Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pumpfun has unveiled Pump Fund, a new investment arm it says will support startup projects built inside its ecosystem.
PUMP surged as much as 10% after the announcement, but gave up its gains as the crypto market turned lower. The token is now down 3% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
The platform said on X that Pump Fund’s first initiative is a “Build in Public” (BiP) Hackathon, which will deploy $3 million across 12 projects. Each selected team will receive $250,000 at a $10 million valuation.
Pumpfun is framing the hackathon as an alternative to traditional venture capital, where founders raise money by pitching investors or competing for spots in accelerator programs.
“Instead of having to please judges/VCs for money, tokenizing allows the market to become the judge,” the team wrote. “Your users are the ones that fund you by betting on you early.” The company also said it will prioritize teams that ship quickly and communicate openly, claiming that “organic traction > connections & fluff.”
Pumpfun’s new push comes as the Solana trenches are heating up again. Last week, rival platform Bags saw activity spike, helped by attention around Gas Town’s token (GAS). But the rise and fall of GAS also underscores how fast things can change in this market.
The token jumped to a $60 million valuation after a viral post from developer Steve Yegge, then crashed after he later stepped back, falling to around $1.1 million, The Defiant previously reported.
Pumpfun’s new funding push also comes as activity on the platform has cooled from last year’s memecoin peak. Daily new-user registrations fell from about 183,000 in January 2025 to just over 33,000 by early January 2026, while recurring daily active users dropped from roughly 258,000 to around 66,000, according to a recent report from BestBrokers.
Token creation also slowed from a peak of around 72,000 launches per day in early 2025 to much lower levels later in the year, as the broader memecoin market lost traction.
Pumpfun said the hackathon is open to both crypto and non-crypto projects, and that teams of “all maturities, verticals, and traction” are welcome.
