Solana's Meme War in June: Pumpfun, Terminals, and the New Launchpad Arms Race

The Pulse of Chaos

I’ve spent nights staring at Dune dashboards while Brooklyn slept—just me, my coffee, and the rhythmic pulse of Solana’s memecoin market. It hits like clockwork: start climbing at 10–11 UTC, peak around 15–20 UTC. Not a glitch. A ritual.

This isn’t just FOMO—it’s American work hours meeting crypto frenzy. Trading volume mirrors someone hitting ‘submit’ on their lunch break. Coincidence? No. It’s behavioral architecture built into chain activity.

Pumpfun: The $10B Mirage

They’re calling it an ICO—but it feels more like a cultural event wrapped in finance. \(10B raised, FDV of \)40B (soon to be $100–200B), KYC required… and yes, an air-drop that might make some users rich overnight.

The dream? A stable flywheel: creators earn from fees, users get rewards, and liquidity grows organically. But here’s what they don’t say: this could drain short-term capital from smaller projects—especially those running on Bonk or LetsBonk.

Still—I can’t help but wonder: will we witness another HYPE-level boom? Or will this be the moment Solana finally matures beyond memes?

Terminal Wars: Where Distribution Beats Code

Let me confess something personal—my first bot was a disaster. I coded it with pride; it lasted 47 minutes before crashing into oblivion.

Now look at Axiom—61% market share—not because it runs fastest or has best UI—but because it spreads like wildfire through Twitter threads and Discord communities.

Photon (9.9%), BullX (5.8%), even GMGN (6.8%)—they’re fighting for scraps in a game where visibility wins over speed.

This isn’t about engineering excellence anymore—it’s about distribution. And if you’re not on the right feed at the right time? You’re invisible.

I’ll write a full piece on this soon—the quiet war between technical merit and social reach in Web3.

Launchpads: From Fireworks to Fading Embers

Once, every new launch felt like a party. Now? The after-party is quieter than my loft after midnight.

@believeapp tried to pivot toward real-world use cases—”Internet Capital Markets” sounds noble until you realize most liquidity still flows into Launch Coin itself.

Raydium’s Launch Lab? Just backend magic for others’ launches—mostly hosted on LetsBonk.fun now.

And letsbonk.fun itself? Still alive—but only thanks to \(USELESS (\)140M mcap) and its loyal Bonk community gods who show up weekly like clockwork.

It’s not dying—it’s becoming niche. Which might be exactly what keeps it honest.

Data Tells More Than Prices Do

The numbers are heartbreaking in their clarity:

• Pumpfun created 11 million tokens… but graduation rate now hovers near 0.8%
• Daily active users dropped from peak highs (~75K) to steady ~70K — fewer new wallets entering daily
• Weekly volume fell back below $10B after April’s spike
• Yet transaction count rises — meaning more small trades per user → decentralization creeping forward?

PumpSwap shows hope too—with rising trade counts despite falling volume—and LPs earning $73M so far from creator fees alone. For once: sustainability beats spectacle.

Final Thought — Trust Is Currency When Everything Else Is Noise

The truth no one admits out loud: we’re not trading coins—we’re trading trust in systems that feel broken but keep working anyway. Pumpfun may fail—or soar—but its real legacy won’t be its price chart; it’ll be how many people learned to believe again—even briefly—in something digital, something decentralized, something human.