Author: Frank, PANews
On March 8, Pump.fun's cumulative revenue exceeded $10 billion, making it the first platform on Solana to reach this milestone and solidifying its position as the most prominent money printer in the MEME sector. However, after the hype subsided, the question is no longer just "who made the most money," but rather how much business these MEME-based platforms actually have left.
Looking at top ecosystem projects such as Pump.fun, GMGN, Four.meme, Axiom, as well as Photon, BullX, and BONK, the answer is becoming increasingly clear: MEME hasn't disappeared, but the business is increasingly concentrated among the top players, and the divergence between chains and platforms is becoming more pronounced.
Pump.fun: The "Absolute Oligarch" Across Bull and Bear Markets, Yet Struggles to Retain Billions in Profits
If the last wave of MEME mania was a non-stop gold rush, then Pump.fun was undoubtedly the most profitable toll booth in this gold rush town. Public data shows that as of March 2026, Pump.fun's cumulative total revenue has exceeded $10 billion. Of this, 2024 contributed approximately $321 million, and 2025 further increased to about $664 million. Starting in 2026, the MEME industry experienced a significant downturn, but Pump.fun seemed relatively unaffected, still generating about $98.3 million in revenue to date.
In terms of market structure, Pump.fun's dominant position in the Solana ecosystem has been further strengthened. Taking data from March 15 as an example, Pump.fun accounted for 99.1% of token creations, 94.8% of graduated tokens, and approximately 93% of daily trading volume. That day, Pump.fun launched 24,938 tokens, while LetsBonk had only 132, Bags had 50, Moonshot had 28, and the daily token launch numbers of other platforms were completely unable to compete with Pump.fun.
Looking back at Pump.fun's own data, it has also maintained a surprisingly high standard. Rough calculations based on visible data from the past two weeks show that Pump.fun currently has a daily average of about 29,700 token launches, approximately 157,700 daily active wallets, a daily average trading volume of about $93.65 million, and daily revenue of about $870,000. At the same time, the graduation rate, long seen as a weakness of the platform, has shown signs of recovery, recently even surging to around 1.70%. Although the specific reason behind this short-term peak is not yet clear, Pump.fun's graduation efficiency is indeed warming up.
However, although fee generation remains robust, this does not mean that all this revenue can be fully retained as protocol profit for Pump.fun. First, more than half of the fees are given to creators and LPs. Second, beyond creator revenue, the remaining income is also used for token buybacks. In the first quarter of 2026, Pump.fun generated a total of $227 million in fees, of which $123 million was distributed to creators and LPs, and the remaining $100 million was almost entirely used for token buybacks.
The problem is that buybacks do not automatically translate into rising token prices. As of March 16, the PUMP price was about $0.002, still about 76.21% lower than its all-time high of $0.0088. A more reasonable explanation is that buybacks can only provide support and maintain the narrative, but are not enough to reverse the overall valuation compression trend in the MEME sector. In other words, Pump.fun's cash flow machine is still running at high speed, but the market is no longer willing to give it a higher valuation multiple simply because it "makes money," as it did in the last hype cycle.
In summary, for Pump.fun, the market structure remains relatively robust. Although the entire meme coin sector has declined, it's mostly the competitors that have died,反而 making Pump.fun's dominance stronger. If this market experiences another boom, Pump.fun is likely to capture even greater红利 (benefits).
GMGN: Quarterly Revenue Grows Fivefold Sequentially, BSC Becomes "New Traffic Hotspot"
GMGN's revenue saw another explosive growth in the first quarter of 2026. Total revenue for Q1 2026 reached $25.31 million, a nearly fivefold increase compared to $5.64 million in Q4 2025. This quarterly revenue also became the second-highest single-quarter revenue in GMGN's history (only lower than Q1 2025's $40.81 million).
Breaking down this revenue structure, the main driver is the BSC chain. Starting in October 2025, GMGN's trading volume on the BSC chain began to significantly exceed that on Solana, and this trend stabilized by 2026. To date, the trading share on the BSC chain on GMGN is nearly three times that of the Solana chain.
Looking at the overall trading volume, user activity and trading volume on GMGN improved somewhat in Q1 2026, but the increase was not as high as the revenue change suggests. Therefore, from this perspective, the revenue improvement in Q1 2026 is real, but the explosive growth might likely be a statistical issue with DefiLlama (BSC chain revenue data was empty before October 2025).
However, this growth was primarily driven by a surge in MEME trading volume on the BSC chain in January, which yielded $16.34 million in full-chain revenue that month. This number dropped to $5.18 million in February and is about $3.77 million so far in March. The overall level for Q1 this year is similar to the same period in 2025.
Four.meme: The "Face" on BSC, Daily Revenue Now Just a Fraction of Its Peak
If Pump.fun has absorbed most of the流量 (traffic) on Solana launch platforms, then on BSC, the closest equivalent is Four.meme.
DeFiLlama data shows that as of March 16, Four.meme's protocol revenue for Q1 2026 has reached $16 million, significantly lower than the $54.24 million in Q4 2025. However, looking at the monthly revenue changes this year, there has been a slight recovery.
Based on visible data from the last 10 days tracked by Dune, Four.meme averages about 4,858 token launches per day, approximately 5,749 daily users, and only about 25.7 tokens actually get listed on the DEX Pancake daily, with the short-term graduation rate further compressed to around 0.53%. Judging from these data changes, the current Four.meme is also operating at a low level. Compared to the peak daily average revenue of $4.22 million in October 2025, current revenue has dropped to the $200,000 - $300,000 level.
For comparison, Pump.fun's estimated data for the last two weeks shows a daily average of about 29,700 token launches and a daily trading volume of about $93.65 million. Clearly, as the main platforms for MEME coins on Solana and BSC respectively, there is a significant gap in scale and token quality between Four.meme and Pump.fun, reflecting the development status of MEME on these two chains.
Axiom: Farewell to High Growth, Mired in Continuous Contraction
If GMGN's growth in Q1 2026 was more like catching the红利 (benefits) of the BSC rotation, then Axiom's situation is almost the opposite.
According to DeFiLlama data, as of now, the protocol's revenue in Q1 2026 is approximately $29.03 million, higher than GMGN's $25.31 million for the same period.
However, Axiom's current problem is that its business is in a state of continuous decline. According to DeFiLlama's quarterly revenue data, Axiom's protocol revenue reached highs of $133 million and $150 million in Q2 and Q3 2025 respectively, but fell to $60.66 million in Q4 2025, and is currently at $29.03 million for Q1 2026. Compared to the most疯狂 (crazy) period last year, the business volume has significantly contracted. Comparing this with GMGN reveals that although both are in a post-peak decline phase, GMGN's revenue still has occasional阶段性反弹 (periodic rebounds), while Axiom seems unable to regain its momentum.
For Axiom, it is no longer just a tool reliant on MEME hype bursts, but更像是一台 (more like) a mature trading machine tested through multiple market cycles. Compared to GMGN, which is still talking about growth elasticity, Axiom's imagination space seems to be shrinking.
Photon, BullX, and BONK: The "Stragglers" After the Tide Recedes
Compared to GMGN, which still has rebounds, and Axiom, which maintains a leading scale, the revenue curves of Photon, BullX, and BONKbot have more clearly entered a downward trend in 2026.
According to DeFiLlama data as of March 16, Photon's cumulative revenue is approximately $438 million, but its quarterly revenue has declined from $122.8 million in Q1 2025, to $32.31 million in Q2, $18.99 million in Q3, $5.29 million in Q4, and is currently only $4.52 million in Q1 2026, showing an almost阶梯式坠落 (step-like plummeting) trend.
BullX's cumulative revenue is approximately $203 million, but it also experienced rapid contraction. Quarterly revenue dropped from $87.37 million in Q1 2025 to $14.25 million in Q2, $3.86 million in Q3, $878,000 in Q4, and is currently only $491,000 in Q1 2026.
BONKbot's decline is relatively less steep, but it has also clearly receded. According to DeFiLlama data, its cumulative revenue is about $93.57 million. Quarterly revenue was $12.61 million in Q1 2025, then fell to $3.40 million in Q2, $2.85 million in Q3, $1.85 million in Q4, and is currently $1.84 million in Q1 2026.
However, the BONK ecosystem itself has not simultaneously熄火 (fizzled out). As of now, BONK.fun's protocol revenue for Q1 2026 is approximately $8.51 million, already higher than the $7.06 million in Q4 2025. Of this current quarter's revenue, about $6 million comes from Bonk.Fun, and about $1.84 million comes from BonkBot.
Looking at this MEME coin battle royale, it's not hard to draw a conclusion: the MEME track has not died out; it's just that the era of wild competition has彻底终结 (completely ended), and the reshuffling速度远超 (speed far exceeded) everyone's imagination.
After the tide receded, the platforms that truly remained were no longer just the fastest runners, but those that had built a complete closed loop encompassing launch, trading, liquidity, and fee collection. If the next wave of MEME行情 (market sentiment) starts again, the first to benefit will most likely still be them.
