coindesk.com
Pump has generated significant revenue in a short period and zoomed to one of Solana's highest earning applications, showcasing the profitability of offering token creation services in the crypto space.
The platform allows users to create tokens with $2 and offers an inbuilt safety mechanism against scams like rug pulls, making it an attractive option for traders interested in meme coins.
Selling shovels in a gold rush was one of the surest ways to make profits, and it’s no different today in the digital asset world.
Pump, a meme coin generator platform, has earned over $5 million in fees since going live in March amid an ongoing meme coin frenzy on Solana, making it one of the biggest revenue-generating applications in a relatively short period.
The platform made $300,000 in the past 24 hours alone on Solana, data shows, contributing a significant chunk to the network’s total generated fees of $2.5 million. Annual revenue projections based on current usage and growth are about $66 million, DefiLlama data shows.
Pump lets anyone issue a token for $2 in capital, after which they choose the number of tokens, theme, and meme picture to accompany it. When the market capitalization of any token reaches $69,000, a portion of liquidity is deposited to the Solana-based exchange Raydium and burned. Last week, the platform also extended support to the Blast and Base networks.
The draw for traders is a supposed inbuilt safety mechanism: “Rug pulls,” a common crypto scam that sees token issuers drain liquidity, aren’t possible on Pump-issued tokens.
“Pump prevents rugs by making sure that all created tokens are safe. Each coin on Pump is a fair launch with no pre-sale and no team allocation,” its site says.
The ease of usage means new tokens are created nearly every other second. CoinDesk calculated a total of 35 issuances in a one-minute period in Asian morning hours on Tuesday, although this figure is likely to wildly change based on timezones and interest in new types of memes.
While there are likely tens of thousands of tokens that have been released on Pump since its March launch, only a few have reached market capitalizations of more than $10 million.
The largest tokens so far are Shark Cat (SC), a cat wearing a shark cap, and Hobbes, named after the cat of popular Solana trader Ansem, with valuations of $100 million and $35 million, respectively.
Cat memes are a popular draw for issuers, although popular Pump tokens range from a can of Arizona Iced Tea and Lord of the Rings character Gandalf to a pixelated image of a rubber duck.