Project Kimchi Token on Pump.fun Crashes 98% After Promo Post Vanishes

A token promoted by trader Kimchi on Pump.fun surged to roughly $15 million in market capitalization within minutes on Thursday, only to collapse by more than 98% after the promotional post disappeared from X about half an hour later.

From sidewalk poster to $15 million

The promotion began when Kimchi's X account shared a photo of a poster placed on a Manhattan sidewalk bearing the phrase “project kimchi, same internet, different outcome.” The poster featured a Pump.fun logo, App Store badges and a QR code directing viewers to a freshly launched token called Project Kimchi.

Pump.fun is a Solana-based launchpad where anyone can create and list a token in minutes at minimal cost, a format that lets newly issued coins begin trading with little advance notice.

The token's market capitalization hit $10 million within seconds of the post and peaked at about $15 million, though on-chain analytics firm Lookonchain placed the high nearer $14 million.

Pump.fun co-founder Alon Cohen amplified the campaign by reposting it from his personal account before deleting the repost. Traders who later-scanned the QR code said it no longer led to the token.

At one snapshot, the market cap had fallen to approximately $284,000 on $8.66 million in trading volume; another reading showed around $600,000 within minutes, dropping to roughly $183,000 the following day. Market cap values the full token supply at the last traded price. For anyone who bought near the peak, a fall of that size leaves a position worth only a small fraction of its entry value.

Lookonchain flagged three Solana wallets that bought early and sold into the rally for a combined profit of more than $385,000.

Hack claim draws skepticism

Early posts attributed the episode to an account hack, but skeptical on-chain sleuths dismissed that explanation within minutes, pointing to Cohen's rapid repost and equally rapid reversal.

Trader Fabiano noted on X that Cohen posted no hack warning after removing the repost, and argued that if a genuine partnership existed, it would have made little sense for Kimchi to delete his Pump.fun-related posts.

Kimchi, whose real name is Clayton Kim, has since removed Pump.fun from his X bio and deleted earlier posts about joining the platform. As of Friday, neither Kim nor Pump.fun had responded to requests for comment, and whether either addresses the episode publicly remains the immediate open question.

On October 20, two days before the launch, Kimchi was announced as a creative partner of Pump.fun. Cohen described him at the time as “the first ever example of a trader becoming a celebrity.”

X user tontheneko pressed Cohen to refund buyers, writing: “You literally retweeted a rug pull and made hundreds of people lose money.” There has been no official finding of fault and no refund has been issued. In meme coin trading, a rug pull refers to a launch in which those behind a token withdraw their support after the price rises, leaving later buyers holding losses.

Earlier launches and profit claims

Bitquery separately detected three related wallets that earned approximately $104,000 on an earlier KIMCHI launch around October 20, though it could not connect them to the token's deployer.

Kimchi's reputation rests largely on a claim of roughly $40 million in profits from the official $TRUMP token, which launched in January 2025. Bubblemaps traced his linked wallets on the day of the crash and verified about $6 million in profits, adding that a hidden address was possible but unlikely, since Kimchi would probably have revealed it by now.

His first KIMCHI meme coin reached about $40 million in market capitalization within an hour of the Pump.fun partnership announcement. An anonymous deployer purchased roughly 79% of the supply for about $9,300 and routed creator fees to a wallet labeled Kimchi.

The crash adds to a broader record of losses and misconduct in the Solana meme coin trade. Former Pump.fun developer Jarett Dunn was sentenced to six years in prison by a London judge over a $2 million Solana fraud, Cryptopolitan reported in December 2025. Only 6.25% of Solana meme coin traders were profitable over a 90-day period, with the median trader down $120, Cryptopolitan reported in August.

Source: Cryptopolitan