Pump.fun Reportedly Laid Off Employees Before PUMP Token Vesting Began
Key Takeaways
- •Pump.fun terminated employees in April, approximately two months before their PUMP token vesting periods were set to commence under agreements signed in 2025.
- •At least one dismissed employee was expecting PUMP tokens valued in the seven-figure range, with 25% of allocated tokens scheduled to unlock after one year in June 2026.
- •Co-founder Noah Tweedale attributed the layoffs to the company having expanded too rapidly, though the total number of affected workers has not been revealed.
- •The memecoin platform is concurrently facing multiple legal challenges, including a lawsuit alleging it operated a rigged slot machine and a class action concerning its MEV trading practices.
- •Pump.fun has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in cumulative fee revenue since its 2024 launch, underscoring its central role in the Solana memecoin ecosystem.
Pump.fun, the Solana-based memecoin launchpad, reportedly terminated employees just two months before they were scheduled to begin receiving PUMP tokens worth millions of dollars, according to a Friday Sandmark report.
At least one affected worker was due to receive PUMP tokens in the seven-figure range, Sandmark reported, citing documents it had reviewed. The layoffs took place in April, a mere two months before the employees' token vesting was set to commence under agreements signed in 2025.
Pump.fun co-founder Noah Tweedale attributed the layoffs to the company having "grew too quickly," according to the report. The exact number of employees dismissed has not been disclosed.
Under the terms of the agreements detailed in the documents viewed by Sandmark, Pump.fun was scheduled to unlock 25% of each employee's allocated tokens after one year — a milestone set for June 2026.
The timing of the dismissals raises questions about how crypto-native companies handle token-based compensation when parting ways with staff. Token vesting — a common retention mechanism in the blockchain industry — typically requires employees to remain with a company for a set period before gaining access to awarded tokens, meaning terminations before vesting cliffs can result in workers forfeiting substantial compensation.
The layoffs come amid broader legal scrutiny of the platform. Pump.fun has previously faced a lawsuit alleging the company operated a "rigged" slot machine for investors, as well as a separate class action concerning its maximal extractable value (MEV) practices.
Pump.fun, launched on the Solana blockchain, has become one of the most prominent platforms for creating and trading memecoins, allowing users to mint tokens with minimal technical knowledge. The platform has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in cumulative fee revenue since its 2024 launch, reflecting both the explosive demand for memecoin speculation on Solana and the central role Pump.fun has played in that ecosystem.
At the time of publication, the price of PUMP stood at $0.002113, representing a 7.5% increase over the preceding 24-hour period.