Pump.fun Faces Backlash After Missed PUMP Payouts for Former Staff
Former employees say they were fired just before their PUMP vesting, while Pump.fun later unlocked 50 billion tokens. The timing is raising questions about rewards, unlocks, and the ongoing lawsuit in New York.
Key Takeaways
- Former Pump.fun employees say they were laid off before their PUMP tokens vested, while the team later unlocked 50 billion tokens.
- On July 12, the insider cliff expired and 82.5 billion tokens were unlocked, including 50 billion for the team and 32.5 billion for investors.
- Pump.fun has not publicly responded to the allegations yet, while the company is also under legal pressure from an ongoing class action.
Former Pump.fun employees say they were let go two months before their PUMP tokens were set to vest, and then watched the team unlock 50 billion tokens for itself just weeks later. The claims quickly drew attention on X, especially because Pump.fun has not publicly addressed them yet.
Layoffs and Token Rights
According to Sandmark, the Solana launchpad cut contracts in early April. The publication said documents it reviewed showed that a quarter of the employee allocation was scheduled to vest about two months later. Those grant agreements were reportedly signed in mid-June 2025.
Co-founder Noah Tweedale said at the time that the company had scaled too quickly and could no longer operate “fast and rough.” Employees who left reportedly received severance equal to one week of pay for every month they had worked. One former employee is said to have missed out on PUMP worth seven figures at current prices.
The timing looks even more awkward because Pump.fun burned about $370 million (€322 million) worth of repurchased PUMP tokens in the same month. That removed roughly 36% of the circulating supply. Co-founder Alon Cohen defended the move at the time as part of the same broader approach of putting capital to work toward the intended result.
What the July Cliff Unlocked
On July 12, the insider cliff expired, exactly one year after PUMP was sold in the initial coin offering for $0,004 (€0,0035). According to Tokenomist, that release unlocked 82.5 billion tokens, including 50 billion for the team and 32.5 billion for existing investors.
At Friday's price, the team allocation alone was worth about $102 million (€88.8 million). That is a sharp contrast with the revenue Pump.fun is actually bringing in. DefiLlama estimated the platform's revenue at $19.1 million (€16.6 million) over the 30 days through July 22, including trading fees and so-called graduation and Mayhem fees.
Revenue was also moving higher. On July 22, DefiLlama showed $764,802 (€665,900) in daily revenue, up 22.6% from a month earlier. Since March 2024, the total has reached $1.07 billion (€0.9 billion).
Why This Matters
For European crypto watchers, the dispute is a reminder of how quickly token vesting, employee compensation, and treasury decisions can become sensitive issues at fast-growing crypto platforms. Pump.fun is a Solana-based launchpad that lets users create and trade tokens without technical knowledge, which makes the rules around rewards and unlocks even more visible.
The company is also dealing with legal pressure. In January 2025, a securities class action was filed in the Southern District of New York against co-founders Noah Tweedale and Alon Cohen. With layoff claims, token unlocks, and an active lawsuit all in play, transparency around the company has become especially important for market watchers.
Uncertainty Around the Numbers
So far, the market has barely moved on the news. PUMP traded around $0,0020 (€0,0017) on Friday, nearly 6% higher on the day, but still far below the September 2025 peak and below the ICO price.
Even so, a key part of the story is still unverified. Sandmark said it could not confirm a second round of layoffs, and the latest company filings at Companies House have not been submitted yet. Until those records are available, the April dispute remains mostly a matter of one claim against another.
