Decrypt’s Morning Minute, a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner, said August 18 that Pump.fun’s PUMP token is showing signs of a turnaround after what it described as a difficult 10-month stretch following an $8 billion peak in September 2025.
The token’s 50-day exponential moving average is crossing above its 200-day EMA for the first time since PUMP launched in mid-2025, a setup traders refer to as a golden cross. PUMP bottomed at $0.001491 in July, traded up to $0.003 intraday on Monday, and later settled near $0.002733.
Pump.fun revenue reaches its highest level since February
The newsletter linked the move to stronger fundamentals. Citing DefiLlama, it said Pump.fun produced $11.52 million in revenue over the last seven days, ranking fourth among all crypto protocols behind only Tether, Circle, and Canton. It was also listed ahead of Polymarket, GMGN, Tron, and Axiom Pro.
The report said Pump.fun’s weekly revenue was about twice that of Hyperliquid, which trades at a $59 billion fully diluted valuation, more than 20 times PUMP’s. Annualized revenue now stands at $458 million against a $1.09 billion market cap, according to the newsletter. It added that this is the project’s strongest revenue level since February.
Revenue is especially important for Pump because of its buyback structure. The article said half of every dollar of revenue is locked by smart contract for buybacks and burns. That mechanism directed $5.33 million into PUMP purchases last week alone and has offset 15.9% of total supply.
Pump’s own figures for August 10 through August 16 put platform fees at $10.74 million, up 7% week over week and marking its best week since late January. Tuesday’s $1.73 million was described as the biggest single revenue day since January 30. In total, the team has bought back and burned $429 million of PUMP, equal to 28.58% of circulating supply.
Product updates and user growth
The article said the team has also been active on the product side. Pump launched Callout Rewards on August 13, paying users each day based on the trading volume generated by their token callouts.
Then on the following day referenced in the newsletter, Pump cut app trading fees to 0% on Solana and 0.1% for cross-chain trades. Warner wrote that the platform is using its revenue advantage to underprice Axiom, GMGN, and Fomo while also paying users to bring in order flow.
The report said the strategy is producing visible traction. Weekly app traders rose 23%, and daily active traders hit a new all-time high last Thursday.
Warner’s view on memecoin demand
The newsletter said it had been unclear through the bear market whether memecoins would remain as popular in the next cycle. After the trading frenzy seen over the past month on Robinhood Chain and elsewhere, Warner argued that the question now looks less open. The piece said memecoins have become part of crypto at this point, and that Pump is well positioned to compete if a bull market returns.
Macro, crypto, and regulatory roundup
Major cryptocurrencies were slightly green, with Bitcoin leading. BTC was up 1% at $64.2k, ETH was flat at $1,900, SOL rose 1% to $76, and HYPE was unchanged at $59.50.
Among notable altcoin movers, VVV gained 19%, while POL and SKY each added 4%. In commodities, oil rose 3% to $84.9 and gold slipped 0.1% to $4,450.
Stock futures were lower after bond yields reached multi-decade highs. The newsletter listed the Dow as flat and the Nasdaq down 1%.
Ethereum Foundation researchers pushed privacy to the front of the 2027 Hegotá upgrade, prioritizing Frame Transactions and FOCIL so privacy pools can pay their own fees without intermediaries.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission halted its crypto fundraising framework after Wall Street trade group SIFMA raised the possibility of legal action and the White House asked the agency to stand down, according to the roundup.
The U.S. Treasury proposed GENIUS Act rules requiring stablecoin issuers to hold a federal or state license by January 18, 2027. The proposal would also bar platforms from selling unapproved stablecoins to U.S. customers by July 18, 2028.
Kraken parent Payward joined Anthropic’s Project Glasswing, becoming the first crypto company with access to Claude Mythos 5 to scan its systems for vulnerabilities.
Monad Foundation closed a $60 million buyback program that offered to purchase locked MON from early investors at a discount. The foundation said nearly all holders approached declined to take part.
South Korea’s media regulator ordered internet service providers to block Polymarket, saying its winner-take-all markets in politics, sports, and weather amount to illegal gambling under the Criminal Act.
The Compound Foundation launched a $52 million development program, which the article described as the largest in its history, alongside a new leadership team focused on bringing institutional credit on-chain.
Corporate treasuries and ETF flows
Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $137 million in net inflows on Monday, while spot ETH ETFs brought in $5 million.
Strategy paused its Bitcoin selling after three straight weeks. The company raised $333.7 million through MSTR share sales to buy STRC, at $132 million, and to lift cash reserves to $4.8 billion.
Tom Lee’s Bitmine added another $19 million in ETH, increasing holdings to 5.82 million tokens, or 4.8% of circulating supply.
Jane Street disclosed more than $1 billion in Bitcoin ETF holdings as of June 30.
Memecoin tracker
Large memecoins were mostly flat. DOGE fell 1%, SHIB was unchanged, PEPE slipped 1%, PENGU added 1%, TRUMP was flat, and BONK lost 2%.
Robinhood Chain saw more sharp pullbacks. Stonkbroker fell 30% and PONS dropped 15%, while Motion rose 40% and Bull gained 20%.
On Solana, top performers included EYE, described as reaching 150x to $5 million, Z500 at 30x, and Qenis at 65%. Ansem briefly wicked to $320 million before retracing to $265 million.
Token, airdrop, and protocol tracker
Robinhood rolled out agentic trading for crypto to select users.
Ansem launched ansem.io and its z500 index. The newsletter said teams can airdrop token supply to $ANSEM holders and buy and burn $ANSEM to move up a public leaderboard. It described the product as being built on top of Pump.fun as a curation layer rather than a rival launchpad.
Neynar is seeking a new team to take over operations for Farcaster and its launchpad Clanker, less than seven months after the acquisition mentioned in the report.
NFTs
NFT leaders were mixed. CryptoPunks were flat at 31.7 ETH, BAYC fell 1% to 8 ETH, Pudgy rose 1% to 3.82 ETH, and Stonkbrokers dropped 25% to 7.45 ETH.
Bulls Runner, up 200%, and Identity MD, up 150%, led the top movers.
Robinhood NFT leaders also saw a major pullback, with Stonkbrokers down 25%, Mancers off 40%, and Quotrons lower by 28%.