Pump.fun Raises $600 Million for Meme Coin Platform in 12 Minutes

Meme coin platform Pump.fun reportedly raised $600 million in 12 minutes Saturday (July 12).

That’s according to a report from Bloomberg News, which noted that this so-called “initial coin offering” is among the largest ever, showcasing the growing popularity of meme coins, a type of cryptocurrency token associated with memes or celebrities.

Pump.fun announced last week it planned to sell 150 billion of its tokens at $0.004 each after selling 180 billion tokens at the same price to private investors.

Pump.fun Co-Founder Alon Cohen told Bloomberg the public sale had raised $600 million, bringing the total sale to $1.32 billion. The company added that investors in the U.S. and U.K. investors weren’t eligible to purchase the tokens.

Although some crypto investors had expressed worries at first that the sale might detract from the larger meme coin market, “people run very hot and cold in our space,” said Zaheer Ebtikar, founder of crypto fund Split Capital.

“You go from max fear to max FOMO very quickly,” Ebtikar said, adding that he saw that shift in people who took part in the sale.

As PYMNTS wrote earlier this year after President Donald Trump unveiled his own meme coin, the sector surrounding these tokens is a divisive one, fueling criticism that the crypto industry is risky and frivolous. Meme coins depend on social media momentum that can disappear just as quickly as it materializes.

Trump’s own involvement in the meme coin drew criticism from his crypto industry supporters, who had been counting on more serious treatment from the new administration.

Pump.fun’s sale came one day after bitcoin, the most popular form of cryptocurrency, reached a new record high, briefly surpassing $118,000 to climb as high as $118,872.85.

A report by CNBC said this rally began last Wednesday (July 9), when a Federal Reserve meeting revealed a disagreement about how much to reduce interest rates, a jump in tech stocks and an expectation that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will raise the federal deficit.

It’s all happening ahead of what’s being called “crypto week,” in which Congress is scheduled to vote on three bills that would provide the regulatory framework the digital asset industry has long been searching for: the GENIUS Act, the CLARITY Act and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act.