Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Azuma (@azuma_eth)
On the morning of January 20, Pump.fun officially announced the launch of its investment division, Pump Fund. Pump Fund will initiate its first project, the Build in Public (BiP) hackathon, this month, investing $3 million in 12 new tokens issued through the platform, with $250,000 allocated to each token, corresponding to a valuation of $10 million. In addition to financial support, Pump.fun will also provide professional guidance from its founders and other substantial resources.
As the project with the strongest revenue-generating capability in the entire Meme sector, this is the first time Pump.fun has openly expressed its support for specific Meme tokens through official channels with real money (the attitude may be more important than the funding scale). Therefore, the selected tokens are highly likely to become the seed candidates in the Meme sector in the coming period.
Pump.fun's Revenue-Generating Capability
Pump.fun's staggering revenue capability is no secret. Data compiled by analyst Adam (@Adam_Tehc) on Dune shows that Pump.fun's historical total revenue has reached $954.8 million. Although daily revenue has significantly declined as the Meme hype cooled, it still amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars per day.
Holding massive real funds, Pump.fun is exploring other paths for ecosystem feedback beyond PUMP token buybacks. Pump Fund and its affiliated BiP hackathon are Pump.fun's latest attempts.
BiP Hackathon Details
According to the description on the BiP hackathon's dedicated page, the project aims to support founders who issue tokens on Pump.fun and publicly build products. Unlike traditional hackathons where participants rely on VCs or judges for evaluation to compete for prizes, the BiP hackathon intends to introduce token performance as a variable, allowing the market to determine whether a project is worth advancing and enabling users to become the earliest investors.
When discussing this key difference, Pump.fun founder Alon stated in an X post: "Before Pump.fun, my co-founder and I tried many different ideas. Consumer finance, DeFi, SocialFi, NFTs—but all failed. One of the biggest problems we encountered was that we found it extremely difficult to get our products in front of users. Trying to reach the right user base was an incredibly tedious task..."
Specifically, the BiP hackathon requires:
- Participants must issue a token on Pump.fun and then publicly build a product;
- Participants must also hold at least 10% of the token supply to align interests;
- Finally, the event strongly encourages founders to speak publicly on social media like X or livestream on Pump.fun to maintain effective communication with the community.
As for the types of participating projects, Pump.fun imposes no restrictions; they are not even limited to cryptocurrency-related products. Projects from different market stages and various verticals can participate.
Regarding how the 12 winning projects will ultimately be selected, Pump.fun did not provide specific rules but pointed out two main principles: First, organic user growth and genuine appeal are preferred over connections and flashy promotions; second, in addition to the appeal of the product itself/social media, the long-term sustainability of the project will also be evaluated.
Key Timelines to Note
According to the BiP hackathon's schedule, applications opened on January 19. Participants are required to launch their tokens at the time of application and begin public building (including livestreaming development progress, regularly sharing updates, and maintaining community interaction). The application window will be open for 30 days. On February 18, Pump.fun will announce the first batch of winning projects and provide funding (at least one will be announced). Considering that some projects may need more time to gain market attention and demonstrate appeal, the program will continue to run long-term.
So the timeline is clear: if you want to spot potential opportunities among this batch of Meme tokens, you need to start paying attention to newly issued tokens on Pump.fun from now on, especially those with the Pump Fund or BiP labels. Although the first batch of winning tokens won't be announced until 30 days later, tokens likely to be selected by Pump.fun will inevitably show competitiveness before then.
Overall, while Pump.fun's event may not drive a collective sentiment recovery in the Meme market, it can at least contribute some new tokens with clearer evaluation dimensions.
