Behind Solana's strong support for Time.fun lies not only a robust response to Pump.fun's siphoning of liquidity but also a new growth exploration for the Solana ecosystem after the devastating impact of celebrity token issuance chaos.
On February 24th, the time tokenization platform Time.fun officially launched on Solana, and the Solana team swiftly offered their vigorous support, with Solana co-founder Toly frequently mentioning it on Twitter, providing ample market exposure. This move was not only a forceful response to Pump.fun's drainage of liquidity but also a new growth trajectory for the Solana ecosystem following the severe blow from the celebrity token issuance chaos.
Pump.fun's Intent to "Flip the Table," Escalating Crisis in the Solana Ecosystem
After the Libra and other celebrity coin scandals, Solana's liquidity was rapidly depleted, and market sentiment remained low. As the traffic engine of the Solana ecosystem in this cycle and the "printing press" on-chain, the protocol is now struggling to sustain liquidity. Factors such as the self-built AMM, token issuance rumors, continuous token dumping, and regulatory litigation uncertainties have also incurred the dissatisfaction of the Solana team.
In January of this year, Pump.fun faced a lawsuit amidst its growing business. Bloomberg Law reported at the time that Pump.fun was facing a class-action lawsuit, accused of violating U.S. securities laws by marketing and issuing unregistered, highly volatile Meme coins, exposing investors to significant financial risks and earning nearly $500 million in fees. The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York Federal Court, with the plaintiff describing it as a new evolution of a Ponzi scheme and pump and dump.
Furthermore, the cooling of the MEME market, with Pump.fun taking the brunt of the impact, has led to a significant drop in graduation rates and trading volumes, which in turn has affected the overall activity of the Solana ecosystem.
Betrayed by Pump.fun, Solana Officially Backs Time.fun to Explore New Directions for Ecosystem Growth
According to The Block data, as of February 24th, the graduation rate of Pump.fun tokens transferred to Raydium was only 0.96%, a 54.7% decrease from the historical peak of 2.12%. Meanwhile, Pump.fun's on-chain transactions have also cooled down, with average daily trading volume plummeting from a peak of $3.13 billion in January to $190 million as of February 24th, a staggering 93.9% decline. In terms of protocol fee income, DefiLlama data shows that as of February 25th, Pump.fun's protocol fee income was $2.45 million, an 84.1% decrease from the historical peak (January 25th at $15.38 million).
Betrayed by Pump.fun, Solana Officially Backs Time.fun to Explore New Directions for Ecosystem Growth
The significant decline in business has forced Pump.fun to explore more products. However, some of these moves are undoubtedly heavy blows to the already struggling Solana ecosystem. Earlier this month, crypto KOL Hebi (@hebi555) disclosed on X that Pump.fun plans to conduct a public offering on multiple CEXs (centralized exchanges) using the Dutch auction model. Although Pump.fun co-founder Alon denied this rumor and claimed that the news of the potential token was unfounded, this response was questioned by many industry insiders. For example, Wu Blockchain publicly accused Alon of lying, with multiple CEX-listed companies confirming Pump.fun's token issuance plan and stating that they could disclose the prepared documents after obtaining permission. If Pump.fun ultimately issues a token, it will undoubtedly have a huge impact on the Solana market, especially in a liquidity-tight situation, which could lead to an even greater degree of capital withdrawal.
Moreover, Pump.fun has earned a considerable income through transaction fees, even making it into the top 10 global gambling companies in 2024 with an annual income of $1 billion. According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Pump.fun has accumulated about 2.99 million SOL, currently valued at approximately $431 million, and its continuous cash-out behavior has also put significant selling pressure on the SOL token.
More concerningly, Pump.fun recently seems to be planning to "flip the table." On February 24th, market rumors emerged that Pump.fun is internally testing its own AMM (Automated Market Maker) liquidity pool, with the community speculating that it may launch its own Swap platform to replace third-party provider Raydium, in order to extract more transaction fees. This move has been widely viewed by the community as overly greedy. If this news is true, it would undoubtedly deal a heavy blow to DEXes on Solana, as Raydium and Jupiter, among others, have absorbed a significant amount of liquidity from Pump.fun and serve as the liquidity hubs of the Solana ecosystem. Adding to the woes, Raydium and Jupiter have also been implicated in the Libra insider token issuance scandal recently.
Following the news of Pump.fun's AMM, the price of Raydium's token RAY has plummeted by 40.9%, according to CoinGecko data, although the overall market downturn has also had an impact.
In response to the possibility of Pump.fun completely abandoning Raydium, Raydium core contributor InfraRAY called it a "strategic misjudgment" and questioned whether Pump.fun can replicate existing success. He also pointed out that if Pump.fun shifts to a new AMM, it may face multiple risks such as insufficient infrastructure, low demand for migrating tokens, and insufficient trading volume in the early stages of launch. It is worth noting that the Solana Foundation invested in Raydium and Jupiter in October 2020 and March 2021, respectively, and Pump.fun's "going solo" move undoubtedly touches the interests of the Solana Foundation, bringing even more uncertainty to the Solana ecosystem.
"Those bastards who disrupt the market to extract the maximum benefits can go screw themselves. But companies that build quality products, charge transparent fees, and compete for users are great. Their revenue should be the motivation for you to compete and take their market share," tweeted Toly, which the community interpreted as a criticism of Pump.fun.
With the MEME Core Strengthened, Time.fun Receives Official Support from Solana
As one of the important drivers for Solana's comeback, MEME has become a new product of the same kind that Solana officially began to support after being backstabbed by Pump.fun.
As a product also originating from AllianceDAO, Time.fun is a time tokenization platform similar to the previously popular Friend.tech, allowing creators to tokenize their time and sell it as tradeable tokens. Initially, the product was based on the Base network but announced its migration to Solana in November 2024. At the time, Time.fun co-founder 0xKawz said, "Over the past year and more, Solana has achieved significant leadership in many areas. In contrast, the Ethereum ecosystem feels tired, often too focused on technology and arrogant. The atmosphere at Ethereum is like a group of philosophers looking down from above. If Ethereum doesn't solve its cultural problems, as more developers like Time.fun choose to migrate, Solana will gradually dominate."
On February 24th, after Time.fun officially migrated to the Solana network, it publicly promoted the MEME token "toly's minutes" on X. This tweet also received a response from Toly himself, who expressed that time is fun and that business communication is his favorite crypto use case. This comment briefly boosted the market value of the toly token. Toly also posted more than a dozen tweets about Time.fun, showing his clear support. In addition to Toly, Solana co-founder Raj Gokal, Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz, and others also participated in the promotion of Time.fun.
For Solana, Time.fun, with a similar MEME core to Pump.fun, may continue this trend. Time.fun has also adopted a verified celebrity token issuance model, which to some extent reduces the RUG risk common in previous celebrity MEME coin chaos.
According to The Block report, Time.fun founder Kawz said that the platform will consider issuing its own token in the future. If other platforms are built on the tokenization of time, then a platform-based token could connect them all. However, Kawz also admitted that it is premature to discuss the issuance of a Time.fun token at this stage, as the platform must first find a market fit for the product. The key goal of the platform is to make tokenized time composable so that it can be used on other platforms built on Time.fun. He pointed out that the true long-term goal of Time.fun is to create a new asset class that allows people to own, trade, and use each other's time for various products and services.
Ecosystem Faces a Slide, but Key Indicators Remain Strong
Recently, the Solana ecosystem has faced several challenges, with market FUD voices growing louder.
On one hand, the cooling of MEME on Solana has led to a halving of market value. According to CoinGecko data, as of February 26th, the market value of MEME on Solana was $8.64 billion, down from nearly $15 billion at its peak in January.
On the other hand, the impending unlocking of a large number of SOL tokens is also putting pressure on liquidity. On March 1st, 112 million SOL will be unlocked and enter circulation, marking the largest token unlock in history (valued at $2 billion). Crypto analyst Artchick.eth notes that over the next three months, more than 150 million SOL (about $2.5 billion
