Pump.fun co-founder Alon Cohen said Solana-based memecoin Launchpad is overhauling its creator fee system after concluding that the existing model may be distorting incentives.
“Creator fees need to change,” Cohen acknowledged in a post on X on Friday, acknowledging that the Dynamic Fees V1 system introduced several months ago was successful in boosting activity but failed to create sustainable market behavior.
Cohen said the mechanism encouraged the creation of low-risk tokens at the expense of high-risk trading, which he said was “dangerous” because traders are the central source of liquidity and trading volume on the platform.
Cohen said the initial rollout showed early promise. Within weeks, new creators began to launch tokens and livestreaming, accelerating what he described as some of the most powerful on-chain situations of 2025. According to a graph shared along with his post, Pump.fun’s bonding curve volume more than doubled during that period. However, this surge was short-lived and revealed structural weaknesses.
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Creator fees encouraged minting of tokens over liquidity
Cohen said that while the creator fee helped the token become a serious project with an active team, it did little to change the behavior of the average memecoin adopter. In many cases, fees became a blatant incentive to mint tokens rather than building a liquid market.
“Previous platforms have failed to provide a good user experience here, often requiring users to request CTO (community takeover) coins, trust others to deliver on promises, etc.,” he wrote.
Pump.fun outlined the first phase of the changes in a series of posts about the X. The platform introduces creator fee sharing, allowing creators and CTO administrators to allocate a certain percentage of fees to up to 10 wallets after launch. Teams can also transfer ownership of their coins or revoke update privileges.
Cohen said that no one on the Pump.fun team would accept fees under any circumstances, and described the feature as “for trenchers.” Fees may be claimed by the recipient at any time and will not be forfeited if left unclaimed.
Related article: Memecoin hype fades, Pump.fun revenue hits lowest level in 2025
Pump.fun takes control of Solana meme coin launch pad
Pump.fun has emerged as the primary launchpad for the Solana meme coin by combining near-frictionless token creation with a standardized route to liquidity.
The platform briefly lost ground in July as rival LetsBonk caught up in volume and revenue, but quickly regained momentum. Pump.fun has strengthened its position through aggressive PUMP token buybacks and an improved creator payments program under Project Ascend. By late summer, trackers again showed Pump.fun controlling approximately 75% to 80% of Solana’s meme coin launches.
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