Despite Pump.fun’s very impressive revenue, many challenges popped up for the platform in November as well. Pump.fun even had to suspend its live streaming feature due to inappropriate content. Additionally, DeSci platform Pump Science suffered a security breach on Pump.fun, and stopped its token launches. Meanwhile, SecondLane listed a 1% equity stake in Pump.fun. Pump.fun Revenue Soars Pump.fun, a meme coin launchpad operating on the Solana blockchain, reported an impressive $78 million in revenue for November. This is its highest monthly earnings since its launch. This figure represents about 35% of the platform’s total revenue. Data from DefiLlama indicated that Pump.fun saw a big surge in user activity and transaction volumes, which helped it bring in $78.28 million since the start of November 2024. Pump.fun monthly revenue (Source: DefiLlama ) Despite its financial success, Pump.fun still faced some challenges, particularly with its live streaming feature. The feature was introduced in August to allow users to share real-time reactions to token price movements. However, the live streaming service was temporarily suspended after inappropriate and alarming content was shared on the platform. Users reportedly broadcasted disturbing behavior, including threats of violence and self-harm. In one case, a user even threatened to harm their pet if their meme coin failed to achieve a certain market capitalization. Pump.fun pledged to improve its content moderation tools and increase transparency in enforcement decisions before reinstating the feature again. Meanwhile, Binance co-founder and former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao weighed in on the broader meme coin phenomenon. While he acknowledged their popularity, Zhao still prefers blockchain projects that deliver tangible applications and infrastructure. He clarified that his comments were not meant to undermine meme coins but to encourage the development of real-world blockchain applications. SecondLane Offers Pump.fun Stake SecondLane recently listed a 1% equity interest in Pump.fun at a fully diluted valuation of $1.5 billion. The private markets trading platform priced the stake at $15 million, available through its web app and Telegram announcements. Despite its growing popularity, Pump.fun has not launched a native token just yet. Previous equity investments in the platform came from Alliance DAO, Big Brain Holdings, and 6th Man Ventures, according to Pitchbook data . (Source: SecondLane ) In October, the Pump.fun team hinted at plans for a future token release and an upgraded trading terminal called “Pump Advance,” though no specific timeline was provided. The platform has been making waves as the eighth highest-earning blockchain protocol . This places it just behind other major players like Circle, the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), and Uniswap, the decentralized exchange. To date, Pump.fun’s cumulative fee revenues exceed $225 million. Pump.fun’s success is largely attributed to a meme coin trading frenzy on Solana, which is its native layer-1 blockchain. Meme coin prices have been driven by venture capital funding and political speculation, and now boasts a market capitalization of more than $122 billion, according to CoinGecko . Pump.fun offers users the ability to launch a tradeable coin for under $2 in just one click, with a real-time feed curated through its “For You” algorithm. However, data from Dune Analytics shows that approximately 98% of prospective meme coins on the platform actually fail to launch successfully. Opinions on the meme coin phenomenon are very divided. Advocates like Murad Mahmudov see meme coins as a legitimate use case for removing speculative premiums from altcoins. On the other hand, critics like Jimmy Song see them as a speculative gamble that is detrimental to investors. Pump Science Halts Token Launches After Security Breach Pump Science , a decentralized science (DeSci) platform that is focused on longevity medicine tokens, recently issued an apology after its private key was leaked on GitHub. This allowed a “known attacker” to create fraudulent tokens through its Pump.fun profile. The platform’s representative, Benji Leibowitz, addressed the issue during an AMA session on X, and fully admitted the gravity of the mistake. He also assured users that this kind of incident will not happen again. He also confirmed that Pump Science will no longer launch tokens on Pump.fun after the breach. The compromised private key linked to Pump Science’s Pump.fun profile allowed the attacker to mint fraudulent tokens, including Urolithin B through Urolithin E (URO) and Cocaine (COKE). Pump Science warned its users not to trust any new tokens associated with its profile and renamed the profile to “ dont_trust ” to prevent further exploitation. The platform also partnered with blockchain security firm Blockaid to flag and monitor new token mints from the compromised address. The incident was partially attributed to Solana-based software firm BuilderZ, whose GitHub codebase contained the private key for the off-chain wallet address ”T5j2U…jb8sc.” However, Pump Science clarified that BuilderZ was not fully responsible for the hack, as the on-chain addresses associated with the fraudulent tokens differed from those used for its official tokens, Rifampicin (RIF) and Urolithin A (URO). Pump Science suspects the hacker may be linked to a previous wallet hack involving James Pacheco, who is a founder of the Solana-based commodity tokenization platform elmnts. To prevent future incidents from happening, Pump Science plans to conduct a comprehensive audit of its front-end and smart contracts. It also plans to implement a bug bounty program and improve its key management and security practices. The platform hopes to resume secure token launches after the holidays and after thorough audits. Base Blockchain Thrives Beyond Its Meme Coin Origins Coinbase's Base blockchain, which was launched in August of 2023, quickly gained a lot of attention that was initially fueled by the unexpected rise of the meme coin BALD. The token referred to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, and it emerged before Base’s public launch. During an interview at Devcon in Bangkok, Jesse Pollak talked about all of the chaos BALD caused, and described it as a reminder of the crypto space's unpredictability. While BALD ended as a rugpull, Pollak believes it proved the protocol's openness and potential for decentralized innovation. Pollak has been actively promoting Base across the globe, particularly in emerging markets like Southeast Asia, Kenya, and India, where there is growing demand for secure economic solutions like stablecoins. Base's progress in stablecoin adoption is evident with its over $3.5 billion in stablecoin market cap, ranking it as the sixth-largest blockchain for dollar-pegged tokens, according to DeFiLlama. The platform is also catching up to more established blockchains like Solana in stablecoin issuance. Despite its growth, Base faced criticism for its ties to Coinbase, which some argue create centralization concerns. This debate intensified with Coinbase’s promotion of cbBTC while delisting Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC). According to Pollak, BALD is evidence of Base’s decentralized nature, and he argued that the protocol allows for unplanned, expressive developments without centralized control. He shared that Base is built on Ethereum’s decentralized principles, with open-source code that allows anyone to validate transactions and challenge discrepancies through its recently launched fault proofs. Pollak placed a lot of emphasis on the fact that Base is designed to operate independently, even if Coinbase were to disappear. With 763,036 active addresses, Base is on track to establishing itself as a cornerstone of decentralized finance to be known for more than just its meme coin origins.
