Galaxy Digital Report Exposes Memecoin Profit Disparity: Platforms Thrive While Traders Face Losses

Galaxy Digital released a research report on October 2, 2025, authored by analyst Will Owens, revealing that memecoin platforms like launchpads, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), and trading bots are capturing massive revenues, while the majority of individual traders incur losses in what is described as a zero-sum game with negative expected value.

The report highlights that Pump.fun, a Solana-based launchpad that debuted in early 2024, has industrialized token creation, launching nearly 13 million tokens out of Solana's total 32 million—a 300% increase in under two years. Tokens on Pump.fun have a combined fully diluted market cap of $4.8 billion, with just 12 tokens accounting for 56% of this value. Between August 11 and August 17, 2024, Pump.fun generated $13.48 million in revenue, its strongest week since February, and over the past 30 days, it amassed approximately $120 million in fees. On September 14, 2024, the platform handled over $1 billion in trading volume. Additionally, Pump.fun's own PUMP token sale in July 2024 raised $500 million in under 12 minutes, offering 125 billion tokens.

Other platforms are also profiting significantly. Axiom, a trading bot, earned over $200 million in cumulative fees with fewer than 10 employees, while tools like BONKbot and Trojan facilitate rapid sniping of new tokens. The report notes that median hold times for Solana memecoins collapsed to about 100 seconds from 300 seconds a year earlier, indicating bot dominance and a hyper-competitive, player-versus-player environment.

Will Owens emphasized that memecoins have evolved beyond early examples like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, becoming a permanent part of the crypto economy that blends humor with financial speculation to attract new users. However, the financial benefits flow primarily to infrastructure providers, including blockchains like Solana, which hosts 56% of the 57 million memecoins across major chains and sees memecoins accounting for 20-30% of its DEX volume. The report concludes that while memecoins drive user acquisition and pressure-test blockchains, they remain speculative and short-lived for most traders, enriching a concentrated group of platform owners and insiders.