Howdy!

We have a shorter edition today because I was busy chasing down a pretty interesting scoop.

Sources told my colleague Katherine Ross and me that pump.fun is finally launching a token of its own. Now without further ado:

Pump.fun looks to raise $1B in token launch at $4B valuation: Sources

Pump.fun plans to raise $1 billion via a token sale, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Blockworks. 

Three sources said the sale would come at a $4 billion token valuation. 

The token will be sold to both public and private investors, sources added. Blockworks could not immediately confirm when the token is set to go live or whether it will be issued on the pump.fun platform. However, a post on X teased that it could come in the next two weeks.

The potential $4 billion token valuation would mint pump.fun as crypto’s latest unicorn startup after a year in which it helped ignite a memecoin frenzy.

Pump.fun did not immediately return multiple requests for comment.

Pump.fun — a memecoin launchpad that allows anyone to spin up their own Solana token instantly and for free — was a breakout hit with crypto users after launching in early 2024. The app has already generated over $700 million in cumulative revenue, according to Blockworks Research data. 

Users on the platform have minted nearly 11 million new tokens with a current cumulative market cap of roughly $4.5 billion. 

As competition heats up among token launchpads, pump.fun has made some updates to its core business — most notably when it launched an AMM that ended its unofficial partnership with Raydium. 

Pump.fun also recently launched a mobile app and re-released a live streaming feature it had temporarily suspended after content moderation complaints late last year.

— Jack Kubinec and Katherine Ross

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Time.fun, the Solana-based platform that lets fans trade creator time as tokens, just launched Season 1 of its points campaign. This inaugural drop will reward active traders, portfolio holders and creators whose minutes were redeemed or heavily traded.

Since its debut last year, Time.fun has carved out a niche at the intersection of SocialFi and speculation. It has especially attracted attention with its bonding-curve-backed “minutes” that rise in value as demand grows. Now, with the launch of its points system, the project is layering on an incentive structure that retroactively rewards usage.

Takeaway: This looks like a behavior-shaping play. As criteria shift with each drop, the idea seems to be to train users to interact more deeply across creator, trading and redemption flows. Simply showing up isn’t enough anymore. Time.fun is nudging users to behave like the kinds of participants it wants to retain.

— Jeffrey Albus