Pump.fun activity plunges 80% as Solana traders flee memecoins for perps

Pump.fun's on-chain activity cratered 80% over the past three months as traders abandoned the Solana-based memecoin launchpad for perpetual futures platforms, dragging Solana's network fees to multi-month lows.

The seven-day average of Pump.fun's token graduation rate — the percentage of newly created tokens that reach a decentralized exchange — fell to 0.26% last week, according to on-chain data. That represents an 80% decline from three months earlier. The platform's daily revenue averaged $800,000 in June, down from $4.8 million six months ago, a decline of 83%. Between May and June alone, revenue fell 25% while the graduation rate dropped 53%.

"Traders have rotated out of memecoin speculation and into perpetual futures, where they can get leveraged exposure without the liquidity risk of micro-cap tokens," Jason Wu, an on-chain analyst, said. "Hyperliquid has captured over 80% of the decentralized perps market, pulling volume away from platforms like Pump.fun."

The exodus has hit Solana's broader ecosystem. Daily network fees on Solana fell to 5,300 SOL in June, down from 33,000 SOL in January — an 84% decline. Solana's DApp revenue dropped to $22 million in March, an 18-month low, while weekly DEX volume on the network fell more than 50% by late May. The PUMP token itself has declined 40% over the past six months.

The structural shift from memecoins to perpetual futures raises questions about Solana's reliance on speculative trading volume. While institutional adoption is growing — SoFi, BlackRock and Franklin Templeton have expanded into Solana's ecosystem, and the network now controls 97% of tokenized equity market share — the revenue hole left by Pump.fun's collapse has yet to be filled by these higher-quality use cases. SOL traded at $71.72 as of June 17, down 40% year to date, with the $68 support level now in focus if on-chain activity continues to deteriorate. The next test for Solana will be whether its growing stablecoin supply of $16.4 billion and real-world asset tokenization pipeline can offset the loss of memecoin-driven fee revenue heading into the third quarter.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.