Pump.fun co-founder Alon Cohen said the Solana-based memecoin startup is reviewing its creator compensation system after concluding that the current model may have skewed incentives.
“Creator Fees Need to Change,” Cohen wrote in a Friday post on X, admitting that the Dynamic Fees V1 system, introduced a few months ago, succeeded in spurring activity but failed to produce sustainable market behavior.
According to Cohen, the mechanism encouraged low-risk token creation at the expense of high-risk trading, which he described as “dangerous” because traders are a key source of liquidity and volume on the platform.
Cohen said the initial rollout showed early promise. Within weeks, new creators began launching tokens and livestreaming, fueling what he described as some of the strongest onchain conditions in 2025. Pump.fun’s bonding curve volumes more than doubled during that period, according to charts shared with his announcement. However, the wave proved short-lived and exposed structural weaknesses.
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Creator fees fueled token minting instead of liquidity
While creator fees have helped serious token projects with active teams, Cohen said they have done little to change the behavior of the average memecoin setter. In many cases, fees have become the immediate incentive to mint tokens rather than building liquid markets.
“The platform so far fails to provide a good user experience here, often requiring users to CTO (Community Takeover) coins, trusting other people to deliver on their promises, etc.,” he wrote.
In a series of posts at X, Pump.fun has outlined the first phase of changes. The platform introduces fee sharing for creators, allowing creators and CTO admins to allocate specific fee percentages to up to 10 wallets upon launch. Teams will also be able to transfer ownership of coins and revoke update authorization.
Cohen said no one from the Pump.fun team would accept fees under any circumstances, describing the feature as “for backhoes.” Recipients can claim fees at any time and they are not lost if they are not claimed.
Related: Pump.fun Revenue Drops to 2025 Low as Memecoin Hype Fades
Pump.fun becomes the dominant Solana memecoin launch platform
Pump.fun has emerged as the leading launch platform for the Solana memecoin by combining near-frictionless token creation with a standardized path to liquidity.
The platform briefly lost ground in July when rival LetsBonk overtook it in volume and revenue, but momentum quickly returned. Pump.fun has strengthened its position through an aggressive PUMP token buyback and a renewed creator payout program under the Ascend project. By late summer, trackers again showed that Pump.fun controlled about 75% – 80% of Solana’s memecoin launches.
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