Pump.Fun Co-Founder Dismisses Token Plans, Criticizes Base’s Meme Coin Experiment

Key Takeaways:

• Pump.Fun’s founder resists stealth launches and insider coin drops.
• Cohen condemns Base’s auto-minted token as rushed and detrimental.
• Community-driven standards through social influence in crypto are unavoidable.

The creator of Pump.Fun, a meme coin platform on Solana, has drawn a hard line in the sand following the controversial debut and collapse of a meme coin promoted by Base. The decision has revived debates over responsibility, hype and the ethics of launching tokens in the Web3 domain.

It started when the official X (formerly Twitter) account for Base began posting content that auto-minted into a tradable token through the onchain social platform Zora. It took just a few minutes for the token, now dubbed ‘Base for Everyone,’ to hit a $17 million market cap. Just hours later, the value tanked more than 90%, which drew huge backlash, accusations of a stealth launch.

And while Zora posted a disclaimer that said the asset was unofficial and came with “no expectations,” many traders felt blindsided. On-chain data showed that the top three wallets held nearly half of the token’s supply—a textbook red flag that only added to the public skepticism.

Base later said it did not sell the token and that it was not official in any way. But the damage was done already.

Alon Cohen, co-founder of Pump.Fun, used the moment to double down on his platform’s principles. He stated there are no plans for any token launch from Pump.Fun, its team, or even himself. That includes covert drops or stealth launches. While tokenizing everything might become normal one day, Cohen said it’s definitely not the standard now — and forcing it only brings confusion and pain.

Pump.Fun has never shied away from controversy itself. In 2024, he came under fire for a series of livestreamed token launches marked by unsafe behavior and even flashes of illegal content. Cohen’s latest stance appears to be a course correction aimed at regaining community trust.

As Cohen noted in a recent post titled “On Responsibility,” launching a coin while also maintaining social power comes with certain responsibilities. Builders should find a way to abide strictly to community standards in his opinion: No launching or promoting personal tokens, no promises of exceptional returns, and never public discussion of token prices.

What matters is that those norms are not prescribed by corporate or influencer interests. They’re “formed by the users that are in the trenches every single day,” Cohen said. In other words, it’s the crypto community that decides what’s ethical or not, not Base, Pump.Fun, or even governments.

Base has defended its actions, explaining that the token represented one component of an overarching goal to “bring content onchain.” Base creator Jesse Pollak said that the experiment is consistent with the long-term vision of a global onchain economy. But the meteoric rise and fall of the “Base is for everyone token” should serve as a striking reminder that experiments — particularly ones with market implications — need to have social consequences taken into consideration.

According to DexScreener, the token has since bounced slightly (market cap of $16.5 million). But many do view the incident as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unmoderated hype in a highly volatile and still-maturing space.

Cohen confirmed that Pump.Fun will keep building on the edge of social media and tokenization. Livestreamed token launches, once paused, are now live again. But the team promises that any new development will be done transparently and with community alignment at the forefront.

Despite previous backlash, Pump.Fun remains one of the most popular meme coin platforms on Solana. During Argentina’s LIBRA meme coin frenzy, Pump.Fun’s daily volume dropped from $184 million to $134 million in just a few days.

Cohen seems very aware of these dynamics. His recent pronouncements represent an effort to restore that credibility, and a different tone in an industry where virality tends to be prioritized over safety and ethics, and where a comfortable, community-first perspective cannot be ignored. Pump.Fun navigates the fine line between innovation and ethical responsibility — in Web3, going beyond the rules is common, but platform creators must stay accountable to their communities.

More News: Pump.fun Unveils PumpSwap: Reinventing Token Trading & Revenue Models

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