Solana memecoin platform Pump.fun reportedly terminated more than 40 employees shortly before their token allocations were set to vest. The layoffs stripped the staff of their $PUMP tokens, leaving at least one former employee without a seven-figure payout. Token vesting—where employees receive locked project tokens that unlock on a set schedule—is a common compensation practice at crypto startups, but arrangements like Pump.fun's, which require continued employment through the vesting date, mean termination can result in total forfeiture of allocated tokens.

The launchpad conducted the staff cuts in late March and early April. According to a Sandmark report, the publication obtained internal documents, emails, and audio and video recordings of a company meeting. During the meeting, co-founder Noah Tweedale explained to employees that the layoffs were necessary because the company "had grown too quickly," which prevented Pump.fun from being "fast and rough."

A "termination of services" email seen by Sandmark instructed Pump.fun employees to attend a meeting with Lloyd McCarthy, the firm's head of talent. Employees who lost their jobs had their agreements terminated in early April. They were compensated with one week of severance pay for each month of service.

Tweedale and his co-founder, Alon Cohen, did not respond to Sandmark's inquiries regarding the matter. Pump.fun has not issued any official response to the allegations.

According to the report, the employees were terminated due to a two-year delay in the release of their tokens. Pump.fun staff signed token grant agreements in mid-June 2025, and a quarter of their PUMP allocations were scheduled to unlock in June 2026. Consequently, those who departed the company before that date forfeited their tokens.

For one employee, this meant relinquishing a seven-figure sum. Sandmark noted that at the time of the report, the value of the allocation was over $1 million at current prices. This figure holds despite $PUMP falling sharply in value. Citing TradingView, Sandmark reported that the token is down approximately 79% from its 2025 peak of $0.0089. Meanwhile, Crypto Times noted a slightly lower decline of 69% from the peak. $PUMP is down 26% year-over-year and changed hands for about $0.002 as the reports circulated, marking an almost 8% increase on the day.

Former employees indicated that there may have been a second round of layoffs occurring in mid-July. An X account named ExPumpEmployee began posting "termination of services" emails on Thursday, claiming to have been fired just one day before their $PUMP tokens were scheduled to vest.

According to Pump.fun ex-employees, over 40 employees were laid off in two waves, though Sandmark noted it could not independently verify the figure or every detail provided. KuCoin's news desk, which received the report for comment, also suggested that more than 40 employees were laid off over two months.

The scale of the layoffs is notable given Pump.fun's rapid expansion and its position as one of the cryptocurrency sector's highest-revenue-generating platforms. The memecoin launchpad saw its workforce grow from three to nearly 100 employees this year, as reported by Sandmark. This growth followed a surge that attracted users to create over 20.8 million tokens on the platform. Citing analytics from Dune, the report noted that Pump.fun has generated "roughly $1.3 billion in lifetime revenue and still takes in about $1 million per day." Pump.fun became one of the most prominent token launchpads on Solana during the 2024 memecoin trading boom, which saw a wave of retail-driven speculation across low-cap tokens on the network.

Pump.fun is incorporated in the United Kingdom under the name Baton Corporation Ltd. The company blocked UK users in December 2024 after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warned that it might be "carrying on activities which require authorization." It remains on the FCA's warning list. The FCA has broadly increased oversight of crypto-asset firms operating in or from the UK, requiring registration under anti-money laundering regulations.

Pump.fun's UK connection was previously highlighted in 2024 when former employee Jarett Dunn transferred around $2 million from one of the company's wallets to thousands of addresses, claiming to have "killed" the memecoin. Wood Green Crown Court sentenced Dunn to six years in prison in December 2025.

Additionally, Sandmark noted that Baton's financial accounts for the period through September 30, 2025, were due by June 30 and are now delinquent, carrying a potential fine of up to £375. Pump.fun faces several other UK-based legal challenges, including a lawsuit alleging that it operated a "rigged" offering for investors and another concerning its maximal extractable value (MEV) practices.