[NEW YORK] A platform dedicated to highly speculative cryptoassets is planning to raise US$1 billion by selling tokens, taking advantage of the current wave of positive sentiment buoying digital-asset markets.
Pump.fun, which has been compared to the edgy 4chan social media network, allows users to quickly create, promote and sell memecoins, a type of token often associated with jokes and memes and sometimes with celebrities and US presidents.
The platform, which is based on the Solana blockchain, is still in the early stages of the raise, according to a source familiar with the plans who asked not to be named, discussing private company information. Blockworks first reported on the fundraising effort.
If successful, the raise would rank among the largest this year involving crypto firms, trailing only MGX’s US$2 billion investment in Binance. Venture capital investment in the sector slowed in the first quarter of 2025 even as a friendlier environment for digital assets emerged in the US under President Donald Trump.
Memecoins debuted by Trump and his wife Melania in January have drawn scrutiny in the US, with Democrats calling for an investigation into a dinner put on for top holders of the president’s token.
In May, Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent letters to Trump-affiliated crypto project World Liberty Financial as well as Fight, Fight, Fight, LLC – which launched his memecoin – seeking information and raising concerns over conflicts of interest. Attorneys for World Liberty pushed back against those claims.
Pump.fun has been one of the biggest drivers of the explosive growth in memecoins and the attendant burst in activity on the Solana blockchain in the past year. Retail and professional investors alike have poured billions of US dollars into the sector, and their quest for quick profits has led to lucrative fee streams for Pump.fun’s founders.
Alon Cohen, co-founder of Pump.fun, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cohen had previously sought to dismiss rumours about a potential token.
Memecoins have been at the centre of political controversies in other countries, too. Argentina President Javier Milei publicly promoted a token named Libra in February ahead of a sharp rise and fall in its price. In May, Milei dismantled a task force created to probe allegations of irregularities around that incident. BLOOMBERG
