Pump.fun, a memecoin, has announced the launch of Pump Fund, a new investment arm designed to support early-stage builders, marking a significant shift for the platform, which has been closely tied to the memecoin ecosystem.
On December 20, alongside the announcement, the platform introduced a $3 million “Build in Public” (BiP) Hackathon to boost startup projects constructed openly on its platform.
As its first initiative, the BiP Hackathon will back 12 selected projects with $250,000 each at a $10 million valuation, while offering long-term alignment, mentorship from Pump. fun’s founders, and ecosystem support to help startups scale transparently from day one.
Market-Led Hackathon Approach to Startup Funding
Unlike typical hackathons, funding decisions are directly tied to public traction. Where teams must introduce a token, retain at least 10% of its supply, and expand openly through community development, user interaction, and progress disclosure in real time, as per the announcement.
The hackathon stands out for its market-led funding strategy, which substitutes a conventional judge. Where those projects are funded directly by users instead of submitting capital pitches to panels, now giving them a larger market the opportunity to decide which concepts receive support and funding.
As per the X post, projects don’t have to be crypto-native and states that teams from all industries and phases of development are qualified as long as they ship products and maintain open channels of communication..
The Pump. fun’s new idea represents that early user conviction can be a more effective filter than traditional gatekeeping, especially in fast-moving on-chain contexts, as reflected in this structure.
Alon Cohen Says Founders Are in High Demand
With that, Pump.fun co-founder Alon Cohen posted on X, “ The numerous on-chain metas we’ve seen since shows that the demand for good founders by traders and long-term allocators continues to be incredibly high, no matter the market conditions.”
Also, he added that Projects began introducing tokens early after noticing people were willing to invest in new ideas they believed could succeed, with millions of such participants potentially evolving into long-term users and investors.
PUMP Trading Volume Declines
While writing this article, the PUMP price surges 2.07% and is trading around $0.002578, which represents that after the news was revealed this morning, the price showed an uptick, as per CoinMarketCap data, while its 24-hour trading volume has been declining around 30%.
As per the data from Token Terminal, PUMP’s monthly trading volume hit an all-time high of $11.75 billion in January 2025. The trading volume has steadily declined, with the platform’s trading volumes in the month of December reaching $2.432 billion. With that, PUMP’s slight price gain amid falling trading volumes suggests measured optimism around Pump. fun’s shift from memecoins to a market-driven hackathon model for supporting startups.
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