Pump.fun shifts token deployment fees to first buyers, will pay creators 0.5 SOL on bonding curve completion

Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pump.fun is eliminating token deployment costs and rewarding token creators with 0.5 SOL ($80) when their tokens cross the bonding curve.

The platform will now have the first buyer of a memecoin pay the token creation fee instead of the creator paying the fees of 0.02 SOL ($3). “This unlocks the use case of someone creating a coin without buying any of its supply,” Pump.fun wrote on X.

Memecoin creators will receive the 0.5 SOL reward whether or not they ever held the token they created. The reward money will be sourced from the pump.fun migration fee, which it says stands at 1.5 SOL. 

Pump.fun grew in popularity amid the recent meme coin fever. Its ease of use and Solana’s low transaction fees led to the creation of countless political-themed cryptocurrencies, celebrity tokens and other meme tokens. When a token hits a certain market cap, a portion of its liquidity is moved to the Raydium decentralized exchange.

Pump.Fun uses a bonding curve model, meaning the price increases as more people buy a coin. A coin starts at a base price. As more people buy the coin, the price jumps to the next step. This makes the price increases more predictable for buyers and sellers. Like in a traditional bonding curve, there’s always a market for the coin, which ensures liquidity.

According to data from Dune analytics, only around 1.4% of tokens deployed on the platform have successfully reached Raydium.

Meanwhile, Pump.fun remains an active launchpad for meme tokens, recording its record-high daily revenue of $2.31 million on July 30, according to The Block’s data dashboard.