Pump.fun is becoming the "Quick Hand in the Crypto Circle."

Author: Joyce, Frost, BlockBeats

Note: This article was written on July 1, when Pump.fun launched its live streaming feature, and the phenomenon of "live streaming with memes" was just beginning to gain traction. Recently, Pump.fun officially boosted its live streaming feature again. In the early hours of November 22, an unemployed young man from North America stated during a Pump.fun live stream that he would not stop streaming until the market value of his token (LIVE) reached 100 million. This live stream was also selected by Pump's official team and featured on the homepage. After hitting 100,000 USD in the internal market, the LIVE token surged, and later KOLs like gmony joined in for real-time interaction, ultimately pushing the market value of the LIVE token above 20 million USD.

Left: The LIVE token issuer live streaming while getting a haircut; Right: LIVE token price

After the "live streamer" became a sensation, Pump.fun's official website saw a surge in live streaming activity, with various streamers employing different tactics to boost the price of their tokens, making Pump.fun gradually resemble a "meme coin version of Kuaishou."

Pump.fun is the most unique product in this cycle. Since its launch over four months ago, more than 1.17 million tokens have been released on Pump.fun, with total revenue exceeding 50 million USD. How should we understand this figure? Compared to the top traffic product Uniswap during the previous bull market, Uniswap Labs' annual revenue is estimated to be around 25 to 30 million USD.

It can be said that Pump.fun is not a typical Web3 project; it lacks a complex token economics model and a DAO governance mechanism. However, with precise market positioning, Pump.fun has created a business model that is guaranteed to be profitable. Under the dominance of attention economy, many people interpret the sustained prosperity of the meme coin sector as an advantage of short videos over long videos. In the "everyone issues tokens" era, can newcomers still share in the profits? With the combination of attention economy and extreme PVP, what new tricks can meme coins play?

The person who burned himself to promote a meme coin is still live streaming

Do you remember the developer who burned himself to promote his meme coin a month ago? On June 27, last Thursday, he was still live streaming on Twitter.

This developer is named Mikol. On May 17, he launched a meme coin called TruthOrDare (DARE) on Pump.fun. At that time, Pump.fun did not have live streaming capabilities, and he could only post images in the comments section. Mikol demonstrated the highlights of Season 1 to the community by live streaming on Twitch, pouring isopropyl alcohol on himself and having friends shoot fireworks in his direction. Amidst the gasps of his fans and the rise of DARE, his body caught fire, and he suffered third-degree burns and was sent to the hospital.

The DARE token saw a 12-fold increase on the day Mikol was burned, only to quickly return to zero the next day. Mikol's story was reported by the crypto community media Decrypt, attracting significant attention. In light of this heat, Mikol, lying in the ICU, recorded a video to tell the community that he would not give up on operations, saying, "You will see a better me."

Mikol is not the only one who has issued a meme coin and expected a price increase through extreme behavior to attract attention. The Solana meme craze has brought in many newcomers to crypto and has spawned numerous meme coins that are monitored in seconds. In addition to Mikol's "burn coin," there were also meme coins like "LIVEWITHMOM," which live streamed nudity to "ask for purchases."

Although these meme coins have extremely short lifespans and very few have market values exceeding 1 million USD, the combination of live streaming and token issuance has allowed many low-income individuals to find the key to wealth.

A week after this incident, Pump.fun launched its live streaming feature, and the community's first reaction was to advise token issuers, "Please do not self-immolate for profit."

As Mikol's story drew community attention, many expressed that such behavior was too pathological and contrary to the original spirit of crypto, with some suggesting that Mikol find a good job after recovering. However, after his condition stabilized, Mikol opened a Twitch live stream while still in the hospital and simultaneously streamed on Pump.fun. As he wished, his return to live streaming propelled DARE to a 15-fold increase again.

That resurgence only lasted a day, as DARE's price continued to decline, seemingly lacking any upward momentum. However, since then, Mikol has frequently streamed while bandaged, performing stunts like eating raw eggs, dry swallowing cinnamon powder, and sharing his recovery routine. New members have also joined his "TruthOrDare family," showcasing their own stunts like eating mustard and raw chili peppers.

Unless in very rare cases, it may be difficult for Mikol and his DARE to regain the same level of attention as before. There are many more like Mikol online, hoping to gain community attention through sufficiently abstract and shocking performances, allowing their memes to soar.

Those who already have high traffic have entered the token issuance game, from Jenner to Mother, Father, and so on. The celebrity coin wave has allowed token issuance teams and early followers to reap substantial profits. Although figures like Vitalik have expressed opposition to this phenomenon, it is hard to stop the trend in the crypto community, where "entertainment until death" is becoming increasingly prevalent.

It can be considered that the influx of newcomers into the crypto community comes from the "sinking market." The meme coin market is still vast, but unlike the meme coins of DOGE, PEPE, etc., which had some connection to the crypto community in the past, the current meme coin craze is pointing in a new direction, targeting the sinking market outside the crypto community.

The crypto market is undergoing a shift from PGC to UGA

There are many realistic reasons for the emergence of the meme craze. Indeed, the appeal of crypto narratives in this bull market is not as strong as before. Compared to "value coins," which have opaque chip distribution and grand narratives that do not materialize, newcomers are more willing to use memes as their first experience in entering the crypto space.

Behind this is an increasing number of users who have seen through the ultimate PVP logic. Regardless of how the narrative changes, it is merely to create a sufficiently Ponzi-like scheme, waiting for the next person to take over. The market is not lacking in people issuing tokens; it simply lacks those who can tell the token issuance story well. Since the community consensus has become that "the essence of value coins is also a type of air coin," it makes sense to go straight to issuing tokens. The emergence of Pump.fun is timely.

Pump.fun allows users to issue their own meme coins at an extremely low cost (0.02 SOL) with just one click. Meme coins can rise and crash within a few hours, with over 10,000 tokens being released daily on Pump.fun, accounting for over 80% of the total token supply in the Solana ecosystem. Recently, Pump.fun's daily revenue has ranged from 450,000 to 1 million USD, with total revenue exceeding 50 million USD since its launch a few months ago.

As pointed out in an analysis report released by Youbi Capital in May, the popularity of low liquidity assets is an inherent response to the current cycle's insufficient on-site liquidity. There is also a potential metaphor for the sharp increase in the number of tokens issued following the transition from PGA (Professional Generated Asset) to UGA (User Generated Asset), leading to increasingly dispersed consensus.

However, new opportunities still exist.

Three days ago, DEX Screener launched the token issuance platform Moonshot. On its first day, over 7,000 tokens were issued. At the same time, Solana received community recognition for launching the blinks feature, which allows trading tokens on Twitter. The meme coin SC saw a rise of over 100 times in two days, indicating that the market is eager to grab a piece of the token issuance platform's cake, and users are looking forward to new stories following Pump.fun.

After all, the history of crypto technology has unprecedentedly and significantly lowered the speed and threshold for asset issuance and trading, and its potential application market is still vast. As long as the community's demand for "monetizing attention" persists, the crypto market will still have narratives to tell.

What would happen if live streaming occurred in Web3?

In the traditional internet, the "attention economy" industry has developed for about 20 years, transitioning from forums and message boards to image and text microblogs, and then to short video and live streaming eras. This trajectory is also being played out in the crypto field.

On May 29, Pump.fun announced the launch of its live streaming feature. For a website focused on making money from meme coins, users indeed have no demand for live streaming. However, as the most information-rich, scene-driven, and impactful form of communication, live streaming combined with asset issuance is a promising application scenario from the perspective of attention economy.

Simplifying commercialization to the extreme

The path to commercialization in Web3 is entirely different from that of the traditional internet, but typical Web2 cases can provide some insights for the crypto industry regarding attention economy.

Take Kuaishou as an example. In 2013, Kuaishou, which had been around for less than two years, decided to transition from a GIF-making tool to an internet community. Users began producing content on Kuaishou, recording and sharing their lives and creativity through short videos, and interacting with fans. Unlike emerging platforms like Douyin, Kuaishou's user positioning is "the average person in society," primarily targeting young people in second- and third-tier cities.

In 2014, YY streamers with a loyal fan base in the sinking market joined Kuaishou, which had a monthly active user count of 1 million at that time. By the end of 2016, Kuaishou's monthly active users exceeded 64 million. During the rapid growth of Kuaishou in those two years, YY streamers occupied the top four spots on Kuaishou's list of leading streamers.

Kuaishou maintained the characteristics of the sinking market community, not signing internet celebrities or stars, and its fair algorithm mechanism encouraged the vigorous development of UGC content. Compared to other products at the time, Kuaishou stood out with its unique "decentralized community" model.

In 2017, Kuaishou was the first to seize the live streaming dividend, becoming the largest single live streaming platform in the world. According to Kuaishou's prospectus, from 2017 to 2019, the company's revenues were 8.3 billion, 20.3 billion, and 39.1 billion CNY, with live streaming revenues of 7.9 billion, 18.6 billion, 31.4 billion, and 17.3 billion CNY, accounting for 95.18%, 91.63%, 80.31%, and 68.38% respectively. It is evident that live streaming was Kuaishou's core business and its foundation at that time.

After rapid development, Kuaishou had to adjust its content ecosystem. After all, traditional Web2 companies need to undergo commercialization transformation. In this process, only those content producers who meet high consumer levels, satisfy traditional social values, and survive in fierce competition can remain in the end.

Looking back, rather than saying Kuaishou successfully navigated the sinking market, it is more accurate to say that Kuaishou targeted the new user market in the attention economy sector. Similarly, the token issuance platforms aimed at crypto newcomers do not need to consider "commercialization transformation."

In traditional internet giants, whether content platforms or shopping platforms, they all want to show users "there are good things worth watching/buying here," because only content that is recognized and loved by more users has commercial value, which in turn brings profits to the platform. However, Pump.fun does not need commercialization; its profit model is extremely simple and pure. It only needs to show "there are enough coins and traders here," and as long as there are transactions, Pump.fun can make money.

Currently, although Pump.fun has opened comment sections and live streaming features, users log onto Pump.fun primarily to complete the buying or selling process. Discussions about meme coins mainly occur on Twitter, and meme coin developers with live streaming ideas often choose platforms like Twitch or Kick for promotional live streams.

On the Pump.fun interface, users can only choose based on the number of comments and token market value. If there were a live streaming section, would "live streaming divine tokens" emerge on Pump.fun?

Human nature games and regulatory challenges

Currently, some meme showcasing platforms have emerged, such as Game.com, which just surpassed 7,000 followers on Twitter, offering paid list token services. By paying 0.8 SOL, users can publish their issued meme coins on this platform to gain more attention.

However, the Pump.fun team seems uninterested in further exploration of existing services. After all, a small team that has earned over 40 million USD in half a year and maintains a stable daily income of 600,000 USD has little motivation to break the product or innovate the narrative; positioning itself as a "tool" is already sufficient.

As more newcomers flood into the crypto space, live streaming may become a differentiating label for other token issuance platforms like Moonshot.

However, the past failures of several x-to-earn projects in Web3 have shown that no matter how clever the design, it cannot challenge human nature. On June 13, a user launched a meme coin themed around a sheep wearing a hat on Pump.fun and live streamed simultaneously. However, shortly after the live stream began, while the comments were still discussing the sheep's actions, a sniper who bought in at the token's launch quickly sold most of the tokens at a high price, causing the token price to plummet.

After the token crashed, the meme coin issuer explained in the comments, "My token balance remains unchanged and can be verified through Solscan. If I were just trying to make quick money, why would I live stream my sheep but not sell my tokens?"

The lack of selling may be because the token had not yet gone on Raydium, and in the end, this token did not reach a market value of 60,000 USD. The issuer never live streamed his sheep again.

Additionally, regulatory issues are also something these platforms need to pay attention to. If the live streaming format is combined with asset issuance, various extreme and vulgar behaviors to attract attention are bound to emerge. When Pump.fun announced the launch of its live streaming feature, the community's biggest concern was how the platform would review extreme content. When token issuers post inappropriate behaviors, such as pornography or more extreme actions, should Pump.fun intervene to prevent potential criminal activities?

Conclusion

Returning to the meme coin issuers mentioned at the beginning of this article, one can sense the content ecology of traditional internet short video platforms from years ago. After years of development, these platforms have explored highly lucrative business models.

As a form of content that provides "immersive experiences," live streaming has made people realize how simple the aggregation speed of "traffic" can be through groundbreaking forms, while monetization channels like tipping and product sales have allowed content producers to have a certain degree of power to counterbalance platform capital.

In the crypto field, the platform's control dissipates in an instant. Yet attention remains the core driving force propelling the entire market forward. If live streaming were to occur in Web3, what kind of stories would unfold? Can the extreme utilization of traffic find new forms of expression in a decentralized environment?

Looking back over the years, amidst the continuous rupture and reconstruction of consensus, the crypto industry has seen countless projects transition from "innovation" to collapse. The emergence of Pump.fun is just the beginning.