The $4 Billion Question

When news broke that meme coin launchpad Pump.fun was seeking funding at a $4 billion valuation, my Bloomberg Terminal practically choked on its coffee. As someone who’s built valuation models for everything from Uniswap pools to Bored Apes, I had to ask: Is this the next CryptoKitties bubble or a legit Web3 attention monopoly?

By the Numbers

Let’s start with cold hard data (my happy place). Annualizing Pump.fun’s recent 30-day revenue gives us ~$500M - meaning the proposed valuation sits at 8x sales. For context:

• Coinbase trades at ~15x
• Traditional ad platforms: 5-7x
• Meme factories? There is no playbook

The platform’s income swings wildly with meme cycles. Last November saw daily revenues exceeding \(4M (now down to ~\)1.5M), proving this business lives and dies by degenerate speculation.

The Live Streaming Gambit

What fascinates me isn’t the token launches but Pump.fun’s pivot to becoming “Twitch for degens.” Characters like Gainzy - an ex-FTX shill turned anti-Vitalik rant machine - now drive more engagement than most DeFi protocols. His May 8th Ethereum tirade coincided with ETH’s local bottom (“Gainzy bottom” anyone?).

The platform’s $1M creator fund has birthed surreal subcultures:

• $neet: Organized IRL “anti-work” protests using platform grants
• $chillhouse: Spammed “Thoughts on chillhouse?” into viral oblivion
• $HOUSE: Proved community tokens could hit 9-figures

Valuation as Performance Art

Here’s my quant-turned-Buddhist take: Valuing Pump.fun requires measuring intangible‘s like:

1. Attention Velocity: How fast it converts memes → trading volume
2. Cultural API: Its ability to absorb internet absurdity into tokenizable formats
3. Generational Alignment: Zoomers treat it like older gens treated MTV

The bear case? This all collapses when liquidity dries up. The bull case? They’re building the ESPN of crypto speculation - complete with drama, heroes/villains, and instant monetization.

The Bottom Line

While traditional investors see reckless gambling, I see an unprecedented attention-to-value engine. At $4B, you’re not buying revenue - you’re betting that Internet culture will keep commodifying itself through crypto. And frankly, that thesis keeps looking stronger.