From Twitch to Pump.fun: The next evolution of live streaming

Author: Mohamed Allam, Messari; Translated by: Golden Finance

Pump.fun Live recently experienced its first breakthrough. A token called Bagwork reached a market capitalization of nearly $50 million in just two days. The Bagwork duo completely indulged in the depravity of livestreaming: streaking at football games, getting tattoos at peak market value, leaking Drake songs, and pulling off stunts most people would never touch. It's this chaos that sets Pump.fun apart. It's a platform that can do anything, with immense potential for creators. It's the perfect stage for a new generation of "degenerate youth" who thrive on this kind of content. The reality may be sad, but Pump.fun knows it—a team in their early twenties who understand what the next generation wants. The Bagwork team earned nearly $200,000 in creator commissions without selling any tokens. Pump.fun's model lets creators take a cut of every transaction, meaning they can profit without harming the community. This won't completely eliminate the phenomenon of "running away," but with such returns, incentives shift. From a game theory perspective, if streamers want to thrive in the long term, they have a stronger reason to continue attracting viewers and traders to use their tokens, thereby generating a stable income. The real challenge for Pump.fun is finding professional streamers, not opportunists chasing a quick buck. To put this in perspective: the Bagwork team earns in two days what a top Twitch streamer typically makes in a month. Pump.fun breaks this timeline by allowing creators to connect directly with their audience, eliminating the need for a middleman. Streamers create, viewers trade, and everyone gets paid. Live streaming itself is still in its infancy. It truly exploded over the past decade with the arrival of Fortnite and League of Legends streamers on Twitch. Pump.fun is attempting to shorten the entire growth curve, aiming to achieve in just a year or two what took Twitch a decade to build. The path forward is simple: attract the right streamers and keep users engaged. If they can provide the right incentives, Pump.fun has the potential to become the largest consumer application in the cryptocurrency space. Otherwise, it could fall as quickly as it rose.