Cointelegraph: SecondLane shops Pump.fun equity stake at $1.5B FDV

SecondLane has listed an equity interest in memecoin protocol Pump.fun at a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $1.5 billion, according to its platform.

The private markets trading platform listed the 1% equity stake in Pump.fun for $15 million on SecondLane’s web app and on a Telegram channel where SecondLane announces new offerings.

The popular Solana SOL $220.09 memecoin platform has not yet launched a native token. It has previously taken equity investments from Alliance DAO, Big Brain Holdings, and 6th Man Ventures, according to data from Pitchbook.

In October, the team behind Pump.fun tipped plans for a future token release and a newly upgraded trading terminal, dubbed “Pump Advance.” No specific timeline for the future token launch was given by the Pump team.

According to DefiLlama, Pump.fun was the eighth highest-earning blockchain protocol, ranking just below giants such as Circle, USD Coin’s USDC $0.9998 issuer, and Uniswap, the decentralized exchange (DEX). In the past 30 days, Pump.fun generated $86 million in fee revenue.

Pump.fun’s performance comes from a memecoin trading frenzy that has largely taken place on Pump.fun’s native Solana, a layer-1 blockchain. Its cumulative fee revenues exceed $225 million, according to DefiLlama.

Fuelled by venture capital funding and political speculation, memecoins now command upward of $122 billion in market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.

Pump.fun promises to let users “launch a coin that is instantly tradeable for under $2 in one click,” and its “For You algorithm uses your past actions on pump dot fun to curate a feed that changes in real-time,” according to the platform’s X account.

Data from Dune Analytics revealed roughly 98% of prospective memecoins on the Pump.fun platform never successfully launch.

Memecoins have drawn mixed reactions from the crypto community. Some influencers, like Murad Mahmudov, argue that memecoins provide a legitimate use case for crypto by removing the speculation premium from altcoins.

Others, such as Jimmy Song, believe that memecoins are a net negative for investors and represent the height of speculative gambling.

Source: Cointelegraph