In an unexpected twist, Pump.fun's would-be competitor, Pump Pumpkin, threatened the meme coin launchpad with a lawsuit—only to rug its own token days later.
The project, founded by Yonatan Badash in December 2024, launched a token on Pump.fun, then deliberately crashed its own market, with Badash claiming an $800,000 profit.
Pump Pumpkin's debut was marked by controversy, including an announcement featuring a deepfake of Morgan Freeman.
Also, a prior stunt where Badash faked stealing the dog of the so-called "Quant Kid," a child who went viral for rug-pulling a token on livestream.
Earlier this year, Pump Pumpkin sent a legal notice to Pump.fun, alleging hidden fees and threatening a lawsuit seeking over $1 billion in damages.
Badash claimed the company was assembling an in-house legal team but admitted uncertainty about where the case could be filed, as Pump Pumpkin is based in Israel and Pump.fun in the UK.
Despite the legal threats, Badash expressed hope for an out-of-court settlement.
Despite the controversy, Badash leveraged the viral lawsuit threat to promote his rival platform and its two Solana-based tokens, PPA and PP.
The plan was to launch PPA on Pump.fun, which would later be swapped for PP, the project's governance token.
However, the launch quickly unravelled.
Pump Pumpkin heavily hyped PPA’s debut, building anticipation with a countdown and an X livestream.
But just 11 minutes after going live, the deployer wallet sold $3,200 worth of PPA, triggering a 92% price crash in six seconds.
14 minutes later, another $3,840 sell-off sent prices tumbling an additional 76%.
Despite these setbacks, PPA rebounded by more than 700% shortly after.
The founder says, smiling to the livestream that has nearly 85,000 views:
“This is my team getting cooked from whatever the fuck is happening right now.”
During the livestream, cheers erupted from a nearby room as Badash explained that the team was struggling to accumulate enough tokens—too many buyers were driving up the price.
During the livestream, Badash shared his screen as he struggled to manage a flood of hostile messages directed at the project.
He attempted to censor the chat by blocking words like "fuck," "Jew," and the Palestine flag—reportedly in response to accusations that he had joined a Telegram group called “Fuck Arabs.”
Meanwhile, investors alleged that project insiders had bought PPA early and sold at its peak.
Wallet activity supported these claims, with one wallet (93Fy) turning 1.75 SOL ($309) into $23,100 by dumping the token.
As tensions escalated in the Telegram group, Badash provoked investors further.
When one user claimed to have lost everything, he mocked them as a "poor cock" and threatened to dump his supposed 30% token supply unless the price recovered.
In retaliation, the investor threatened to kill him.
Badash said in the project's Telegram group:
“I am about to rug the chart made too much money to do it again to you guys. Just made $800k. Suck it [racial slur.]”
Undeterred, Badash continued gloating as PPA''s market cap plummeted 93%—from $2.1 million at its peak to just $140,000 within 10 hours.
At the time of writing, PPA''s market cap has dwindled to $5,200.
Pump Pumpkin later announced a one-to-one PPA-to-PP token swap that would burn PPA in the process.
However, in the Telegram chat, Badash falsely claimed PP had no contract address—an impossibility in crypto.
Investors who burned their PPA tokens never received PP in return, further fuelling accusations of fraud.
Now, Pump Pumpkin’s Telegram is filled with enraged investors, many convinced that the project is beyond redemption.
The backlash even inspired the creation of a meme coin demanding Badash be jailed—an outcome he found amusing.
Mohammad Muavia, COO of crypto gaming project Convival, lamented:
"I lost about $11,000 in this token. I really thought it was a legit project. There is no way they can rebuild its reputation and successfully launch its product now."
But was this a calculated move or a reckless act of self-sabotage?
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