Cumulative revenue exceeds $520 million.

The total number of tokens deployed is approximately 7.41 million.

The number of users is 7.41 million.

This is the data accumulated by Pump.fun in just one year. It can be said that Pump.fun's leading position and revenue performance in the Mmme track are very similar to the unparalleled OpenSea in 2021. Both of them seized the opportunity and the trend in the Meme and NFT tracks, and quickly rose to become an almost irreplicable success model.

Pump.fun's token issuance model: Dutch auction causes public outrage

On February 9, Wu Blockchain reported that Pump.fun is preparing to issue tokens and conduct a public offering, and will adopt the Dutch auction model, and is cooperating with a centralized exchange to develop the system.

Earlier, Binance co-founder He Yi also mentioned the use of the Dutch auction innovative token IEO model in an AMA. The Dutch auction, also called the "descending price auction", starts the auction price from a high level and decreases at a fixed rate, and participants bid at the price they think is appropriate.

The further details of this Dutch auction come from KOL He Bi: Because the project is huge and has high requirements, the current public offering systems of major exchanges do not meet the needs of Pump.fun, and almost all domestic first, second and third-tier exchanges are developing a Dutch auction system for Pump.fun. And it is currently known that the tokens will not have an airdrop, and 50% of the tokens will be through the Dutch auction.

So far, no relevant exchange has released more cooperation details and customized messages. However, the news has caused a huge uproar at the retail investor level. Of course, it is a win-win situation for Pump.fun to issue tokens while making such huge profits, but the problem lies in the Dutch auction model, as retail investors not only cannot obtain airdrop benefits, but also need to participate in the more intense Dutch auction competition, and the investment cost of retail investors is likely to be high, but the risk of obtaining benefits is also increasing. At this stage, Pump.fun's Dutch auction model is more like a bloodthirsty and greedy sale.

The Dutch auction model was once popular during the NFT boom, and many top-notch projects were quite fond of minting NFTs through the Dutch auction model, the core feature of which is to maximize the sales revenue of NFTs. Even if the minting stage is not smooth in the early stage, the gradually decreasing selling price will also prevent the NFT from being stillborn. But for investors, this is more like a game, with more costs and having to participate in the fierce Gas War to successfully purchase the NFT, forming a serious involution reaction in the investor group. In the end, the risk is borne by the participants, and the profit is eaten up by the sellers.

Pump.fun co-founder Alon responds: Token issuance is a false rumor

As the news of Pump.fun's token issuance continued to ferment, Pump.fun's co-founder Alon posted on social media, saying: "Seeing rumors about the possible launch of a Pump.fun token, these are false information. It is recommended not to believe any information that is not published by the Pump.fun Official Twitter. In the past year of development, the Pump.fun team has mainly focused on improving the product, but has always been committed to giving users the due return, good things take time."

However, some netizens also believe that: Recently, lawsuits have been filed against Pump.fun in multiple places in the United States, which may affect whether it will ultimately issue tokens. Perhaps Pump.fun will wait for a period of time and choose the right time to issue tokens, or it may also be forced to modify the token economic model due to the dissatisfaction with the "Dutch auction model", and set aside a portion for airdrop.

Will OpenSea issue tokens: IPO or token issuance? Struggling and hesitating

At the peak, although OpenSea did not profit from GAS, the high 2.5% commission fee allowed OS to make a lot of money. In 2022, many people believe that OpenSea, with $13 billion in financing, is unlikely to issue tokens, and is more likely to raise funds through an IPO.

However, in the face of a sharp decline in revenue, OpenSea is facing the dilemma of dying without issuing tokens, and giving back to users and the community is a tradition of Web3. In the past, Uni was forced to issue tokens by Sushi to regain the lost users, and OpenSea is also facing the risk of losing a large number of users to Blur if it does not issue tokens.

Finally, on November 4, 2024, we saw a glimmer of hope regarding whether OpenSea will issue tokens. The OpenSea Official Twitter announced that it will launch a "brand new OpenSea" in December and opened a site for registering test addresses, and so far more than 700,000 addresses are on the waiting list.

But just yesterday (February 11), according to an official announcement from the OpenSea Foundation: The rumors on the X platform today are not true, and users are reminded to only trust the links published by the official account to avoid being deceived. Previously, there were rumors about OpenSea's TGE, but the official has clearly denied it.

Summary

The rise of Pump.fun and OpenSea is more dependent on factors such as market environment, product strength, and first-mover advantage, but their subsequent development is more dependent on the contribution of investor commissions. When retail investors hope to get a return from the platform, if the platform's strategy does not meet the expectations of the retail investors, or even goes against the grain, it may further prove the principle of "he who wins the hearts of the people will win the world", because the community expects a win-win celebration, not just the platform making a fortune!