The Rise and Fall of Power in the Encryption World: Pump.fun and Let'sBONK

"The king is dead, long live the king."

This declaration once echoed in the Palace of Versailles in the 18th century. A king passed away, and the nobles immediately turned to the new ruler. This is not indifference, but rather a manifestation of the instinct for survival.

The French deeply understand the essence of power: it flows like water, never belonging to any specific individual. This statement is not a lament for the deceased, but an acknowledgment of the new king's status. Former monarchs can quickly become a footnote in history. The transition of power is often swift, ruthless, and inevitable.

Power requires this ruthlessness. A new empire rises from the ruins of the old era, and new rulers inherit the old throne. This cycle repeats endlessly. And now, the memecoin issuance platform on the Solana chain is staging this ancient power transition ritual.

Not long ago, Pump.fun held an 88% market share, but now it has only 13% left. The newly emerged Let'sBONK has already taken control of 86% of the market.

This is not just another example of the volatility in the encryption market. It is more like a typical case of an empire collapsing: when the attention that serves as the ultimate moat is ignored, even the greatest first-mover advantage can disappear in an instant.

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The Rise of Pump.fun Empire

To understand the decline of Pump.fun, one must first understand its former glory. In January 2024, three young people in their twenties launched this platform with a statement that disrupted the issuance logic of meme coins: "Upload an image, give it a name, click a few times, and you can issue a coin for less than $2, with no programming required."

It satisfies a fundamental impulse: to turn "worthless" things into "valuable" things. In the world of encryption, this is not a fantasy, but a business model. By January 2025, Pump.fun generated over $458 million in revenue, launching thousands of new coins daily, with peak daily revenue exceeding $7 million.

More importantly, it has won the attention battlefield and become synonymous with Solana memecoin culture. On Crypto Twitter, issuing tokens is almost equivalent to using Pump.fun. It has not only occupied the infrastructure but also dominated the cultural discourse. However, it is this success that has bred weaknesses later exploited by competitors.

The tragedy begins with one of its most "innovative" features: live streaming.

Originally intended for issuers to promote their tokens in front of the camera, the situation quickly got out of control. Starting in November 2024, in a bid for attention, some individuals engaged in extreme behaviors during live broadcasts: simulating self-harm, threatening suicide, and abusing animals. The most severe incident involved a minor who threatened their family with a shotgun on camera, all to inflate the token's price.

Pump.fun was forced to urgently shut down its live streaming feature, but its reputation has been severely damaged. Weekly revenue plummeted by 66%, and public opinion backlash ensued, with competitors starting to take advantage of the situation. Faced with declining income and competitive pressure, Pump.fun made a decision that seemed wise but was actually fatal: to rescue itself through issuing tokens (ICO).

This ICO is technically considered a success – it raised $500 million from over 10,000 wallets in just 12 minutes, plus an additional $700 million from private placements.

However, a deeper analysis reveals the old problem reappearing: over 200 wallets are filled to the maximum limit of 1 million USD, with the top 340 buyers occupying 60% of the share. All sold tokens are fully unlocked (no lock-up), with only a transfer restriction period set between 48 to 72 hours.

Nearly half of the participants only funded their wallets within 24 hours - this may suggest an organized purchasing strategy, or it may reflect strong interest from retail users in this issuance.

The token price initially surged by 75% to $0.007, but the enthusiasm quickly faded. Within a few weeks, it dropped by 60%, continuously setting new lows, presenting a typical "death spiral" trend. The token economics itself is also very aggressive, with only 33% allocated to public and private offerings, while 67% is controlled by the project team, and the allocation timeline is unclear. Of this 33%, 18% is specifically reserved for private placements for institutional investors.

Despite users generating nearly $750 million in revenue for the platform, there are no immediate community rewards; meanwhile, private investors have sold $160 million worth of tokens on the exchange, resulting in significant selling pressure.

The final blow came when the co-founder publicly announced that the long-promised airdrop "will not happen in the foreseeable future."

For months, the project has hinted that the upcoming rewards "will be more generous than anyone in the industry," creating huge market expectations. However, at the moment when community trust was most fragile, they announced the cancellation of the airdrop. The token price plummeted by 15% within 24 hours. It's not that the airdrop itself is so important, but the cost of breaking promises is extremely heavy.

Let's BONK's Rise

As Pump.fun continuously steps on landmines, Let'sBONK is quietly building everything that the competitors lack: transparency, community orientation, and clear communication.

Currently, Let'sBONK's daily revenue reaches $1.3 million, while Pump.fun is only $254,000, a difference of 5 times. Annualized, Let'sBONK's monthly revenue amounts to $434.92 million, while Pump.fun is $267.25 million.

From nearly zero in May to a stable breakthrough of one million dollars in daily revenue in July, Let'sBONK's revenue has steadily increased. In the same period, Pump.fun's revenue plummeted from its January peak of over 7 million dollars back to the levels of September 2024.

After the ICO, the market value of PUMP tokens has dropped by 60%, while BONK remains relatively stable at $2.1 billion. Let's BONK will use 1% of its weekly revenue to repurchase BONK, supporting this ecological token that predates the platform's birth and has an established foundation.

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Attention Economy

Pump.fun once seized the opportunity through network effects - developers issued tokens there because traders were there; traders were there because the hottest memecoins were launched there. This flywheel effect spins faster and faster, seemingly unstoppable.

But attention is fragile. It is not like the moats of traditional businesses—economies of scale, switching costs, regulatory barriers—once trust collapses, users' mindset can disintegrate instantly. One live broadcast incident gives users reason to try alternative platforms. Let'sBONK quickly becomes the "clean" choice, a platform without historical baggage.

This is like when Myspace lost to Facebook. Myspace had the features and scale, but lost the cultural narrative. Facebook became the platform for "real users," while Myspace became synonymous with spam, a chaotic interface, and marginalization. Realizing the existential crisis, Pump.fun launched a nearly desperate counterattack.

First, they increased the token buyback ratio from 25% of daily revenue to 100%. While this means that approximately $254,000 is allocated for buybacks each day, which is much higher than Let'sBONK's daily buyback of $13,000 (only 1%), it also signifies that Pump.fun is using all of its revenue for buybacks, rather than for platform growth.

Secondly, they launched a 30-day incentive program that rewards PUMP tokens based on trading activity. However, initial feedback indicates that this strategy has not reversed the competitive landscape.

The issue is not at the tactical level, but at the strategic level. No amount of buybacks or incentive plans can restore lost trust, nor can they re-gather the attention of users that has already shifted.

The reward mechanism of Pump.fun revolves solely around trading volume, while Let'sBONK has built 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. The better the product performs, the more returns users receive. This is not about "paying for others to trade," but about "paying for users to build together."

Users (including project parties) can earn "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.

While Pump.fun was still exploring ICOs and experiencing delays in airdrop promises, Let'sBONK has already provided a structured reward system for core users. In the encryption world, capital will always flow towards better incentive mechanisms.

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A Larger Picture

In traditional industries, market leaders can often hold their position for decades. However, in the digital market, the cost of switching for users is nearly zero, and dominance can vanish in a matter of months.

An investigation revealed that the co-founder of Pump.fun was involved in a "pump and dump" scheme in 2017—precisely the behavior that Pump.fun claims to eliminate. In an industry built on trust and memes, the collapse of reputation is equivalent to a survival crisis.

The success of Let'sBONK is not because they built a fundamentally better product, but because they entered the market at the moment when Pump.fun's reputation was 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 once propelled Pump.fun to prominence also begins to reverse. Developers follow the traders, and traders chase the hottest projects, leading to an accelerated decline of the platform.

Is there still a chance for Pump.fun to turn around? Although its market share has significantly shrunk, it is not yet at the point of being out.

They do have some advantages: the $1.2 billion in financing has bought them time and provided them with the capital to experiment and endure against competitors. Their platform has supported hundreds of thousands of project launches without crashing — this is particularly important in an environment where other new platforms can easily fail under pressure. Even with a decline in market share, they still generate over $250,000 in revenue daily, with an annualized figure approaching $100 million, plus a massive capital reserve, which means they still have a solid foundation.

They are pioneers in this category. Turning coin issuance from programming into a few clicks of the mouse has earned them lasting brand recognition. The first-mover advantage doesn't just vanish.

Recent actions also indicate that they have not given up: Pump.fun 2.0 has added real-time data updates and one-click trading; the repurchase ratio has increased to 100%; user incentives have been launched. These are not signs of surrender, but of a counterattack.

The most likely scenario is not a complete collapse, but rather market fragmentation. There are rarely permanent monopolies in the encryption field. More likely, Let'sBONK will become the main platform, dominating the number of tokens issued and revenue, while Pump.fun will transform into a niche platform with loyal users, securing a place through its interface, features, or ecosystem.

But to really turn the tide, Pump.fun must not only solve technical issues or rely on spending money to retain people, but also must rebuild trust and regain cultural dominance. This means achieving a transparent and community-centered token economic structure, and it may even require a complete change of leadership to completely break away from past controversies.

The French court has long understood a principle: when a ruler loses legitimacy, no amount of wealth or ceremony can restore dignity. Only new leadership can earn back the old respect. Sometimes, for the continuation of the kingdom, the crown must be passed to a newcomer.

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