Apple removed Pump Fun’s iPhone app from the App Store in several countries on Thursday evening. After the memecoin trading platform disappeared from the US and Indian App Stores, the move quickly started trending on social media.
In its final social media post before the removal, Pump Fun wrote: 「only three things in life are certain: 1. death 2. taxes 3. memecoin supercycle that retires everyone reading this」.
The timing drew attention because Apple’s action came one day after Pump Fun introduced Custom Pairs, a feature that allows anyone to launch a memecoin quoted against tokenized stocks. Whether those kinds of asset pairs are lawful has been disputed for some time, especially since Robinhood tokenized AMC stock against the wishes of the company’s CEO.
Pump Fun had been advertising 93 asset pairs, including digital assets described as linked to publicly traded US companies such as Boeing, Costco, and Trump Media.
Its former App Store page now shows the message: 「This app is currently not available in your country or region.」
The Solana app, which lets users create and trade memecoins, has generated more than $1 billion in revenue.
Pump Fun says the app is temporarily unavailable in the US and India
The only public explanation from the company came from a worker on its mobile app team, who posted: 「The Pump Fun Mobile App is temporarily unavailable to download from the US & India iOS App Stores. For everyone that already has the app installed, everything is operating as usual, and your funds are safe.」
That statement leaves open how long the removal will last. Apple had not commented at the time of writing, and there was no confirmation that the delisting was temporary rather than permanent.
For now, Pump Fun can only direct users in the US and India to its website or to Google Play, where the Android app remains available and has recorded more than 500,000 downloads.
Its Canadian App Store listing was still live, with Maius Imperium Limited of Limerick, Ireland listed as the publisher.
Tokenized stock tools remain part of the platform
Backpack Securities and Backed Finance’s xStocks help create the so-called stock tokens offered on Pump Fun. Asset pairs on the platform can be quoted in stocks, gold, or even wrapped BTC.
Apple georestricted the app one day after Pump Fun began quoting those tokenized equities.
Apple has taken similar steps against crypto-related apps before. In 2023, Wallet of Satoshi removed itself from US app stores. That same year, Apple threatened to remove Damus over crypto tipping. The following year, Apple removed at least nine crypto exchange apps, including Binance and Kraken, from the App Store in India over anti-money-laundering failures.
Earlier regulatory and legal issues are still in focus
In December 2024, the UK Financial Conduct Authority warned that Pump Fun was operating without authorization. Within a week, Pump Fun blocked UK users and has kept them blocked since then.
Ten days ago, a federal judge in New York allowed RICO claims against Pump Fun parent Baton Corporation and founders Alon Cohen, Dylan Kerler, and Noah Tweedale to proceed, while dismissing securities-related claims against the company.
Plaintiffs in that case estimate retail losses at as much as $5.5 billion. No court has adjudicated the evidence in the lawsuit, and those claims remain unproven allegations.
As of publication, it was unknown whether any of those legal issues played a role in Apple’s decision to georestrict the app.
PUMP falls about 12% over 24 hours
PUMP, the platform’s native token, fell about 12% over the 24 hours through Thursday evening.
The token was trading below the $0.004 debut price set in last year’s initial coin offering, a sale that raised about $1.3 billion across public and private rounds.
PUMP was also 58% below its all-time high.
