The Battle for Memecoin Launchpads Begins: Can Pump.Fun Stay Ahead?

Author: Kimberly Liang (@kimberlyliang_), Research Analyst Intern; Translated by: Baishui, Golden Finance

Memecoins have become the craze of the summer. The speculative nature of the presidential election has spurred the creation of memecoins and led to significant market volatility. Minutes after President Joe Biden announced that he was abandoning his re-election bid, Kamala Harris-inspired memecoin $KAMA hit a record market cap of $24 million, nearly four times that of $BODEN, which initially experienced a nearly 50% drop but later recovered.

As interest in memecoins has grown, memecoin Launchpads have made it easier to create and trade these assets, driving broader participation and innovation. Among these platforms, Pump.fun has historically been at the forefront, attracting celebrities such as Caitlyn Jenner and Iggy Azalea to issue their own tokens and contributing to the development of other projects.

However, pump.fun’s first-mover advantage is now being tested as rival forks enter the market.

Other Messari analysts have previously noted that while pump.fun’s core product is useful, it is replicable.

Competitors such as Dexscreener’s Moonshot, Whales Market’s whales.meme, and Meme Royale now exacerbate that challenge.

Moonshot, in particular, stands out for its rapid adoption and user-friendly features, potentially attracting interest from more Web2 users.

The project has collected $14.6 million in fees since its launch last month and last week integrated Apple Pay for Solana blockchain transactions in its app.

It emphasizes simplicity, allowing registration with email and FaceID, bypassing complex seed phrases and enabling onboarding without a crypto wallet.

It offers a referral program that gives referrals 50% of transaction fees, strengthening network effects, and allows asset transfers using usernames instead of wallet addresses.

Since explosive growth in memecoins is often accompanied by measurable gains in larger assets, the launch of an Ethereum ETF could extend the crypto bull cycle and sustain interest in memecoins.

Can pump.fun maintain its dominance as the leading memecoin launch platform over time? The outcome will depend on each platform's ability to attract the most users, create the most interesting memecoins, and build strong communities to retain users.