Pump.enjoyable has misplaced its spot as Solana’s high memecoin launchpad for the primary time since its breakout, overtaken by rookie platform LetsBonk.
At first look, Solana’s total community exercise means that the memecoin scene is extra reshuffling than increasing. Whole token launches on the community stay steady, each day transactions are trending downward and the variety of new accounts created is roughly half of April’s peak.
Nonetheless, supporting metrics trace that Solana could also be on the rise once more, pushed by a possible growth in memecoin exercise, based on Vugar Usi Zade, chief working officer of Bitget.
“Since LetsBonk began actually taking off, Solana’s community has lit up. Fuel utilization per transaction hasn’t skyrocketed, however the sheer flood of transactions — particularly from token mints and swaps — has pushed whole charges and validator tip earnings noticeably greater,” he stated.
Solana’s exercise flatlines, however DEX income pops behind LetsBonk
LetsBonk’s rise on Solana has reignited enthusiasm amongst memecoin followers coming down from peak season earlier this yr. On July 9, LetsBonk recorded over 22,000 token mints, in comparison with Pump.enjoyable’s 8,334, capturing greater than 50% of the market share, based on knowledge from decentralized change (DEX) aggregator Jupiter.
Regardless of LetsBonk’s surge, whole token mints on Solana have remained largely flat over the previous three months. Pump.enjoyable’s output continues to fall, suggesting that the memecoin revival could also be extra of a shift in platform dominance.
Amberdata senior researcher Michael Marshall defined to Cointelegraph why Bonk is pulling forward. “Bonk makes use of half its charges to purchase and burn BONK tokens, constructing belief and loyalty,” Marshall stated.
“Bonk’s simplicity and decrease charges additionally appeal to many new customers who averted Pump.enjoyable’s complexity and scams.”
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Outdoors of token launches, Solana’s whole transaction rely has been trending down. However a more in-depth look reveals a extra advanced image. Whereas validator vote transactions have declined, non-vote transactions — these tied to person exercise like minting and swapping — are on the rise, largely pushed by LetsBonk’s memecoin resurgence.
“[LetsBonk] has noticeable will increase in total token launches and buying and selling exercise, translating instantly into greater transaction volumes on DEXs like Raydium. Though gasoline charges stay minimal, total community visitors and throughput have clearly risen, reflecting renewed enthusiasm within the memecoin area,” stated Marshall.
Raydium has been one of many greatest winners. The DEX is now amassing charges not seen for the reason that memecoin frenzy of early 2025. In April, LetsBonk partnered with Raydium to provide creators entry to the change’s liquidity swimming pools and buying and selling bots.
Solana’s bot exercise in LetsBonk and Pump.enjoyable
In response to Conor Grogan, head of product at Coinbase, bots are seemingly behind the vast majority of tokens launched on each Pump.enjoyable and LetsBonk.
This suspicion has lengthy circulated within the Solana ecosystem, the place the community’s excessive throughput and low charges make it straightforward to deploy bots that automate token launches at speeds unattainable by people.
“The highest accounts launch, on common, one new token each three minutes,” Grogan stated on X.
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Grogan additionally pointed to a particular account he tracked in January, which had created over 18,000 tokens on Pump.enjoyable. Initially, the account seemed to be working manually — launching roughly 12 tokens per hour for months. Finally, the account’s exercise was changed by bots.
In a earlier interview with Cointelegraph Journal, Austin Federa, then head of technique on the Solana Basis, defended the excessive bot utilization on the community. He has since left the function and co-founded a brand new base-layer protocol referred to as DoubleZero.
“Bots pay charges, simply to be clear,” Federa stated. “The bot transaction query at all times actually bugs me as a result of nobody can ever outline what they imply by a bot. What they imply by a bot usually is issues of decrease financial worth.”
“However that’s the level of a community like Solana — there’s lots of stuff that’s not economically viable and never economically attainable within the Ethereum ecosystem right this moment.”
LetsBonk and memecoins choose up the place Solana NFTs left off
The memecoin and non-fungible token (NFT) communities typically overlap, sharing an viewers of meme-literate buyers speculating on digital tradition.
Pump.enjoyable dropping its grip on the memecoin market attracts parallels to how OpenSea as soon as dominated NFT buying and selling earlier than rivals Magic Eden and Blur disrupted its lead.
“Bonk is doing one thing much like Pump. It’s not nearly launching a coin — it’s about launching right into a meme-native economic system. The BONK buy-and-burn mechanic provides individuals a shared financial stake,” stated Usi Zade.
However within the case of NFTs, the rise of other marketplaces didn’t essentially result in a sustained resurgence out there.
Usi Zade stated he doesn’t count on the identical end result right here, arguing that memecoins on Solana are “reloading, not stagnating.”
“Liquidity hasn’t vanished. Every day DEX quantity continues to be strong. Validator tip earnings is rising. And the success of Bonk reveals there’s nonetheless urge for food for brand spanking new narratives — so long as they’re framed proper. Even Pump.enjoyable, with all its baggage, continues to churn large quantity.”
He added that the chaos surrounding the memecoin trade is cooling off from the height euphoria of early 2025, when US President Donald Trump-themed tokens and bots drove “absurd” engagement metrics. Now, meme tradition on Solana seems to be maturing with extra construction, coordination and function.
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