What Is Pump.fun? ? A Beginner’s Guide to Solana Meme Coins

Let’s say we want to launch a new memecoin on the market. 

But here’s the kicker, we don’t know how to code, and we have barely any money to invest in its launch. 

For illustrative purposes only, let’s say we want to create the BitOinc memecoin. It’s a Bitcoin typo, and also a pig memecoin — that will do it, probably. We could even have its logo as a Bitcoin’s “₿” but sideways, so it resembles a pig’s snout. 

But in order to have BitOinc live on-chain, we’d need to somehow actually launch it. 

So, in order to launch our memecoin, the best route would be to use a launchpad. And what better launchpad to use than the most hyped and popular in the market?

In this Pump.fun review, we’re gonna cover everything there is to know about the platform, and also go through how to launch your own token.

What is Pump.fun

Pump.fun is a token launchpad on the Solana blockchain. The platform was one of the first to have a focus on memecoins. Enthusiasts all around the world get on the platform to buy, trade, and create their own tokens. 

At its core, Pump.fun is seen as the easiest and accessible option for anyone wanting to launch or get in touch with the “underground” memecoin community. Because of this simplicity, Pump.fun has become wildly popular among retail traders and meme coin enthusiasts worldwide.

Most importantly, the platform lives and breathes at the birthplace of the hottest memecoin trends: the Solana Blockchain. Solana has become the chain of choice for meme coins thanks to its low fees and lightning‑fast transactions, and Pump.fun sits right at the center of that culture.

Solana Meme Coins

Solana has become the go-to chain for memecoins because it offers lower fees, fast transactions, and a thriving community of enthusiasts and developers. 

While Ethereum remains the backbone of decentralized finance, it has gradually lost ground in the meme coin arena. High gas fees and slower transaction speeds make it expensive and clunky for retail traders who want to launch or trade tokens on a whim.

That explains why Solana became the hottest spot for memes. And platforms like Pump.fun supercharged this shift by democratizing the token-creation process, allowing millions of new tokens to emerge over the last few years. 

But What is a Token Launchpad 

A token launchpad is nothing more than a platform that helps new projects create, advertise, and list tokens without needing deep technical expertise or large amounts of capital. 

If launching your own crypto was like creating your own software back in the day, then a token launchpad is the equivalent of modern app stores or website builders. Instead of writing thousands of lines of code, you get a ready‑made toolkit.

For memecoins, which thrive on community  — launchpads also act as a social amplifier. On top of doing most of the background work required to create a cryptocurrency, they also provide projects with immediate visibility and a stage where communities can rally.

How Pumpfun Works

Pump.Fun operates as an automated token factory on Solana. When someone launches a coin on the platform, Pump.Fun automatically deploys a SPL token contract (Solana’s equivalent of ERC‑20 on Ethereum) with predefined parameters like name, symbol, and supply. 

Once the token exists, Pump.fun doesn’t rely on traditional order books or presales. Instead, it plugs the token into a bonding curve smart contract.

Pumpfun Bonding Curve

Once the token exists, it still has to go through some processes until it becomes a fully tradable asset in the wider Solana ecosystem. At first, the token is bound to Pump.fun’s bonding curve contract.

The bonding curve period acts as both the distribution mechanism and the initial liquidity pool. This period is basically the “test drive” for memecoins, where the token gets its first sense of demand and liquidity. 

Buyers at the start of the curve can buy tokens at a discount. And as liquidity accumulates, the price for said token also grows. 

This process makes sense when you account for the fact that there are thousands of new tokens launching every day. Competition is pretty strong in the Solana memecoin battlegrounds, and early buyers are acquiring tokens that they are not sure will even leave the bonding curve.

Once the memecoin finally “graduates”, it transitions out of the bonding curve environment and into the wider Solana DeFi ecosystem. Because tokens are minted directly from the curve, there’s no insider allocation or presale advantage. Everyone interacts with the same curve, and the distribution is as fair as it gets.

Liquidity Migration

The bonding curve isn’t infinite — it has defined thresholds that determine when a token “graduates” from Pump.fun to the open market:

• Supply threshold: Once a set percentage of the token’s supply has been sold through the curve, the contract triggers migration.
• Liquidity threshold: The accumulated SOL in the curve reaches a minimum required amount to seed a pool on Raydium.
• Automatic migration: At that point, Pump.fun takes the SOL and the corresponding tokens, creates a liquidity pool on Raydium, and locks it. The token is now tradable in open DeFi markets.

This design ensures that every token launched has a fair start, transparent pricing, and guaranteed liquidity once it leaves the curve. The bonding curve isn’t just a gimmick — it’s the backbone of Pump.fun’s model, acting as the bridge between raw creation and market legitimacy.

Create Meme Coin on Pump.Fun

So imagine BitOin is going live on Pump.fun. We’d need no cash to launch it, and we don’t even have to write whitepapers about its “Porkonomics”. 

For starters, we need to create an account on the platform; simply connecting a crypto wallet also works, almost any wallet on Solana will do. 

From there, the process is straightforward: you choose the name, symbol, and upload an image for your token.

Pump.Fun automatically deploys the SPL token contract on Solana, meaning you don’t have to touch a single line of code.

After this step, you get the chance to buy some of your own tokens. If you believe in the project, you get the chance to be its very first buyer. 

And then… It’s done. Surprisingly easy and quick. After just a few clicks, our memecoin is officially live on the Pump.Fun platform. 

Now, BitOinc is part of the bonding curve battleground. This is the proving ground where every new token fights for attention, and most of them fail. At this stage, tokens on the platform are not yet tradable on-chain, as they’re still locked on the bonding curve.

Pumpfun Fees

Pump.Fun’s fee structure is one of the main reasons why the platform has become the most popular launchpad in crypto. Unlike other platforms, there is no upfront cost to create a coin. 

The only fixed charge comes later, when a coin graduates from the bonding curve to PumpSwap. At that point, Pump.fun deducts 0.015 SOL from the liquidity pool to cover network fees.

During the bonding curve phase, every trade carries a small fee of 1.25% in total. This is split between the creator fee (0.3%), the protocol fee (0.95%), and the liquidity pool (0%). The creator fee is particularly important because it allows founders to earn a share of trading activity even if they did not buy a large supply of their own coin.

Once a token graduates and enters PumpSwap (PumpFun’s decentralized exchange), the fee structure changes depending on the coin’s market cap. For lower-cap projects, under 420 SOL, the fee remains at 1.25%. Bigger projects above 98,240 SOL get a fee discount of only 0.3%. 

PumpFun Risks

PumpFun is a huge platform, with over 1.3 million active traders. What’s also huge is the number of tokens launching every day. The launchpad had 600,000 new tokens launched in only one month in August this year, for example. 

This means that there’s a really big competition in the platform, and only a very small margin of tokens ever graduate past the bonding curve.

What this means is that, not only is it extremely hard for a token to succeed, but investors are subject to losses as well. 

Memecoins are volatile by nature; they’re often defined as the riskier assets in the cryptocurrency market. Now, memecoins that haven’t even matured yet are even riskier. 

As a result, currencies in the platform carry significant risk, far more than any legacy crypto on the market. The likelihood of the token ever reaching maturity is low, and the probability of investors realizing a profit is even lower.

While the curve guarantees fair distribution and prevents tokens from being directly rug‑pulled at launch, nothing is stopping early buyers, or even the creator, from “pulling” liquidity once the memecoin reaches Raydium. 

What is Pump.fun and how does it work?

Pump.fun is a Solana‑based launchpad that lets anyone instantly create and trade meme tokens using an automated bonding curve.

Is Pump.fun safe to use on Solana? 

It’s technically secure since contracts run on Solana, but the open nature means scams and abandoned tokens are common.

What is the bonding curve model?

A bonding curve sets token prices algorithmically, starting cheap and rising as demand and liquidity increase.

Can Pump.fun tokens migrate to Raydium?

Yes, once supply and liquidity thresholds are met, Pump.fun automatically seeds a Raydium pool and locks liquidity.

Are Pump.fun meme coins risky to trade?

Extremely — most tokens fail to graduate, and even successful ones remain highly volatile and speculative.