Pump.fun boycott: Revenue Dips, Then Bounces Back

The Pump.fun boycott is now a full week of drama, and the scoreboard is finally in. Traders pushing #BOYCOTTPUMPFUN spent the weekend sharing posts about leaked internal chats, a court case that calls the launchpad a casino, and the on-again, off-again Kimchi saga. Yet DefiLlama shows Pump's daily revenue bounced to about $1.83 million on October 26, up from about $1.35 million the day before.

What actually happened

The Pump.fun boycott grew out of a rough stretch. On October 22, a token tied to Kimchi, a trader Pump.fun had just signed, crashed about 98% after co-founder Alon pulled a repost, as Block Stream Media recapped. We covered that in Project Kimchi crash and the earlier Kimchi Aura Final Boss launch.

Then on Saturday, October 25, posts claiming to show leaked internal Pump.fun Telegram chats went viral. One widely shared post from @saturatexyz described them as leaked "by a whistleblower" and compared the design to slot machines. We could not verify whether the screenshots are new or recycled from court filings, and Pump.fun had not responded publicly when we checked.

What is documented is the court case. Law firm Wolf Popper said that on August 31, 2026, Judge Colleen McMahon allowed RICO claims against Baton Corporation, which runs Pump.fun, and its founders to move forward. DL News reported in January on a co-founder message from the filings: "We democratised trading lowcaps so much that everyone is exposed to the really, really low odds that come with gambling such low mcaps." None of that is a verdict.

The Kimchi plot twist

Just as the boycott peaked, Kimchi put @pumpfun back in his X bio on Sunday, three days after removing it. Block Stream Media said KIMCHI doubled from about $6 million to $14 million in market value almost instantly, then faded to near $8.8 million. Neither Kimchi nor Pump.fun explained the change.

Lookonchain flagged that a trader spent about $28,900 on KIMCHI hours before the bio change and was up about $11,000. That is the kind of timing that keeps the "insiders win" story alive. It does not prove anyone knew in advance, but it is exactly what boycott supporters point to when they say the game is rigged.

A boycott that lasts one weekend is a hashtag. A boycott that shows up in revenue for a month is a problem.

Is the Pump.fun boycott working?

So far, the numbers say partly. Revenue slid most of last week, with October 25 the low point at about $1.35 million. But October 26 jumped back to about $1.83 million, the same day the Squads competition started. Incentives work, which is also how Pump.fun has handled pressure before, like its referral program.

The PUMP token is not celebrating. CoinGecko had it near $0.00416 at 06:03 UTC (09:03 MSK) on October 27, down about 1.3% on the day, with a market cap near $1.92 billion. Block Stream Media noted it was about 20% below last Wednesday's high.

Another popular table claims 97% of Pump.fun users are in the red. Its methodology is unclear, so treat it as a talking point, not a statistic. Our Galaxy Polymarket retail losses piece shows heavy retail losses are common across speculative platforms.

Rivals keep trying to cash in. The LAUNCH token, a Solana launcher that pitched itself as the anti-Pump.fun option, was near a $1.49 million market cap on DexScreener at our check, up about 34% on the day after a big drop over the weekend.

What to do as a reader

Separate screenshots from filings. X posts can be cropped, faked or old. The complaint on CourtListener is public and dated, so read the claims straight.

Track the revenue chart on DefiLlama yourself. If the Pump.fun boycott is real, it will show up over weeks, not one day. If you trade on Pump.fun, assume most launches lose money and avoid coins pushed by insiders. Nothing here is investment or legal advice.

Sources: Block Stream Media, Wolf Popper, DL News, the viral post on X and DefiLlama.