Original | Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )
Author | Asher ( @Asher_ 0210 )
Even though the meme market has clearly cooled down from its peak, Pump.fun is still one of the most profitable protocols in Web3. According to DefiLIama data, in the past 30 days, the income of the Pump.fun protocol reached 28.4 million US dollars, higher than Polymarket (monthly income of 22.12 million US dollars), and only lower than Hyperliquid (monthly income of 43.93 million US dollars).
Web 3 Protocol Monthly Revenue Ranking
Some launch coins, it earns money; some trade, it earns money; a meme coin from birth to zero, it can extract handling fees from every transaction. Since the launch of Pump.fun over two years ago, more than 12 million tokens have been issued on the platform, and the total revenue of the platform has reached about 1.05 billion US dollars, making it the first application on Solana to achieve over 1 billion dollars in revenue.
Pump.fun uses part of its revenue to buy back and destroy PUMP, converting the money earned by the platform into token buy orders. However, last night at 10 o'clock, this value cycle faced its greatest test. PUMP's first unlocking of team and investor tokens totaled 82.5 billion pieces, accounting for 8.25% of the total supply, equivalent to 20.23% of the circulating supply before unlocking, with a value of about 125 million US dollars.
In contrast, the trading volume of PUMP in the past 24 hours was only 28 million US dollars. So, will this potential selling pressure worth 125 million US dollars cause a cliff-like drop in PUMP's price? How much can the platform's buyback support? Is PUMP still worth buying?
Why did the 12.9% burn of 129 billion PUMP in April still not stop the unlocking pressure?
On April 29th this year, Pump.fun burned 129 billion PUMP at once, accounting for 12.9% of the maximum supply, marking the largest burn in PUMP's history.
In terms of quantity, the 129 billion burned is even more than the 82.5 billion unlocked this time, but the two cannot directly offset each other. Most of the burned PUMP had previously been repurchased by the platform and stored in specific wallets, and were not freely circulating in the market. The concentrated burn merely removed these tokens permanently, without creating an additional buy order of 129 billion on the day of the burn.
The unlocking, in contrast, allowed 82.5 billion team and investor tokens, which were originally non-tradable, to enter the market starting last night. April reduced the total supply on the books, while July increased the potential sellable tokens.
Moreover, 82.5 billion is just the first batch. The team and investors collectively hold 330 billion PUMP, and this time only a quarter of them were unlocked, leaving 247.5 billion still locked. It is worth mentioning that there are also 240 billion community tokens without a clear release timeline.
PUMP Token Distribution Chart
The two parts total 487.5 billion pieces, which is equivalent to 1.2 times the circulating supply before unlocking. The market not only needs to digest the current 82.5 billion but must also face the long-term uncertainty of future supply.
When the unlocking opens, the buyback is retreating
The most stable buyback for Pump.fun in the past came from the platform's token buybacks.
After the buyback initiation in July 2025, Pump.fun used 100% of the net protocol fees to purchase PUMP. In September last year, the monthly buyback amount surged to 55.3 million US dollars, even exceeding that month's protocol income of 42.8 million US dollars.
However, just in April this year, Pump.fun announced it would reduce the buyback ratio from 100% to 50%, reserving the other half for the company to use for hiring, marketing, and acquisitions. By June this year, the monthly buyback amount for PUMP was only 9.2 million US dollars, shrinking over 80% from its peak.
PUMP Income vs. Token Buyback Comparison Chart
Looking back over six months, the gap is even more pronounced. In the second half of 2025, Pump.fun spent approximately 217 million US dollars to buy back PUMP; in the first half of 2026, it only invested 72.2 million US dollars, a decline of 67%, while the protocol income during the same period only decreased by 18%.
Pump.fun is still very profitable, but the actual funds flowing to PUMP have significantly decreased. Based on the buyback scale of 9.2 million US dollars in June, if the unlocked tokens are sold at about 7%, it would be enough to offset the platform's monthly buyback.
In a bearish market, PUMP remains a rare target
While the selling pressure is evident, looking at the entire market, there are not many platforms that can continuously achieve high income.
Hyperliquid, with income higher than Pump.fun, had about 43.93 million US dollars in protocol income over the past 30 days, but its current market value is approaching 15 billion US dollars, more than 20 times that of PUMP. Polymarket had about 22.12 million US dollars in income over the past 30 days and has yet to issue tokens, with previously reported financing valuations already reaching 15 billion US dollars. Even if they issue tokens in the future, the valuation is unlikely to be low.
In contrast, Pump.fun's income reached 28.4 million US dollars over the past 30 days, but PUMP's market value is only about 610 million US dollars. It faces unlocking pressure, and the buyback is shrinking, but at least the platform's income is real, the business model is stable, and the tokens have already dropped to a lower valuation.
More importantly, Pump.fun does not rely on a single viral meme coin; as long as the market continues to launch and trade coins, the platform can keep collecting handling fees. Betting on PUMP is essentially not gambling on a next meme, but rather betting that whether in a bear market or a bull market, the meme market will continue to create hotspots, and that Pump.fun can maintain this flow entry.
Selecting investment targets in a bear market is not about finding projects without issues but rather prioritizing protocols that still have users, are still making money, and still have the ability to buy back. From this perspective, PUMP is not perfect, yet it remains one of the few high-income platform tokens whose valuation has not been pushed to the sky.
The unlocking of 82.5 billion tests the short-term absorption capacity, while the income of Pump.fun determines how far PUMP can go. As long as this meme machine continues to make money, PUMP may not necessarily follow the "unlocking leads to zero" scenario, and the current moment is, in fact, a good opportunity for long-term investment.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
