Pump.fun looks to self-regulate gory content

A call for regulation or a ban on the memecoin launcher is presently trending across Twitter

article-image

Pump.fun and Adobe stock modified by Blockworks

share


This is a segment from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


Charlie Munger once said: “Show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcome.”

So if you’re launching a memecoin on pump.fun, your incentives are: reach a token market cap of $100k, upon which $17k of liquidity is deposited into the Raydium DEX to kickstart a trading pair. 

Then, here are the outcomes: nudity, stray gun shootings, threats of suicide, threats to harm pets, school children, family members and alleged stunts involving the consumption of faeces in a dog cage.

This list just about sums up the banal grasps for attention in the world of memecoins. Thanks to pump.fun’s in-built livestream feature, that race for attention to the bottom is being laid bare on full display.

Attention is the currency of memecoins, so it’s a somewhat unsurprising outcome. 

This state of affairs has sent a call for regulation or a ban on the memecoin launcher trending across Twitter. Already, there are fake images of a Polymarket predicting the odds of a pump.fun ban, and the SEC seizing the pump.fun website.

Over the weekend, pump.fun founder Alon acknowledged the problem and claimed that the platform’s team of moderators are “working around the clock” to quash the “illicit content.” But given the rate of thousands of memecoins being deployed daily, that’s going to be easier said than done.

Realistically speaking though, what could a regulator do?

US regulators, for example, could pressure internet service providers to block the pump.fun DNS domain, but a VPN could easily skirt the ban. 

As for the tokens themselves, they live on the Solana blockchain. Regulators could technically pressure validators to block the transactions the same way the US Treasury applied sanctions on Tornado Cash in 2022, which takes us down the MEV supply chain rabbit hole once again.

There’s an ironic parallel here to the longstanding problem facing Big Tech’s social media platforms. If illegal content is posted on Facebook, who should be held legally liable — the user or Facebook?

Within the US, free speech proponents have argued that Section 230 of the 1934 Communications Act legally protects platforms’ illicit user-generated content.

That logic, consistently applied, may shield pump.fun from regulatory pressure, though it will certainly not shield it from the forces of market competition.

Pump.fun’s success has already been mimicked dozens of times. There is makenow.meme on Solana, sun.pump on Tron, and “Clanker,” a kind of AI-powered equivalent of pump.fun on Base, through which memecoins can be deployed into a Uniswap v3 pool for free with a Farcaster tweet.

Clanker was launched slightly more than two weeks ago, and already has collected about $4 million in fee revenues, according to Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero.

But whether it’s the regulatory hammer or market competition, pump.fun has plenty of incentives to quickly nip such a problem in the bud.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates (15).png

Research

A spot listing on Binance can support highly favorable short term returns. Tokens that TGE on Binance exhibit lower short term returns when compared to tokens that receive the listing after TGE. Both spot and futures listings support higher returns, while a spot listing is historically more favorable. Tokens that have yet to receive a Binance spot listing may be trading at a 30-50% discount to their market value upon receiving a Binance spot listing.

article-image

Sponsored

Unmatched security, unparalleled performance, unwavering commitment

article-image

Coinbase Institutional’s David Duong looked at how crypto performed in January and explains where crypto’s growing

article-image

SOL could see sell pressure from locked FTX tokens and Grayscale Trust shares

article-image

The 12 points are nothing new, but they may be helpful to lawmakers and regulators needing a refresher on priorities

article-image

About 70% of those surveyed believe crypto supervisory scrutiny remains just as intense

article-image

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek spurred a $1 trillion rout in US and European tech stocks yesterday