Solana memecoin launchpad war flips again as Pump takes top spot amid LetsBonk collapse

In a dramatic turn, Pump.fun's share of the Solana memecoin launchpad market has swung from as low as 5% roughly two weeks ago to 90% as of Sunday, according to data compiled by The Block.

Pump.fun's main competitor, LetsBonk, which commanded over 80% of the market two weeks ago, only held onto about 3% of the market as of Sunday. Share of the Solana memecoin launchpad market is determined by counting the number of graduated tokens, which are considered a better measure of meaningful activity than token launches.

Alongside the shrinking share of graduated tokens, the number of transactions and wallets interacting with the LetsBonk platform has also plummeted, according to a Dune dashboard.

Since July, the Solana memecoin launchpad market has been especially topsy-turvy with Pump.fun and LetsBonk battling it out. It appears top memecoin deployers, token buybacks, and bots may all be playing a part.

Top 10 memecoin deployers

Popular crypto trader and sometimes blockchain sleuth, known as @WazzCrypto on X, said last week the market flipped — at least in part — because the top 10 memecoin creators had abandoned LetsBonk for Pump.fun.

"The top 10 deployers on BonkFun (mostly bots), just started deploying en masse to Pump.fun again, and the market share shifted 90% overnight again," @WazzCrypto posted, citing data from a Dune dashboard.

Last month, Coinbase director Conor Grogan echoed @WazzCrypto's sentiments regarding bots' role in memecoin generation. "The great majority of tokens launched on Pump.Fun and LetsBonk are today run by bots," he posted to X. "The top accounts launch, on average, one new token every 3 minutes."

The Solana memecoin market has cooled significantly since the beginning of the year. During its peak, through the second half of  January, Pump.fun was generating between $4 million and $6 million in daily revenue, according to The Block Data Dashboard.

PUMP token buybacks

Pump.fun usurping LetsBonk appears to be correlated to the former's increased efforts to buy back PUMP tokens. Last month, Pump.fun, appeared to initiate a multimillion‑dollar buyback of its PUMP token, using platform revenue to purchase large quantities of the nearly three billion tokens it sold publicly.

Those buyback efforts followed news Pump.fun was mulling sharing protocol revenue with token holders. It seems this month Pump.fun has ramped up its efforts to buy back tokens, according to The Block's data.

Pump.fun raised $600 million in July, selling PUMP tokens in a public sale that sold out in just 12 minutes. 

On Monday, the Solana-news focused X handle suggested LetsBonk, built by the BONK token community, may be on the verge of trying to recapture market share with a plan to offer bonuses.

"[LetsBonk] has introduced a Points tab on its launchpad, suggesting plans to roll out a points system aimed at incentivizing creators and traders," @SolanaFloor posted to X.

In July, LetsBonk said it would set aside 1% of total revenue towards buying back "the top pairs within the BONK eco."

BONK is trading at $0.000022, down over 50% from an all-time high of $0.000058, according to The Block's price page.