Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pump.fun will debut its native PUMP token through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) starting July 12, featuring a 1 trillion total supply with controversial allocations. The ICO will sell 33% of tokens at $0.004 each, split between an 18% private institutional sale and 15% public sale on exchanges including Kraken, Bybit, KuCoin, Gate.io, Bitget, and MEXC. All tokens will be fully unlocked immediately with no vesting period.
Remaining allocations include 24% for community initiatives, 20% for the team, 13% for investors, 3% for livestreaming, 2.6% for exchange liquidity, 2.4% for an ecosystem fund, and 2% for the Pump.fun foundation. The public sale ends when 150 billion tokens sell out or by 14:00 UTC on July 15, followed by a 48-72 hour non-transferable period before trading. US and UK residents are excluded from participation.
The distribution faces scrutiny, with researcher Rex condemning the model as "exploitative" due to over 40% of supply allocated internally while monetizing a community that generated $750M+ revenue. He criticized the vague "coming soon" status of community rewards. Controversy deepened as co-founder Alon Cohen—who previously called presales "scams" and exchange listings "dead" due to transparency issues—now leads this centralized ICO, contradicting Pump.fun's original permissionless ethos.
Despite recent setbacks including bot-trading allegations that dethroned it as Solana's top launchpad, Pump.fun aims to evolve into a decentralized social platform rivaling Facebook and TikTok, rewarding users instead of monetizing attention.