After being "stabbed in the back" by Pump.fun, Solana officially promotes Time.fun to explore new directions for ecological growth

Author: Nancy, PANews

On February 24, after the time tokenization platform Time.fun officially launched on Solana, the Solana official team quickly provided strong support, and even Solana co-founder Toly mentioned it in a tweet, giving the market ample exposure. This move is not only a strong response to the liquidity drain of Pump.fun but also another growth exploration after the Solana ecosystem was severely impacted by the chaos of celebrity token issuance.

Pump.fun Intends to "Flip the Table," Solana Ecosystem Crisis Intensifies

After experiencing scandals involving celebrity coins like Libra, liquidity in Solana was rapidly withdrawn, and market sentiment remained low. As the traffic engine of the Solana ecosystem in this cycle and an on-chain "printing machine," the protocol is currently struggling to continue providing liquidity. Multiple factors, including self-built AMM, rumors of token issuance, ongoing token sell-offs, and regulatory litigation uncertainties, have also caused "discontent" from the Solana officials.

In January of this year, Pump.fun's business was unfortunately hit by a lawsuit despite its continuous growth. According to Bloomberg Law at the time, Pump.fun faced a class-action lawsuit, accused of violating U.S. securities laws by marketing and issuing unregistered and highly volatile meme coins, exposing investors to significant financial risks, and charging nearly $500 million in fees. The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York, with the plaintiffs describing it as "a new evolution of a Ponzi scheme and pump and dump." Soon after, two U.S. law firms, Burwick Law and Wolf Popper, also sued Pump.fun, demanding the platform remove tokens that used their IP, pointing out that these tokens used intellectual property (including their logo and name) without permission.

Worse still, as the MEME hype "cooled off," Pump.fun, as the primary victim of this wave of impact, saw both its graduation rate and trading volume plummet, further affecting the overall activity of the Solana ecosystem.

Data from The Block shows that as of February 24, the graduation rate of Pump.fun tokens transferred to Raydium was only 0.96%, down 54.7% from the historical peak of 2.12%. At the same time, Pump.fun's on-chain transactions also significantly cooled, with the average daily trading volume dropping from a peak of $3.13 billion in January to $190 million as of February 24, a decline of 93.9%. In terms of protocol fee revenue, DefiLlama data shows that as of February 25, Pump.fun's protocol fee revenue was $2.45 million, a decrease of nearly 84.1% from the historical peak of $15.38 million on January 25.

The significant decline in business forced Pump.fun to start exploring more products. However, some of these initiatives undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to the Solana ecosystem, which has yet to recover. Earlier this month, crypto KOL Hebi (@hebi555) disclosed on X that Pump.fun planned to adopt a Dutch auction model for public offerings on multiple CEXs (centralized exchanges). Although Pump.fun co-founder Alon denied this rumor and stated that the news about potential tokens was untrue, this response was questioned by many industry insiders. For instance, Wu said Blockchain publicly pointed out that Alon was lying, with several CEX-listed companies confirming Pump.fun's token issuance plan and stating that they could publicly disclose relevant preparatory documents once permission was obtained. If Pump.fun ultimately issues tokens, it will undoubtedly have a huge impact on the Solana market, especially given the already tight liquidity, which will likely lead to even greater capital outflows.

Moreover, Pump.fun has earned considerable income through trading fees, even ranking among the top 10 global gambling companies in 2024 with an annual revenue of $1 billion. According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Pump.fun has accumulated approximately 2.99 million SOL, currently valued at about $431 million, and its ongoing cash-out behavior has also put significant selling pressure on the SOL token.

What’s more concerning is that Pump.fun recently intends to "flip the table." On February 24, market rumors suggested that Pump.fun was internally testing a self-developed AMM (automated market maker) liquidity pool, with the community speculating that it might launch its own swap platform to replace third-party providers like Raydium to extract more trading fees, a move widely regarded by the community as overly greedy. If this news is true, it would undoubtedly deal a heavy blow to DEXs on Solana, as Raydium and Jupiter have absorbed a significant amount of liquidity from Pump.fun, and these DEXs are also the liquidity hubs of the Solana ecosystem. To make matters worse, platforms like Raydium and Jupiter have recently been implicated in the Libra insider token issuance scandal.

Once this news broke, CoinGecko data showed that since the announcement of Pump.fun's AMM, the price of Raydium's token RAY has plummeted by 40.9%, although the overall market decline also had some impact.

In response to Pump.fun's potential complete abandonment of Raydium, Raydium core contributor InfraRAY stated that this is a "strategic misjudgment" and questioned whether Pump.fun could replicate its existing success. He also pointed out that if Pump.fun shifts to a new AMM, it may face multiple risks such as insufficient infrastructure, low demand for token migration, and insufficient trading volume in the early stages. It is worth noting that the Solana Foundation invested in Raydium and Jupiter in October 2020 and March 2021, respectively, and Pump.fun's "going solo" move undoubtedly touches the interests of the Solana Foundation, creating greater uncertainty for the Solana ecosystem.

"Those bastards who disrupt the market to maximize their profits will reap what they sow. But those companies that create quality products, charge transparent fees, and compete for users are great. Their revenue should motivate you to compete and capture their market share," Toly's latest tweet has also been interpreted by the community as a criticism of Pump.fun.

With MEME Core Support, Time.fun is Backed by Solana Officials

As one of the key drivers for Solana's turnaround, MEME has become the new product that Solana officials have started to openly support after being "stabbed in the back" by Pump.fun.

As a product also originating from AllianceDAO, Time.fun is a time tokenization platform similar to the previously popular Friend.tech, allowing creators to tokenize time and sell it as tradable tokens. Initially, the product was based on the Base network but announced its migration to Solana in November 2024. At that time, Time.fun co-founder 0xKawz stated, "Over the past year, Solana has achieved significant advantages in many aspects. In contrast, the Ethereum ecosystem feels exhausted, often overly focused on technology and appearing arrogant. The atmosphere in Ethereum is like a group of aloof philosophers. If Ethereum does not address its cultural issues, as more developers like Time.fun choose to migrate, Solana will gradually dominate."

On February 24 of this year, after Time.fun officially migrated to the Solana network, it was the first to publicly promote a MEME token called "Toly's Minutes" on X. This tweet also received a reply from Toly himself, who stated that time is fun, and business communication is his favorite crypto application case. This statement once drove the market cap of the Toly token to soar. Subsequently, Toly continued to post over a dozen tweets about Time.fun, clearly showing his support. In addition to Toly, Solana co-founder Raj Gokal, Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz, and others also participated in promoting Time.fun.

For Solana, Time.fun has a similar gameplay to Pump.fun, both possessing a MEME core, and support for this product may continue this trend. At the same time, Time.fun has adopted a celebrity token issuance model with a verification mechanism, which somewhat reduces the common RUG risks seen in previous celebrity MEME coin chaos.

According to The Block, Time.fun founder Kawz stated that in the future, they would consider issuing the platform's own token. If other platforms are built on the basis of tokenizing time, then a platform-based token can connect them all together. However, Kawz also admitted that it is still too early to discuss the Time.fun token, as the platform must first find product-market fit, and the key goal of the platform is to make tokenized time composable so that it can be used by other platforms built on Time.fun. He pointed out that Time.fun's true long-term goal is to create a new asset class that allows people to own others' time, trade it, and use it for various products and services.

Ecosystem Faces Decline, but Several Key Indicators Remain Strong

Recently, the Solana ecosystem has faced numerous challenges, with constant market FUD.

On one hand, the market cap of MEME on Solana has halved after cooling down. CoinGecko data shows that as of February 26, the market cap of MEME on Solana was $8.64 billion, down from nearly $15 billion at its peak in January.

At the same time, the massive unlocking of SOL also brought liquidity pressure. A total of 11.2 million SOL will be unlocked for circulation on March 1, marking the largest token unlock in history (valued at $2 billion). According to crypto analyst Artchick.eth, over 15 million SOL (approximately $2.5 billion) will enter circulation in the next three months, most of which were purchased by institutions like Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital, and Figure through FTX auctions at $64 per SOL, with several VCs still holding substantial profits. Trader RunnerXBT pointed out that Galaxy Digital, Pantera, and Figure hold unrealized profits of $3 billion, $1 billion, and $150 million on SOL, respectively. The market speculates that these institutions may sell their holdings, and the recent LIBRA scam backed by Argentine President Milei has exacerbated market panic.

Data also clearly reflects the pressure faced by the Solana ecosystem. Artemis data shows that as of February 24, the number of daily active addresses on Solana was 5.3 million, down over 34.5% from this year's peak; daily trading volume also significantly dropped from the year's high of $27.7 billion, down 62.1%, currently remaining at $10.5 billion. Among them, the decline in DEX trading volume is particularly notable, although it still ranks second among all chains, it has dropped by 89.9% compared to the peak in January; additionally, the price of the SOL token has also fallen by 46.2% from this year's peak of $262.6.

These data reflect a significant decline in the activity and market heat of the Solana ecosystem. However, Solana still performs outstandingly on many key indicators. Artemis data shows that as of February 24, in terms of daily active addresses, Solana ranks first with 5.3 million, surpassing Ethereum, NEAR, SUI, and Aptos. In terms of transaction volume, Solana's daily transaction count is a staggering 56.5 million, far ahead of other chains, which only have millions or even fewer. In terms of TVL, Solana's TVL reached $7.3 billion, second only to Ethereum, surpassing Sui, Avalanche, and Aptos.

Additionally, Solana has several potential positives, such as expectations for SOL spot ETF applications and the opening of the Solana inflation model modification proposal SIMD-0228, which may inject more confidence and liquidity into Solana.