Pump.Fun’s launch is directly tied to the altcoin market’s collapse against BTC.
There hasn’t been a real "alt season" for major coins because the speculative capital that would’ve flowed into top 200 assets instead rushed into low-cap on-chain plays. Early entrants and insiders made insane money (and still do), but most retail apes who jumped in late got wrecked—same as every cycle.
The difference this time? Instead of losing money in relatively liquid CEX alts like in 2022, they got trapped in illiquid on-chain memes that nuked -70-80% almost instantly. This led to a wealth destruction event worse than the early 2022 bear (LUNA aside), even while BTC and some majors kept trending up. No wonder sentiment is so grim.
Pump.Fun flipped the game—arguably for the worse—but also turned crypto into the biggest casino in the world. And like it or not, that’s a powerful onboarding tool.
I don’t blame Pump.Fun. It emerged as a direct response to aggressive crypto regulation, which made fair launches nearly impossible. The SEC essentially forced the industry to pivot toward retail-driven models instead of another 2021-style VC/insider pumpfest.
Since 2017, crypto hasn’t figured out a truly fair launch model (airdrops like $HYPE and $JUP come closest). Maybe that changes under Trump.