Pump.fun’s native token, PUMP, has seen a dramatic downturn, falling over 19% on Wednesday and almost 50% since its launch. The steep decline follows confirmation from Co-founder Alon Cohen that the highly anticipated airdrop won’t be happening anytime soon.
Although the team still plans to launch the airdrop in the future, the lack of a clear timeline has shaken investor confidence and triggered a wave of sell-offs, particularly from early backers. The situation is a stark reminder of the volatility and hype-driven nature of meme coin ecosystems.
Airdrop Postponement Sparks Panic
During a live interview with crypto influencer ThreadGuy, Cohen addressed growing speculation about the project’s airdrop plans.
“There will be an airdrop,” Cohen confirmed. “But it’s not going to be taking place in the immediate future.”
He went on to say the team wants the airdrop to be “meaningful” and well-executed. The focus, for now, is on “long-term ecosystem growth” and rewarding users who have supported the platform for over a year.
However, the announcement immediately triggered a 12% price drop, as many investors had expected the airdrop to occur shortly after the Token Generation Event (TGE). For them, the delay felt like a broken promise, leading to loss of momentum and increased market uncertainty.
Price Dips Below ICO Level
PUMP was initially priced at $0.004 during its pre-sale and briefly surged to $0.0067 after the TGE. But the gains were short-lived. By Tuesday, it had already slipped below its initial coin offering (ICO) price.
Following Cohen’s comments, the token dropped further to $0.003054, wiping out nearly half its value in a week.
The decline was further intensified by technical selling pressure. On-chain analytics platform Lookonchain revealed that wallets linked to private-sale investors sold over 1.2 billion PUMP tokens worth roughly $3.8 million at $0.003 within just two hours. This large-scale dump significantly impacted the price and triggered further selling among retail traders.
Big Names Still Holding On
While many investors scrambled to exit their positions, not everyone is abandoning ship.
Well-known crypto trader Jeffrey Huang, also known as Machi Big Brother, reportedly increased his PUMP holdings, despite being down more than $5.8 million. His move suggests that some still believe in the project’s long-term vision or at least expect a recovery fueled by future hype cycles.
Nonetheless, this kind of conviction appears to be the exception, not the norm, as most retail investors show signs of retreating amid ongoing uncertainty.
Meme Coin Market Realities
PUMP’s rapid rise and fall isn’t unusual in the meme coin space, where tokens often skyrocket on buzz and crash just as fast when the hype fades. Pump.fun itself is a platform known for letting users easily launch and trade meme tokens on Solana, which initially helped generate excitement around PUMP.
However, that excitement has been dampened by two key factors:
- Delayed rewards (airdrop)
- Heavy private-investor unlocks and sell-offs
These combined pressures have caused serious damage to both sentiment and price action.
As of Wednesday, PUMP’s market cap still stands at a notable $1.08 billion, but it’s now facing major trust and momentum issues. Meanwhile, 24-hour trading volume jumped 62% to $942 million, signalling high activity, but more likely from volatility-driven traders than confident long-term holders.
Pump.fun’s PUMP token is a clear example of how fragile meme coin enthusiasm can be. While the project still commands a billion-dollar valuation, delays in reward mechanisms and aggressive early-seller exits have raised doubts about its sustainability.
