"The king is dead, long live the king": The power transition of the Solana memes issuance platform

"The king is dead, long live the king." This ancient proclamation echoed through the Palace of Versailles in the 18th century, marking the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. Today, this phrase is once again validated in the cryptocurrency world, but this time the stage is the meme coin issuance platform on the Solana chain.

Power never belongs to anyone; it flows like water, always seeking new containers. In just a few months, the former powerhouse Pump.fun saw its market share plummet from 88% to only 13%, while the new challenger Let'sBONK rapidly rose, capturing 86% of the market. This is not just another example of volatility in the crypto world; it is a classic case of an empire's collapse, demonstrating that even the greatest first-mover advantage can disappear in an instant when the critical moat of attention is neglected.

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The Rise and Fall of Pump.fun Empire

Pump.fun was founded in January 2024 by three young people in their 20s, and it has completely changed the issuance logic of memes. Users only need to upload an image, give it a name, and with a few clicks of the mouse, they can issue a token for less than $2, without any programming knowledge. This satisfies the impulse of people 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 revenues exceeding $7 million. It not only became an infrastructure but also gained cultural discourse power, becoming synonymous with Solana memecoin culture.

However, the tragedy began with one of its most innovative features: live streaming. Originally designed to allow token issuers to promote their tokens, it has devolved into an out-of-control farce. To gain attention, some people simulated self-harm and threatened suicide during the live streams, and there were even extreme incidents involving underage users brandishing guns to threaten their families.

Pump.fun was forced to shut down its live streaming feature, but its reputation has been severely damaged. Weekly revenue plummeted by 66%, public opinion backlash ensued, and competitors began 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: to save itself through an ICO.

This ICO is technically considered a success, raising $500 million from over 10,000 wallets in just 12 minutes, in addition to $700 million from private placements. However, a deeper analysis reveals that over 200 wallets filled the $1 million cap, with the top 340 buyers accounting for 60% of the share. All sold tokens were fully unlocked, with only a transfer restriction period set between 48 to 72 hours.

The token price initially soared 75% to $0.007, but the enthusiasm quickly cooled. Within weeks, it dropped 60%, continually hitting new lows, showing 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 team, and the allocation timetable is unclear.

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

The last straw 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 by 15% within 24 hours.

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The Rise of Let'sBONK

When Pump.fun is in trouble, 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, while Pump.fun is only $254,000, a difference of 5 times. On an annualized basis, Let'sBONK's monthly revenue amounts to $434.92 million, while Pump.fun is $267.25 million.

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 rising. Meanwhile, Pump.fun's revenue has plummeted from a peak of over 7 million dollars in January back to the level of September 2024.

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

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The Victory or Defeat of Attention Economy

Pump.fun once seized the opportunity due to network effects. Developers issue coins there because traders are there; traders are there because the hottest memecoins are first released there. This flywheel effect 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, user mentality can disintegrate in an instant. A live streaming incident gave users reason to try alternative platforms. Let'sBONK quickly became the "clean" choice, a platform without historical baggage.

It's like how Myspace lost to Facebook back in the day. Myspace had 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 survival and death, Pump.fun launched a nearly desperate counterattack. They increased the token buyback ratio from 25% of daily revenue to 100% and introduced 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 situation.

The problem 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 revolves solely around trading volume, while Let'sBONK has built a truly user-interest-aligned ecological reward system. The BONK reward plan allows users to lock up their assets for 6 to 12 months and receive a proportional share of the product ecosystem's revenue. The longer the lock-up period, the higher the multiplier. The better the product performance, the more returns users receive.

Users can earn "Bonk Points" through trading, purchasing, or issuing coins. 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 they are part of a larger mission.

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A Larger Perspective

In traditional industries, market leaders can often sit on their throne for decades. However, in the digital market, the cost of switching for users is close to zero, and a dominant position can vanish in a matter of months.

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 most vulnerable. In the attention economy, timing is often more critical than technology.

The winner-takes-all logic of network effects is starting to reverse. Once users begin to migrate to Let'sBONK, the flywheel that helped Pump.fun rise also starts to reverse. Developers follow traders, and traders chase the hottest projects, causing the platform's decline to accelerate.

Does Pump.fun still have a chance to turn things around? Although its market share has significantly shrunk, it is not yet at the point of being out. They do have some advantages: the $1.2 billion funding has bought them time and provided the capital to experiment and outlast their competitors. Their platform has supported hundreds of thousands of project launches without crashing, which is especially important in an environment where other new platforms can easily fail under pressure. Even with the decline in market share, they still generate over $250,000 in revenue daily, approaching $100 million annually, and with a massive reserve of funds, they still have a solid foundation.

They are the pioneers of this category. Transforming coin 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%; user incentives have been launched. These are not signs of surrender, but rather a counterattack.

The most likely scenario is not a complete collapse, but rather market fragmentation. There are few permanent monopolies in the crypto space. It is more likely that Let'sBONK will become the main platform, dominating the issuance and revenue of coins, while Pump.fun transforms into a niche platform with loyal users, carving out a space based on 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, community-centric token economic structure, and it may even require a complete overhaul of the leadership to thoroughly distance itself from past controversies.

Ancient wisdom tells us: when a ruler loses legitimacy, no amount of wealth and ceremonies can restore dignity. Only a new leader can earn the old respect. Sometimes, for the continuity of the kingdom, the crown must be passed to someone new. In this power transition of the memes issuance platform, we once again witness the fulfillment of this eternal truth.

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