Key Takeaways
- Pump.fun creators earned more than $350 million in the past year.
- The vast majority of Pump.fun tokens fail to gain traction.
- Legal scrutiny and rug-pull controversies continue to shadow the platform.
Pump.fun paid out over $350 million to token creators over the past year, even as the wider crypto market worked through a tough bear market.
The massive payout was highlighted by crypto journalist and founder of the DeFi Report, Michael Nadeau, who compared it to the early stages of YouTube’s creator economy.
But with legal challenges mounting and most of Pump.fun’s tokens failing to retain value after launch, can the platform really replicate the mainstream success that ultimately transformed YouTube into a global media powerhouse?
Nadeau Points to Creator Economy Expansion
In a post on X on June 1, Nadeau wrote: “Is it well known that Pump.fun has paid creators over $350m over the last year?”
“That this trajectory is looking like early days YouTube? And it’s happening in a crypto bear market?”
Highlighting Blockworks data, Nadeau said fees that had previously flowed to Raydium and liquidity providers were redirected into Pump.fun’s own ecosystem, increasing the amount of revenue available to token creators.
Nadeau pointed to Pump.fun’s expansion into adjacent parts of the trading stack through its acquisition of “The Terminal.”
“This is a direct competitor to Axiom, which generates roughly half its revenues from Pump’s bonding curve and Pump Swap,” he said.
The YouTube Comparison
Comparisons between Pump.fun and YouTube center on the emergence of its creator monetization model.
When YouTube introduced its Partner Program in the late 2000s, it allowed ordinary users to earn revenue from videos for the first time.
This model has given rise to an economy supporting tens of millions of channels, media companies, entertainers, and influencers.
Over the last four years, YouTube has paid out over $100 billion globally to its creators.
Both YouTube and Pump.Fun have dramatically lowered barriers to participation.
In theory, creating a million-dollar YouTube channel requires nothing more than a camera and an internet connection. While launching a token on Pump.fun can now be completed within minutes.
In both cases, creators are rewarded when they attract engagement. For YouTube, that engagement comes through views and watch time.
For Pump.fun, it comes through trading activity and transaction fees generated by tokens.
Pump.fun Creator Revenue Has Expanded Rapidly
Pump.fun introduced creator revenue sharing in 2025, allowing token launchers to receive a portion of fees generated by trading activity.
The program marked a shift in how value was distributed across the platform’s ecosystem.
Rather than fees flowing exclusively to exchanges and liquidity providers, creators became direct beneficiaries of token trading volume.
Since the launch of revenue sharing, creators have collectively earned more than $350 million, according to publicly cited figures.
During periods of elevated activity, daily creator rewards have reached millions of dollars, with some of the platform’s most successful token promoters generating substantial income.
But Most Tokens Still Fail
Despite the scale of creator payouts, the vast majority of tokens launched on Pump.fun do not achieve lasting success.
Only a small fraction of newly created tokens reach the thresholds required to gain broader market traction or migrate to larger trading venues.
According to Dune data, almost 99% of all Pump.fun tokens fail to “graduate” — reaching the required market cap to list on a decentralized exchange like Raydium.
This means that only around 0.6% of trading wallets make more than $10,000 in profit.
For traders, this means that while creators may earn fees, they will mostly hold assets that rapidly decline in value.
However, the comparison with YouTube may still hold, as reportedly only 3.67% of all YouTube videos reach more than 10,000 views.
Legal Challenges Cast Shadow Over Pump.fun
Pump.fun’s rapid growth has been overshadowed by controversy and legal battles.
In January 2025, law firm Burwick Law announced it was pursuing claims on behalf of investors who suffered losses trading memecoins launched through the platform.
The complaint alleges that the platform enabled pump-and-dump style schemes and that harmful material was used to attract trading activity.
Examples included Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT), a token that surged to a valuation of more than $140 million shortly after launch, only to suffer a sharp decline.
Pump.fun and Rug Pulls
While creator payouts have surged, critics argue the platform is still a hotbed for “rug pulls.”
In 2024, pump.fun made headlines after a teenager livestreamed themself launching several tokens.
The 13-year-old sold a large portion of his investment as it began to rally, earning himself $30,000.
After doing so, he stuck his fingers up to the camera, stating: “Thanks for the 20 bandos.”
Despite being rug pulled, the community decided to pump more money into the token to get back at the child streamer in an attempt at revenge.
The token rapidly rose to a market cap of $85 million. This means the teen would have been holding $4 million if he hadn’t sold.
However, the child decided to then create another token called I’m Sorry (SORRY). This quickly hit a $4.5 million market cap after he sold again at $400,000, pocketing a further $13,000.
Then, for a third time, the 13-year-old made a token based on his dog called LUCY.
That coin hit a $3.8 million market cap after he sold his supply for $20,000, bringing the market cap to $700,000.
YouTube scam investigator Coffeezilla said at the time that it showed how finance has become synonymous with gambling.
“…and like being dumb is actually celebrated,” he said.
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Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
