Gate.io has unexpectedly ended the highly anticipated presale event for Solana-based meme coin launchpad Pump.fun’s “PUMP” token before it was set to start. The Chinese crypto exchange quietly deleted the webpage showing details of the public sale and pulled all references to it without providing any clarification.
Early on Tuesday, X user “cryptolyxe” discovered a leaked page from the Gate.io website titled “Public Sale of PUMP.FUN Official Token”, referring to a public sale event for PUMP scheduled to start on July 12.
Gate.io Pulls the Plug on PUMP Token Presale Planned to Raise $600 Million From the IEO
The exchange planned to offer 150 billion of the 1 trillion total PUMP token supply via the presale at a rate of $0.004 per token. Pump.fun was planning to raise an estimated $600 million from the initial exchange offering (IEO), which would have brought the company’s total valuation to $4 billion.
The event set to mark the first official public token sale for PUMP has since been discontinued, with Gate.io deleting both the Chinese and English versions of the webpage. When a user enquired about the takedown, the exchange’s support team responded with a rather confusing email.
“Following negotiations between Gate and the project, Gate has removed Pump.fun Pre-Market OTC. At this time, there is no confirmed date or announcement for its reopening,” the message said.
The message refers to an announcement from October 2024, stating that the exchange would not support over-the-counter trading for Pump.fun tokens.
Earlier in June, rumors began circulating that Pump.fun was planning to launch its native token and raise $1 billion through a public sale event, targeting both public and private investors, that would raise the company’s valuation to $4 billion. One community member posted on X that the supposed PUMP token could be launched in the following weeks, with listings planned on multiple centralized exchanges and a 10% airdrop allocation for community members.
Speculation about the launch intensified after crypto exchange Bybit renamed a previously listed token. This token, originally called “PUMP”, is the native asset of the Bitcoin liquid staking protocol PumpBTC. Bybit changed the ticker symbol to “PUMPBTC”, leaving PUMP open. This led to many within the crypto community confirming that a token launch for the popular Solana meme coin launchpad was only a matter of when and not if.
Pump.Fun Suffers Revenue Decline as Investor Appetite for Meme Coins Fades
It also came amid a steep decline in monthly revenues for the meme coin aggregator. In May, the platform generated $46.6 million in revenue, down 66% from January’s $137 million. As of June, Pump.fun had earned a cumulative revenue of nearly $700 million. This drop can also be attributed to a slowdown in the meme coin space, where traders are questioning the long-term viability of the assets, as most tokens have experienced sharp declines over the past 12 months.
According to data from CoinMarketCap, the overall market capitalization for meme-based cryptocurrencies currently stands at $54.76 billion, down more than 60% from the peak valuation of $137 billion in December 2024.
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Skepticism Surrounding Both Platforms Could be the Reason for Cancelling the $PUMP Public Sale
News about the PUMP token public sale on Gate.io was bullish for both parties, with the long-running crypto exchange providing a larger platform for Pump.fun to establish credibility among potential investors while drawing meme coin enthusiasts to Gate.
However, certain extenuating circumstances led to skepticism about the deal. Gate.io has been criticized for listing tokens linked with scam projects, and last month, the exchange had to delist 33 tokens citing quality issues. On the other hand, Pump.fun, which was once widely popular among meme coin traders, has been surpassed by LetsBonk as the largest token launchpad in the crypto market. There were also concerns surrounding increased bot activity on the platform, where nearly 90% of users are speculated to be AI trading bots, and 60% of traders are losing money. Both platforms are currently facing a horde of issues that have tainted their image.
Meanwhile, some in the crypto community were skeptical of the potential partnership. The PUMP presale was set to take place simultaneously on Pump.fun and Gate.io, with the parties providing no clear reason for hosting the public sale on both platforms, creating further doubts.
At the time of writing, neither Gate.io nor Pump.fun has provided any explanation for canceling the token sale event. It’s impossible to point out what’s going on until either of the companies clarifies their position.
