Hyperstition #50 — July 23, 2025
Pump co-founder Alon tips plans in first post-ICO interview.
Pump co-founder Alon tips roadmap in first post-ICO interview
In his first live interview since Pump.fun’s $4 billion initial coin offering (ICO) on July 12, cofounder Alon joined popular Twitch streamer Threadguy on Thursday to address community concerns, clarify token strategy, and lay out Pump’s long-term vision. Below is a condensed transcript highlighting Alon’s remarks in his own words.
Why have you been so cryptic since the ICO?
“Ahead of our TGE [token generation event], and shortly after, we were in a pretty strict quiet policy. Now, of course, we're looking to be a lot more active, share what our vision is, bring the community along for our journey.”
How did you pull off one of the biggest ICOs in crypto?
“We were really excited to get back to the roots of crypto through our ICO… Actually building that out in 2025 to ensure everything is compliant with global regulations took a substantial effort. We single-handedly built out a platform that worked together with six other centralized exchanges… the public sale sold out in 12 minutes. The private round… saw such incredible and extreme demand.”
Why has the token underperformed since launch?
“While I can't speak about the price or any kind of price action… our focus right now is on our core community, making sure that everyone is not only heard but every community has the best possible chance of winning in the trenches today. We have a massive war chest… around $2 billion… and we will do whatever it takes to win.”
Did Pump.fun lose touch with the community?
“Where we got started is by being arguably the most in touch… Actually staying tapped into the trenches requires a lot of focus… I’ve spoken to a lot of our core community members, the top trenchers in this game… Genuinely, we're on the same page with most people in our community.”
Will there still be a Pump.fun airdrop?
“There will be an airdrop. That should come as no surprise to anybody… We want to make sure that it is meaningful and executed well… The airdrop is not going to be taking place in the immediate future… I've seen a ton of rumors… I think there's fewer than five people on the entire planet that know what our actual plans are.”
What percentage of the token will be airdropped?
“I can't touch on that at the moment, but it is going to be meaningful to our user base.”
How do you avoid the airdrop becoming a sell-off event?
“We want it to be an event that boosts our ecosystem rather than taking away… we want to make sure… the entire Pump.fun ecosystem, and the Solana ecosystem at large, is going to see a massive injection… and for that to be sustainable.”
Will Pump.fun continue buying back the token?
“Our actions are going to speak for themselves on-chain… I think initially it was around $20 million… and over the past four days, it’s been around something like $550,000.”
How did Let’s Bonk overtake Pump.fun in volume and share?
“There’s a lot of short-term hype, a lot of short-term tactics… Our focus has always been about the long term… we will be looking to inject significant liquidity into our ecosystem, engage with our community, and make sure they have the best possible chance of success.”
How does Pump.fun reclaim the top spot?
“We believe that we can grow this space 10x, 100x over the next three to five plus years… Perhaps the ecosystem is too extractive… maybe we need to build a core mechanism that actually aligns communities, creators, traders, etc., in a much better way… The world lives in mobile—that is how we're going to capture the next wave… And we need to invest into bringing better teams into this space.”
Can launchpads return to early 2024 levels?
“Without a doubt… I think there's so much upside potential… We need to be able to retain these people. Just making number go up is not enough… We’re going to be making radical moves.”
What are you doing with the war chest?
“We need to build a really great team… that’s even going to include making strategic acquisitions… The current mechanisms need a complete rework… a completely revolutionized Pump Swap… a completely different fee structure that incentivizes teams… we introduced CTO creator fees, so community takeovers can actually claim fees.”
What’s the long-term social vision?
“One focus is… streaming. Before we even built it out, people were already streaming on Pump.fun coins… You could be a nobody and get hundreds or thousands of viewers on day one… Tokens are the best way to bootstrap community and to just create cults… Homegrown talent is the focus.”
Will Pump.fun pay non-crypto streamers to join?
“That’s definitely on the cards… The token has to be a core part of it… There’s going to be a lot of experimentation.”
How will the 3% streamer token allocation be used?
“It gives us the flexibility to execute on plans related to live streaming… When large streamers want to get involved, they want to be aligned with the platform.”
Why did you acquire Kolscan?
“It’s basically one of the most visited sites in the trenches… Trader profitability… tells you a lot about the current trends… We are building an experience. Social products—streaming, chats, leaderboards—are going to be really key.”
Will you make more acquisitions?
“There’s certainly things that we're looking at and are finding interesting… We’re gonna do whatever it takes to win.”
How do you filter criticism and avoid yes-men?
“The best sources of truth are the data that we're seeing on-chain… and actually speaking to users… You just need to create a truth-seeking culture… I make plenty of mistakes… but we’re here to learn and execute.”
Will you change how you communicate?
“There's definitely an expectation to be out here every single day… I’m going to be doing a lot more of this… speaking to traders, creators, doing streams, podcasts… I would definitely expect a lot more.”