.

The Rise of Let'sBONK

As Pump.fun continues to hit landmines, Let'sBONK is quietly building everything that its competitors lack: transparency, community orientation, and clear communication.

Currently, Let'sBONK's daily revenue has reached 1.3 million dollars, while Pump.fun is only 254 thousand dollars, a difference of 5 times. On an annualized basis, Let'sBONK's monthly revenue is as high as 434.92 million dollars, while Pump.fun is 267.25 million dollars.

From nearly zero in May to a stable breakthrough of one million dollars in daily revenue in July, Let'sBONK's revenue has steadily risen. Meanwhile, Pump.fun's income plummeted from a peak of over 7 million dollars in January, falling back to the levels of September 2024.

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Since the ICO, the PUMP Token has lost 60% of its market value, while BONK has remained relatively stable, maintaining a market value of 2.1 billion dollars. Let'sBONK uses 1% of its weekly revenue to repurchase BONK, supporting this ecosystem token that predates the platform and has a solid foundation.

Attention Economy

Pump.fun once gained an advantage through network effects: developers issue coins there because traders are there; traders are there because the hottest meme coins are launched there. This flywheel keeps spinning faster and seems unstoppable.

But attention is fragile. It is not like the moats of traditional businesses—economies of scale, switching costs, regulatory barriers—once trust collapses, users' mindset can disintegrate in an instant. An incident during a live broadcast gave users reason to try alternative platforms. Let'sBONK soon became the "clean" choice, a platform without historical burdens.

It's like when Myspace lost to Facebook back in the day. Myspace had the features and scale, but lost the cultural narrative. Facebook became the platform for "real users," while Myspace became synonymous with spam, a chaotic interface, and marginalization. Realizing the crisis of life and death, Pump.fun launched a near-desperate counterattack.

First, they raised the token buyback ratio from 25% of daily revenue to 100%. Although this means that about $254,000 is used for buybacks each day, which is far higher than Let'sBONK's daily buyback of $13,000 (only 1%), it also means that Pump.fun is using all its revenue for buybacks instead of for platform growth.

Secondly, they launched a 30-day incentive program that rewards PUMP tokens based on trading activity. However, initial feedback shows that this strategy did not reverse the competitive situation.

The issue is not at the tactical level, but at the strategic level. No amount of buybacks or incentive plans can restore lost trust, nor can they refocus the attention of users who have already shifted away.

The reward mechanism of Pump.fun is solely based on trading volume, while Let'sBONK has built a truly user-interest-aligned ecological reward system.

The BONK reward program allows users to lock up their assets for 6 to 12 months and receive a proportional share of the platform's ecosystem revenue. The longer the lock-up period, the higher the multiplier. The better the product performance, the more returns users receive. This is not about "spending money to make people trade," but about "paying users to jointly build."

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Users (including project parties) can obtain "Bonk Points" through trading, purchasing, or issuing tokens. These points are expected to be redeemable for physical items or rights in the future, further incentivizing active participation. The gamified growth experience makes users feel that they are participating in a larger mission.

While Pump.fun was still exploring ICOs and experiencing airdrop fulfillment delays, Let'sBONK has already provided a structured reward system for its core users. In the crypto world, capital will always flow towards better incentive mechanisms.

A Bigger Picture

In traditional industries, market leaders often hold their positions for decades. General Motors dominated automobile manufacturing for half a century, and IBM controlled enterprise computing for nearly as long. However, in the digital market, user switching costs are close to zero, and a dominant position can vanish in a matter of months.

An investigation has revealed that the co-founder of Pump.fun was involved in a "pump and dump" scheme in 2017 - precisely the behavior that Pump.fun claims to eliminate. In an industry built on trust and memes, the collapse of credibility equates to a survival crisis.

The success of Let'sBONK is not because they built a fundamentally superior product, but because they entered the market at the moment when Pump.fun's reputation was at its most vulnerable. In the attention economy, timing is often more critical than technology.

The winner-takes-all logic of network effects is beginning to reverse. Once users start migrating to Let'sBONK, the flywheel that once propelled Pump.fun to success also begins to reverse. Developers follow traders, and traders chase the hottest projects, leading to an accelerated decline of the platform.

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Does Pump.fun still have a chance to turn things around? Although its market share has significantly shrunk, it has not reached the point of being out of the game.

They do have some advantages: the $1.2 billion in funding has bought them time and given them the capital to experiment and outlast competitors. Their platform has supported hundreds of thousands of project launches without crashing – this is particularly important in an environment where other new platforms can easily fail under pressure. Even with a decline in market share, they still generate over $250,000 in revenue daily, with an annualized figure close to $100 million, plus a massive capital reserve, so they are still in a strong position.

They are the pioneers of this category. Transforming token issuance from programming into a few clicks of the mouse earned them lasting brand recognition. The first-mover advantage is not something that simply disappears.

Recent actions also indicate that they have not given up: Pump.fun 2.0 has added real-time data updates and one-click trading; the buyback ratio has been increased to 100%; user incentives have been launched. These are not signs of surrender, but a counterattack.

The most likely scenario is not a complete collapse, but rather a fragmentation of the market. Permanent monopolies are rare in the crypto space. What is more likely is that Let'sBONK becomes the major platform, dominating the issuance of tokens and revenue, while Pump.fun transforms into a niche platform with loyal users, carving out a place for itself through its interface, features, or ecosystem.

But to truly turn the tide, Pump.fun must not only solve technical issues or rely on money to retain users, but also rebuild trust and reclaim cultural high ground. This means achieving a transparent and community-centered Token economic structure, and it may even require a complete overhaul of the leadership to completely shake off past controversies.

The French court has long understood a truth: when a king loses legitimacy, no amount of gold and silver or ceremonies can restore dignity. Only a new ruler can win back the old respect. Sometimes, for the continuity of the kingdom, the crown must be passed to a newcomer.

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