Pump.fun Concludes $500M ICO in 12 Minutes — But Something Doesn’t Add Up

The Solana-based meme coin launchpad, Pump.fun, has concluded the initial coin offering (ICO) for its native cryptocurrency, PUMP. Although the platform completed the public sale in 12 minutes, there are some controversies surrounding it.

Data from the Pump.fun token website shows that the launchpad raised $500 million during the sale. The platform sold 12.5% of the PUMP total supply for $0.0040 each in a public offering.

Speculation Around Pump.fun ICO

When announcing the ICO on July 9, Pump.fun said its native token will have a maximum supply of one trillion. 33% of the supply was to be sold at the ICO, 24% reserved for community and ecosystem initiatives, and 20% to the project’s team. The project allocated 13% to existing investors, and the rest in smaller percentages to the ecosystem fund, exchange liquidity, and live streaming.

Out of the 33% allocated to the ICO, Pump.fun decided to keep 18% for a private sale to institutional buyers. The remaining 15%, accounting for 150 billion PUMP, will be offloaded in a public sale.

However, data on the project’s website shows the team eventually offloaded only 12.5% of the supply in the public sale. At the time of writing, the firm has not published any update regarding the changes; hence, the community is speculating what could have happened to the remaining 2.5%.

Tokens to be Tradeable in 72 Hours

While the crypto community continues speculating, Pump.fun confirmed it has allocated the tokens kept for the private sale to their buyers. Users who participated in the public sale will receive their assets within the next 48-72 hours. However, they will not be tradable or transferable till the distribution phase is over.

All ICO participants will be able to sell or transfer their PUMP allocations on the first day they become tradable.

“We’d like to thank everyone who participated in the sale, whether on pump fun or on one of the participating exchanges, and we look forward to the very bright future of pump fun and the wider Solana ecosystem,” the platform stated.

It is worth mentioning that Pump.fun faced a few challenges in the days leading up to the ICO. On July 8, the crypto exchange Gate.io abruptly removed its pre-market listing for PUMP and returned funds to all presale participants. The exchange eventually revealed that its decision stemmed from a discussion it had with the Pump.fun team. Notwithstanding the incident, PUMP ICO participants bought tokens worth $5 million on the exchange.