"Crown Exchange": The Power Transfer of Solana on-chain Memecoin Launchpad

Power never belongs to anyone; it always seeks the next vessel like water. This ancient truth is once again proven in the memecoin issuance platform on the Solana blockchain. The once-dominant Pump.fun, which held 88% market share just a month ago, now has only 13% left. The new challenger Let'sBONK has captured 86% of the market.

This is not only another manifestation of volatility in the crypto world, but also a classic case of imperial collapse: when the ultimate moat of attention is ignored, even the greatest first-mover advantage can instantly vanish.

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The Rise and Fall of the Pump.fun Empire

Pump.fun was launched in January 2024 by three young people in their 20s, revolutionizing the issuance logic of meme coins: by simply uploading an image, naming it, and clicking a few times, one can issue a coin for less than $2, with no coding required.

This satisfies a fundamental impulse to turn "worthless" things into "valuable" things. By January 2025, Pump.fun generated over $458 million in revenue, launching thousands of new coins daily, with peak daily revenue exceeding $7 million. It not only occupies infrastructure but also controls cultural discourse, becoming synonymous with Solana memecoin culture.

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However, the tragedy began with one of its most "innovative" features: live streaming. To attract attention, some users started engaging in extreme behaviors during the live streams, even leading to serious incidents where underage users threatened their family members. Pump.fun was forced to shut down the live streaming feature, but its reputation was already ruined. That week, revenue plummeted by 66%, and competitors began to take advantage of the situation.

Faced with declining revenue and competitive pressure, Pump.fun decided to issue a token for self-rescue. This ICO raised $500 million in 12 minutes, along with $700 million in private placement. However, there are serious issues with token distribution: 60% of the shares were devoured by the top 340 buyers, fully unlocked and without long-term lock-up. The token price rose briefly before continuing to fall, showing a typical "death spiral" trend.

The final blow came when co-founder Alon Cohen publicly announced the cancellation of the long-awaited airdrop. This not only caused the token price to plummet by 15% within 24 hours, but also severely damaged community trust.

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The Rise of Let'sBONK

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

Currently, Let'sBONK has a daily revenue of 1.3 million USD, which is 5 times that of Pump.fun. From almost zero in May to steadily breaking through daily revenue of one million USD in July, Let'sBONK's revenue has been rising steadily. Meanwhile, Pump.fun's revenue has plummeted from a peak of over 7 million USD in January back to the levels of September 2024.

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Let'sBONK will use 1% of its weekly revenue to buy back BONK tokens, supporting this eco-token that predates the platform and has an established foundation. In contrast, the PUMP token has lost 60% of its market value since its ICO.

The Victory and Defeat of Attention Economy

Pump.fun once gained an advantage through network effects, but attention is fragile. A live broadcast incident gave users a reason to try alternative platforms, and Let'sBONK quickly became the "clean" choice.

After realizing the crisis of life and death, Pump.fun launched a counterattack: raising the token buyback ratio from 25% to 100% and introducing a 30-day incentive plan. However, these tactical measures cannot restore the lost trust and user attention.

In contrast, Let'sBONK has built a truly user-interest-aligned ecological reward system. Its BONK reward program allows users to lock up their assets for 6 to 12 months and proportionally receive revenue sharing from ecological products. Users can also earn "Bonk Points" through various means, which can be exchanged for physical products or rights in the future.

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A Bigger Picture

In the digital market, the switching costs for users are close to zero, and a dominant position can vanish in a matter of months. The success of Let'sBONK is not due to building a fundamentally superior product, but rather seizing the market when Pump.fun's reputation was at its most vulnerable. In the attention economy, timing is often more critical than technology.

Nevertheless, Pump.fun is not completely out of the game. They have $1.2 billion in funding as a buffer, and the platform has withstood the test of hundreds of thousands of project launches. As a category creator, they still maintain brand recognition. The recently launched Pump.fun 2.0 has added new features, showing that they are still striving to fight back.

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The most likely scenario is market fragmentation: Let'sBONK becomes the main platform, while Pump.fun transforms into a niche platform with loyal users. However, to truly turn the tide, Pump.fun must rebuild trust and reclaim cultural high ground, which may require a complete overhaul of its leadership to completely shed the controversies of the past.

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In this power transition, we once again see an ancient truth: when rulers lose legitimacy, no amount of resources can restore it. Sometimes, for the continuity of the kingdom, the crown must be passed to newcomers.

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