Pump.fun Betting Live Stream and Token: Creating a "Meme Coin Twitch" on Solana

Source: PortaldoBitcoin Original Title: Pump.fun bets on live streams and tokens to create the “Twitch of memecoins” on Solana Original Link:

The Live Streaming Ambitions of the Meme Coin Platform

Last year, the meme coin launch platform Pump.fun on Solana shut down its live streaming feature due to an influx of creators posting dangerous stunt videos. Now, Pump.fun views live stream creators as the platform’s future core and plans to compete head-to-head with other live streaming rivals. The company stated on social media: “Our plan is to beat Facebook, TikTok, and Twitch on Solana.”

This move is promoted as a “creator capital market” — viewers can fund their favorite creators by purchasing creator tokens and share future rights to the content. This contrasts sharply with traditional live streaming platforms, which mainly rely on viewer donations with little to no return mechanism.

When Pump.fun restructured its fee model in September to allocate more of the transaction fees directly to token creators, this vision accelerated. On a single day in September, Pump.fun distributed over $4 million in fees to creators. Some streamers earned tens of thousands of dollars in just a few days as their content went viral.

However, this initial momentum quickly faded. Creators and traders found that making money through increasingly crazy stunt performances was more effective. Pump.fun ultimately returned to its starting point, establishing a model that encourages creators to push boundaries. Now, the entire industry is reflecting on how to change this status quo.

Return of the Live Streaming Feature

On April 4, Pump.fun rolled out an updated live streaming feature to 5% of users, with new guidelines and enhanced moderation systems. It then gradually expanded this feature to more users to prevent a repeat of the chaos expected in 2024.

Two months later, crypto influencer Jake “SolJakey” Hillhouse launched Basedd House, a content creation group composed of emerging influencers living together in a house similar to a fraternity, releasing weekly episodes with each character associated with a memecoin. This was the starting point for now well-known creators like the quirky Iseem and rapper Whish. Pump.fun directly funded the entire project.

Other creators and viral moments also began to emerge in June.

Leland King Fawcette became the second person to visit all 50 U.S. states while live streaming on Pump.fun. A Ukrainian named Ricken said “Pump fun” a million times during a live stream. Someone even streamed his son’s birth and named him “Solana” — after the crypto network hosting memecoins.

Clearly, Pump.fun has found its audience, and the company then began investing in what it now sees as the platform’s future.

Investment in Pump.fun

Pump.fun started paying people to post clips of top creators on the platform — contrary to traditional live streaming platforms, which require creators to find, manage, and pay these “editors” themselves. Pump.fun co-founder Alon Cohen said this is a gamble on “stimulating social activity” and aims to promote greater adoption of crypto-native live streaming.

But the real explosion happened in September when Pump.fun restructured its fee model, increasing creators’ earnings tenfold. Some streamers created their own memecoins linked to each viral event (or at least they hoped so), no longer needing to sell their coin inventories to earn substantial income.

Pump.fun then doubled down on live streaming. It began sending streamers backpack toolkits to help improve content dissemination. The platform also hired an unknown number of recruiters to help Pump.fun sign traditional content creators.

One of these recruiters was Alec Strasmore, an assistant to former singer Post Malone. He said he approached creators from the traditional space with large audiences but difficulty monetizing, introducing them to Pump.fun and assisting with onboarding.

The exact terms of these contracts remain unknown. However, someone familiar with these agreements said they include commitments on streaming hours, token supply controls, usually short-term — weeks or months rather than years. This helps attract well-known influencers from outside the crypto space to the platform.

Chad Tepper, a former member of Jake Paul’s Team 10 with millions of followers, joined Pump.fun. Former professional League of Legends player Michael “BunnyFuFuu” Kurylo and others also entered the platform.

Typically, these tokens debut at high prices as creators’ fans buy into the hype. But most of the time, this doesn’t last — hype fades, and tokens begin to decline slowly.

These scenarios led streamers to earn large sums in the first few days of trading (BunnyFuFuu earned over $130,000 in fees in his first three days), but as trading volume plummeted, earnings declined as well. (BunnyFuFuu earned only $29,000 over the following three months). The short lifecycle not only hurt creators — traders and viewers also earned less over time.

As a result, many of these streamers and traditional creators stopped broadcasting on Pump.fun.

Hillhouse told the media: “Many people didn’t succeed. Maybe the best way is not to spend a lot of money on Web2 streamers.” He added: “But eventually, you’ll find some really important people who see the proof of concept,” citing boxer B Dave and TikTok influencer Minikon as positive examples. Both of their tokens are now down over 90% from their peak after launch.

Hillhouse suggested: “From now on, I think we shouldn’t do this anymore.” He implied any future protocols need to be “more long-term.”

Virality Matters

But Pump.fun’s biggest success this year came from talent cultivated within the platform: Hillhouse’s Basedd House, random degen attempts to break world records, and the Bagwork boys.

In September, two people named Chris and Mike created a token called Bagwork and started live streaming various stunts to “operate” the token. The first was relatively mild: storming a baseball game. Soon after, they went viral for being caught stealing a hat from fitness influencer Bradley Martyn and getting slapped. The Bagwork token surged 2000%, earning the duo $49,000 in fees — all from a single viral video.

A few days later, the duo leaked an unreleased song by rapper Drake, bringing international recognition to the Bagwork brand — and legal issues. This stunt earned the Bagwork boys $83,000 in just two days.

But the token faced the same issues as many memecoins before: when attention, hype, and controversy fade, the price drops. Bagwork is now down 96% from its all-time high of $53.8 million during the Drake leak, now valued at $1.9 million.

In an interview, Mike from Bagwork called that period “the best days of my life.” He thought he was about to become one of the “biggest and richest” streamers in the world. But as attention waned, he realized Pump.fun streamers “needed crazier content to pump their tokens” — an “absolute problem.”

Hillhouse agreed that the current model has issues. He suggested more community activation requiring tokens, such as voting on what creators do during live streams.

Pump.fun did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment on the company’s plans to address this contradiction.

This could be crucial for the development of the creator capital market next year. Will Pump.fun find ways to correct its reliance on sensational viral moments? Or will the creator capital market fade away like many previous memecoin trends?