Pump.fun (PUMP) Fell 25% in Two Weeks, Nearly 3 Times Solana’s Drop. Is Solana’s Memecoin Machine Slowing Down?

Pump.fun (CRYPTO: PUMP), Solana’s largest memecoin launchpad, has seen its PUMP token fall 23.4% over the last two weeks. In contrast, Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) fell 8.5% over the same period. PUMP traded at $0.0042, indicating a steeper decline than its underlying blockchain.

This drop has reversed an early-October rally, leaving the token down 5.5% over the past month. Although PUMP rose during late September and early October, selling pressure has since taken over, and the token now trades 52% below its all-time high.

Pump.fun’s Buyback Shrinks When Memecoin Trading Cools

Pump.fun lets users quickly create their own memecoins, and the platform collects fees each time they trade. This fee revenue peaked in early October but has since cooled, significantly impacting PUMP’s price.

A buyback mechanism primarily supports PUMP’s price. Pump.fun allocates a portion of the fees collected to purchase PUMP on the open market and then burns those tokens, effectively removing them from circulation. This process reduces the total supply of tokens, which can support the remaining tokens in the market. When memecoin trading activity is high, buybacks grow; when trading slows, they shrink.

Activity surrounding Pump.fun was robust just before the price drop. A Pump.fun newsletter indicated that the week ending October 4 was its largest revenue week since September 2025. However, daily buybacks have decreased since then. The company also said its fee-tracking dashboard has reported inaccuracies since it introduced custom trading pairs, making it hard to assess the drop’s exact impact.

Solana Slipped Below $100, and PUMP Fell Much Harder

The broader cryptocurrency market decline also contributed to PUMP’s drop. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) traded at $79,401 on October 26, down 2% for the week and 5% for the month. Meanwhile, Solana fell 3.4% for the week and 16.4% for the month, a steeper decline than Bitcoin.

After peaking at $113 on October 12, SOL briefly fell below $100, dipping to about $98.50 on October 24. Although it closed at $102, the decline continued, with four consecutive lower closes after a previous close of $107 on October 21.

PUMP’s price amplifies SOL’s moves because its value is closely tied to revenue from a single app, while SOL’s value spans a wider range of functions across the network, including payments and lending. As SOL prices drop, traders tend to retreat from memecoin investments, which in turn reduces Pump.fun revenue and limits the buyback program.

Is Solana’s Pump.fun Memecoin Machine Slowing Down?

While PUMP is down 5.5% over the last month, compared with SOL’s larger 16.4% decline, recent drops have erased previous gains. After its best revenue week since September 2025, the current downturn appears to be a correction rather than a complete collapse. However, a quick recovery seems unlikely unless memecoin trading spikes back to early-October levels, and Solana has shown signs of reduced trader enthusiasm.

The upcoming report on Pump.fun’s fees will be crucial. If the report shows higher protocol fees than those seen the week ending October 4, the slowdown narrative could shift, potentially strengthening the buyback. However, if SOL closes below its recent low of $98.50, PUMP could drop more sharply, as weaker SOL typically reduces the trading activity needed to fund the buyback program.

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