Last week, we wrote about how Pump.fun has established itself as the breakout dApp of the cycle, revolutionizing token launches on Solana. Since then, it has now face serious competition from Letsbonk.fun, which has aggressively captured over 50% market share in daily token deployments and even exceeded Pump.fun's trading volume in recent weeks. While Letsbonk.fun's rapid rise raises questions about potential wash trading given its lower daily active user count compared to Pump.fun, the data shows it has successfully positioned itself as the first legitimate competitor to challenge Pump.fun's dominance in the token launchpad space.
a) Insensitive Ethereum
• This analysis explains why Ethereum (ETH) is experiencing explosive price growth due to a unique combination of supply becoming more "inelastic" (less available for sale) as more ETH gets staked for yield, while simultaneously facing massive new demand from Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs) purchasing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ETH.
• The author argues this creates an unprecedented market dynamic where supply is constrained just as demand surges, leading to what he calls "a move for the history books" that differs from traditional economic models that assume crypto assets have truly fixed, inelastic supplies.
There's a reason why ETH's price move will be one for the record books, and it's not for the reason you think.
b) Stablecoins
• Money’s centuries‑long march toward ever‑faster, cheaper and borderless settlement now points to stablecoins: programmable, dollar‑pegged tokens that combine instant global transfer, transparent reserves (often in short‑term U.S. Treasuries) and native interoperability with both crypto and traditional finance.
• Fueled by use cases ranging from store‑of‑value and remittances to corporate payments and “shadow” support for U.S. debt, the stablecoin market is projected to surge from roughly $250 billion today to about $4.9 trillion within the next decade, reinforcing dollar dominance in the process.
Economic, Technological and Geopolitical Superconductors
a) Pendle
• Pendle, originally a yield tokenization protocol, is rapidly expanding into a foundational DeFi layer with over $2.7B in Principal Tokens (PTs) now accepted as collateral across major money markets like Aave and Morpho, while also developing cross-chain capabilities and a permissioned layer for traditional finance institutions.
• The protocol is further diversifying by enabling Pendle LP tokens as collateral (already reaching ~$57M in one week), which attracts a broader user base seeking leveraged yield opportunities with lower risk than Yield Tokens, while also improving liquidity depth and swap efficiency across the platform.
b) Sonic
• Spark by Sonic is an AI-powered no-code platform that allows anyone to build and deploy full-stack Web3 applications using only natural language descriptions, with features including smart contract generation, frontend creation, built-in security scoring, and real-time debugging powered by Google's Gemini LLM.
• The platform aims to democratize Web3 development by removing technical barriers and expanding the developer pool, positioning Sonic as both the fastest L1 blockchain and the most accessible for rapid on-chain experimentation and innovation.
Spark by Sonic lets anyone build full-stack Web3 apps with AI. No code, just ideas. Smart contracts, frontends, deployments, instantly.
The Breakout Decentralised Application (dApp) Of The Cycle: Pump.fun
It is without a doubt that Pump.fun holds the title of the breakout dApp of the cycle. A dApp so innovative that it flipped the token launchpad vertical on its head, revolutionising token fair launches and taking the market by storm. In our first installment, we gave readers and overview of the token launchpad landscape (on Solana), going over the key features of Pump.fun and its competitors.
Pump.fun has recently completed its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and Token Generation Event (TGE). The demand for $PUMP clearly shows that the market values Pump.fun as an emerging blue-chip product, one that is innovative and generates loads of revenue to boot. The Breakout Decentralised Application (dApp) of The Cycle: Pump.fun.
The Rise Of Letsbonk.fun, Pump.fun’s First “Serious” Competitor
Not to say that the other competing launchpads are not real competitors, but rather, Letsbonk.fun has been showing some very impressive results recently, and is the most competitive alternative launchpad we have seen to date.
The token launchpad vertical is especially cutthroat due to the nature of the launchpads having very similar features and competitive fee structures. This causes token launchpads to have a “lack of moat” in some sense, which also leads to a cold start problem for many of them, and thus being unable to establish a userbase.
That being said, the Bonk team has done an excellent job in building up interest and a sticky userbase for Letsbonk.fun over the past few months. A few months post launch, Letsbonk.fun seems to have picked up traction and built a strong community. A part of their success can be attributed to the Bonk team and community who have been continuously shilling the platform since inception.
Some proponents have been speculating that Letsbonk.fun’s run up in the recent weeks has been engineered and bound to be short-lived. Though we cannot predict the future, let’s dive into the numbers and figure out if this is a likely outcome.
The number of daily token deployments is one of the primary metrics for a token launchpad. It can be observed that Letsbonk.fun’s market share of token deployments has seen a sharp increase over the past two weeks, sitting at over more than 50% on several days with no signs of a meaningful decline at the moment. This is an important metric to continue monitoring to gauge the demand for the different launchpads.
Similar to the number of token deployments, the number of tokens that graduated also similarly gauge demand for the launchpads. Letsbonk.fun’s market share of daily tokens graduated has also seen a sharp spike in the recent two weeks.
Another metric that provides confluence for a launchpad’s demand is the trading volume. Since the start of April, the total trading volume across all launchpads remain generally similar, with slight deviations.
However, the market share of these volumes contributed by each launchpad varied greatly especially in the last two weeks. Letsbonk.fun has even exceeded Pump.fun’s trading volume in the previous week at the time of writing.
One metric where Pump.fun still commands a majority share at the moment is the amount of daily active addresses. This might raise suspicions regarding the source of Letsbonk.fun’s higher trading volume and activity despite having lesser active users; A possible presence of wash trading on Letsbonk.fun.
Concluding Thoughts
One might then ask, are all these numbers just a complete fugazi? We might never know. However, one thing’s for certain. The numbers don’t lie. Letsbonk.fun has been aggressively taking market share from Pump.fun. If they continue to do so, this will increase their legitimacy over time and cement them as a “serious” competitor to Pumpfun, something we have yet to see.
The information provided on this newsletter is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute professional nor investment advice.
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