Cumulative revenue exceeds US$520 million.
The total number of deployed tokens is approximately 7.41 million.
The number of users is 7.41 million.
This is the accumulated data of Pump.fun in just one year. It can be said that Pump.fun's leading position and revenue performance in the Meme track are very similar to OpenSea, which was in the limelight in 2021. Both of them seized the trend and opportunities in the Meme and NFT tracks and quickly rose to become an almost unrepeatable model of success.
Pump.fun coin issuance model: Dutch auction caused public outrage
On February 9, Wu said that Pump.fun is preparing to issue tokens and conduct public offerings, which will adopt the Dutch auction model and is working with centralized exchanges 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 is also called a "decrease price auction". The auction price starts high and decreases at a fixed rate. Participants bid at the price they think is appropriate.
Further details about the Dutch auction came from KOL He Bi: Because the project is huge and has many requirements, the current public offering systems of major exchanges do not meet the needs of Pump.fun. Almost all domestic first-, second- and third-tier exchanges are developing Dutch auction systems for Pump.fun. And it is known that there is no airdrop of tokens at present, and 50% of the tokens are Dutch auctioned.
So far, no relevant exchanges have revealed more details of the cooperation and customized news. However, as soon as the news came out, it caused an uproar at the retail level. Of course, Pump.fun is issuing coins when it is so profitable, and giving retail investors airdrops is a happy thing, but the problem lies in the Dutch auction model. Not only can retail investors not get airdrop income from it, but they also need to participate in the more competitive Dutch auction model. The investment cost of retail investors is likely to be not low, but the risk of obtaining income 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 explosion stage. Many top popular projects advocated NFTs to be minted through the Dutch auction model. The core feature is to maximize the benefits of selling NFTs. Even if the early stage of the mint is not smooth, the gradually declining selling price will prevent NFTs from being stillborn. But for investors, this is more like a game. They have to hold more costs and participate in fierce gas wars to successfully purchase NFTs, forming a serious internal reaction among the investor group. In the end, the risks are borne by the participants, and the profits are eaten by the sellers.
Pump.fun co-founder Alon responded: Issuing coins is false news
As the news of Pump.fun's coin issuance continued to ferment, Alon, the co-founder of Pump.fun, posted on social media: "I have seen rumors about the possible launch of Pump.fun tokens, which are all false news. It is recommended not to believe any information that is not released by the official Pump.fun Twitter account. 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 rewards they deserve. Good things take time."
However, some netizens believe that the recent lawsuits filed against Pump.fun in many places in the United States may have an impact on whether it will issue tokens in the end. Perhaps Pump.fun will wait for a while and choose the right time to issue tokens, or the "Dutch auction model" may cause people to be dissatisfied and force Pump.fun to modify the token economic model and set aside a portion for airdrops.
Will OpenSea issue a coin: Go public or issue a coin? I have been struggling with hesitation.
At its peak, although OpenSea did not make a profit from GAS, the high 2.5% handling fee made OS a lot of money. In 2022, many people believe that after raising $13 billion in financing, OpenSea is unlikely to issue coins, and is likely to raise funds and cash out by going public.
As the revenue scale dropped sharply, OpenSea faced the dilemma of not issuing tokens or dying. Giving rewards to users and the community is the tradition of Web3. Uni was forced by Sushi to issue tokens to win back lost users, and OpenSea also faced the risk of Blur taking away a large number of users if it did not issue tokens. In the end, it lost the throne of the first place in the NFT trading market in the competition with competing products.
Finally, on November 4, 2024, we saw some signs as to whether OpenSea will issue coins. OpenSea officially announced that it will launch a "brand new OpenSea" in December and opened a site for registering test addresses. So far, there are more than 700,000 addresses on the waiting list.
But just yesterday (February 11), according to the official announcement of OpenSea Foundation: All the rumors on the X platform today are untrue, and remind users to only trust the links released by the official account to avoid being deceived. Previously, there were rumors about OpenSea TGE in the market, but the official has clearly denied it.
Summarize
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 investors' handling fees. When retail investors hope to get feedback from the platform, if the platform's strategy does not meet retail investors' expectations, or even goes against them, it may further prove the truth that "he who wins the hearts of the people wins the world." Because the community expects a win-win carnival, not just a lot of money for the project!
