"Power Transition: The Royal Succession of Solana on-chain Memecoin Launchpad"

In French history, when a new king ascends the throne, there is a declaration: "The king is dead, long live the king." This phrase reveals a profound truth about power: it never belongs to anyone; it flows like water, always seeking a new vessel. This ruthless and rapid turnover happens not only in ancient courts but also plays out in today's crypto world.

The memecoin launchpad sector on Solana is undergoing a dramatic power shift. The former dominant player, Pump.fun, which held 88% of the market share just a month ago, now only has 13% left. Meanwhile, the rising challenger Let'sBONK has quickly emerged, capturing 86% of the territory. This is not only another reflection of the volatility in the crypto market but also a classic case of an empire's collapse: when the ultimate moat of attention is overlooked, even the greatest first-mover advantage can vanish in an instant.

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The Rise and Fall of Pump.fun Empire

To understand the fall of Pump.fun, one must first understand how powerful it once was. This platform was launched in January 2024 and was created by three young people in their twenties. It disrupted the issuance logic of meme coins with a single sentence: "Upload an image, give it a name, click a few times, and you can issue a coin for less than $2, without any programming."

This satisfies an underlying impulse to turn "worthless" into "valuable." In the crypto world, this is not a delusion, 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 exceeding $7 million.

More importantly, it has won the attention battlefield, becoming synonymous with Solana memecoin culture. On social media, anyone who wants to issue a coin defaults to using 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 themselves in front of the camera, things quickly got out of hand. Starting in November 2024, in order to attract attention, some individuals engaged in extreme behaviors during live streams: simulating self-harm, threatening suicide, abusing animals, and most seriously, a minor brandished a weapon in front of the camera to threaten their family, just to pump the price.

Pump.fun was forced to urgently shut down its live broadcast function, but its reputation has been ruined. Weekly revenue plummeted by 66% in an instant, with public opinion backlash and competitors starting to take advantage of the situation. Faced with declining revenue and competitive pressure, Pump.fun made a decision that seemed smart but was actually fatal: issue the token ( for ICO) as a self-rescue.

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This ICO is technically considered a success - raising $500 million from over 10,000 wallets in 12 minutes, plus $700 million in private placement. However, a deeper analysis reveals the old problems resurfacing: over 200 wallets filled the $1 million cap, with the top 340 buyers swallowing 60% of the share. All sale tokens are fully unlocked ( with no lockup ), only setting a transfer restriction period of 48 to 72 hours.

The token price initially surged 75% to $0.007, but the enthusiasm quickly cooled. Within weeks, it fell by 60%, continuously hitting new lows, exhibiting a typical "death spiral" trend. The tokenomics itself is also very aggressive, with only 33% allocated to public and private offerings, while the remaining 67% is held by the project team, and the distribution timeline is unclear. Of this 33%, 18% is specifically reserved for private placement shares for institutional investors.

Despite users generating nearly $750 million for the platform, there are no immediate community rewards; at the same time, private investors sold tokens worth $160 million to 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 had hinted that the upcoming rewards "would be more generous than anyone in the industry," creating huge market expectations. And at the moment when community trust was at its most fragile, they announced the cancellation of the airdrop. The token price plummeted 15% within 24 hours.

The Rise of Let'sBONK

As Pump.fun continuously steps on 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 USD, which is 5 times that of Pump.fun's 254,000 USD (. On an annualized basis, Let'sBONK's monthly revenue reaches up to 434.92 million USD, while Pump.fun's is 267.25 million USD.

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

Since the ICO, the PUMP token has dropped by 60% in market value, while BONK has remained relatively stable, maintaining a market cap of $2.1 billion. Let'sBONK will use 1% of its weekly revenue to buy back BONK, supporting this ecosystem token that predates the platform and has a solid foundation.

Attention Economy

Pump.fun once seized the opportunity through network effects - developers issue tokens there because traders are there; traders are there because the hottest memecoins are launched there. This flywheel spins faster and faster, seemingly 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 instantly disintegrate. A live broadcast incident gives users reason to try alternative platforms. Let'sBONK then becomes the "clean" choice, a platform without historical baggage.

It's like when a certain social platform lost to another social platform back in the day. The former had the features and scale, but lost the cultural narrative. The latter became the platform for "real users," while the former became synonymous with spam, chaotic interfaces, and marginalization. Realizing the crisis of survival, Pump.fun launched a nearly desperate counterattack.

First, they increased the token buyback ratio from 25% of daily revenue to 100%. While this means that approximately $254,000 is used for buybacks every day, far exceeding Let'sBONK's daily buyback of $13,000, which only accounts for 1%, it also represents that Pump.fun is using all of its revenue for buybacks rather than for platform growth.

Secondly, they launched a 30-day incentive program to reward PUMP tokens based on trading activity. However, initial feedback indicates that this strategy has not reversed the competitive landscape.

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

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

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The BONK reward program allows users to lock up their assets for 6 to 12 months, proportionally receiving a share of the product ecosystem's revenue. The longer the lock-up period, the higher the multiplier. The better the product performs, the more returns users receive. This is not about "spending money to make others trade", but about "paying to let users build together".

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

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

A Bigger Picture

In traditional industries, market leaders often maintain their positions for decades. A certain automaker has dominated car manufacturing for half a century, while a certain tech company has controlled enterprise computing for almost as long. However, in the digital market, the cost of switching for users is close to zero, and a dominant position can vanish within months.

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An investigation has revealed that Pump.fun's co-founder 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 reputation is equivalent to a survival crisis.

The success of Let'sBONK is not because they built a fundamentally better product, but because they entered the market at the moment when Pump.fun's reputation was 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 will also begin to reverse. Developers follow traders, and traders chase the hottest projects, leading to an accelerated decline of the platform.

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Is there still a chance for Pump.fun to turn things around? Although its market share has significantly shrunk, it hasn't reached the point of being out of the game.

They do have some advantages: the $1.2 billion in financing has bought them time and provided them with the capital to experiment and outlast competitors. Their platform has supported hundreds of thousands of project launches without crashing - this is especially important in an environment where other new platforms are prone to fail under pressure. Even with a decrease in market share, they still generate more than $250,000 in revenue daily, with an annualized figure close to $100 million, plus a huge capital reserve, so they are still on solid ground.

They are the pioneers of this category. Transforming token issuance from programming into a few clicks of the mouse has earned them lasting brand recognition. The first-mover advantage doesn't just disappear.

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%; and user incentives have been launched. These are not signs of surrender, but a counterattack.

The most likely scenario is not a complete collapse, but market fragmentation. There are rarely permanent monopolists in the crypto space. More likely, Let'sBONK will become the main platform, dominating the number of tokens issued and revenue, while Pump.fun will transform into a niche platform with loyal users, securing a place through its interface, features, or ecosystem.

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But to truly turn the tide, Pump.fun needs to do more than just solve technical problems or rely on money to retain users; it must rebuild trust and reclaim cultural high ground. This means achieving a transparent, community-centered token economic structure, and it may even require a complete overhaul of the leadership to thoroughly shake off past controversies.

The French court has long understood a principle: when a king loses legitimacy, no amount of gold, silver, or rituals can restore dignity. Only a new ruler can earn the respect of the old. Sometimes, for the continuation of the kingdom, the crown must be passed to a new person.

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