The Transfer of Power: From Pump.fun to the Rise of Let'sBONK

"The king is dead, long live the king." This ancient declaration once echoed in the French court of the 18th century, and now it is being replayed on the memecoin issuance platform on the Solana chain. Power never belongs to anyone; it flows like water, always seeking new vessels. This truth is particularly evident in the world of cryptocurrency.

Not long ago, Pump.fun was the undisputed leader, holding 88% of the market share. However, just one month later, its share plummeted to 13%, while the new challenger Let'sBONK rapidly rose to occupy 86% of the market. This is not just another example of volatility in the crypto world; it is a typical case of an empire collapsing. It tells us that when the ultimate moat of attention is neglected, no matter how great the first-mover advantage, it can vanish in an instant.

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The Rise and Fall of Pump.fun Empire

Pump.fun was launched in January 2024 by three young people in their twenties, with a revolutionary concept that overturns the issuance logic of meme coins: users only need to upload a picture, give it a name, click a few times, and they can issue a coin, costing less than $2, without any programming knowledge. This meets a fundamental impulse to transform "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, with thousands of new coins launched daily and peak daily revenue exceeding $7 million. It not only occupied the infrastructure but also firmly controlled the cultural discourse, becoming synonymous with the Solana memecoin culture.

However, the tragedy began with one of its most "innovative" features: live streaming. Originally intended to allow token issuers to promote their tokens, things quickly spiraled out of control. Some users engaged in extreme behavior during the live streams to gain attention, including simulating self-harm, threatening suicide, abusing animals, and even serious incidents involving underage users brandishing guns to threaten their families.

Pump.fun was forced to close its live streaming feature, but its reputation has already taken a hit. Weekly revenue plummeted by 66%, public opinion turned against them, and competitors seized the opportunity. Faced with declining revenue and competitive pressure, Pump.fun decided to self-rescue by issuing tokens (ICO).

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

The token price initially soared by 75% to $0.007, but the enthusiasm quickly cooled. It fell 60% within weeks, continuously hitting new lows, showing a typical "death spiral" trend. The tokenomics itself is also very aggressive, with only 33% allocated to public and private sales, while 67% is held by the project team, and the allocation schedule is unclear.

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 on the exchange, causing 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." This statement caused the token price to plummet by 15% within 24 hours.

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The Rise of Let'sBONK

When Pump.fun keeps making mistakes, 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. Annualized, Let'sBONK's monthly revenue reaches $434.92 million, while Pump.fun's is $267.25 million.

From almost zero in May to steadily breaking the daily revenue of one million dollars 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 levels of September 2024.

Since the ICO, the PUMP token has lost 60% of its market value, while BONK has remained relatively stable, maintaining a market cap of $2.1 billion. Let's BONK will use 1% of its revenue for buybacks every week to support this ecosystem token, which existed before the platform was born and has a solid foundation.

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Attention Economy

Pump.fun once gained an advantage through network effects, attracting developers and traders to form a strong ecosystem. However, attention is fragile and not as solid as the moats of traditional businesses. Once trust collapses, user mindset can disintegrate in an instant.

Let's BONK has become a "clean" choice, a platform without historical baggage. This transformation is similar to the process of Facebook replacing Myspace. Myspace had functionality and scale, but lost the cultural narrative. Facebook became the platform for "real users," while Myspace fell into chaos and became synonymous with marginalization.

After realizing the crisis of life and death, Pump.fun launched a counterattack. They raised the token buyback ratio from 25% of daily revenue to 100%, and introduced a 30-day incentive program. However, these strategies seem to have failed to turn the competitive situation around.

The problem lies not in tactics, but in strategy. No amount of buybacks or incentive plans can restore lost trust or recapture the attention of users that have already shifted away.

The reward mechanism of Pump.fun is solely based on trading volume, while Let'sBONK has established a truly user-interest-aligned ecological reward system. The BONK reward program allows users to lock 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. This is not about "paying to make people trade," but about "paying to have users build together."

Users can obtain "BONK points" through trading, purchasing, or issuing tokens. These points are expected to be redeemable for physical goods or rights in the future, further incentivizing active participation. The gamified growth experience makes users feel that they are part of a larger mission.

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A Larger Perspective

In traditional industries, market leaders often sit comfortably on their thrones for decades. In the digital market, however, the cost of switching for users is nearly zero, and a dominant position can disappear in just a few 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 the 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 propelled Pump.fun's rise also begins to reverse. Developers follow traders, and traders chase the hottest projects, causing the platform's decline to accelerate.

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Is there still a chance for Pump.fun to turn the tide? Although its market share has significantly shrunk, it is not yet at the point of being out of the game. They have $1.2 billion in funding, which provides them with the capital to experiment and withstand competition. Their platform has supported hundreds of thousands of project launches without collapsing, which is particularly important in a high-pressure environment. Even with the decline in market share, they still generate over $250,000 in revenue daily, approaching $100 million annually, so their foundation remains.

Recently, Pump.fun launched version 2.0, which includes real-time data updates and one-click trading features; the buyback ratio has increased to 100%; and user incentives have been introduced. These actions indicate that they have not given up, but are actively fighting back.

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The most likely scenario is market fragmentation. Let's BONK may become the leading platform, dominating the number of tokens issued and revenue, while Pump.fun transforms into a niche platform with loyal users, occupying a place with its interface, features, or ecosystem.

However, to truly turn the tide, Pump.fun needs to not only solve technical issues or rely on money to retain users, but also must rebuild trust and reclaim cultural dominance. This means achieving an open and transparent, community-centered token economic structure, and may even require a complete overhaul of the leadership to completely distance itself from past controversies.

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In this rapidly changing world of cryptocurrency, the transfer of power can come swiftly and ruthlessly. Just as the French court has long understood: when a ruler loses legitimacy, no amount of resources or rituals can restore their dignity. Sometimes, in order to sustain the ecosystem, leadership must be passed on to new participants.

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