$PUMP traded at $0.002178 on August 1, moving above the 200 EMA inside a cup-and-handle structure that has been forming since April, while a Sandmark investigation found that the company fired at least 40 employees the day before their token grants were set to vest.

Pump.fun DEX Volume Rises 26.5% in July Despite Ongoing Turbulence

Pump.fun’s DEX volume reached $1.635 billion in July 2026, according to DefiLlama, up from $1.292 billion in June. The increase of 26.5% month on month followed a prolonged decline from late 2024 through mid-2026.

Even so, the July figure remained far below the platform’s January 2025 peak of about $11.5 billion. Still, the back-to-back monthly gains suggest the launchpad may be finding a volume floor. The latest reading does not represent a recovery by historical standards, but it does break a downtrend that lasted for more than a year. Pump.fun, which lets anyone deploy a Solana token without writing code, became one of the highest-fee-generating applications in crypto during the 2024 meme coin cycle; the contraction since then tracks a broader pullback in speculative on-chain activity across Solana and other chains.

$PUMP Clears All Four EMAs as Neckline Comes Into View

$PUMP has spent the past three months forming a cup and handle on the daily chart. The cup bottom was printed near $0.001000 in late May, and price worked through the handle in July before clearing the full EMA stack this week.

The 20 EMA at $0.001879, the 50 EMA at $0.001739, and the 100 EMA at $0.001749 have all flipped to support. The 200 EMA at $0.002060 was also broken during the latest move higher. At $0.002178, the token is trading above all of those levels, while RSI stands at 65.04, leaving room before the 70 level that often precedes consolidation or rejection.

The cup-and-handle neckline remains above the current price, and today’s high at $0.002245 fell short of a confirmed close above it. A daily close above the neckline would complete the pattern and open a new leg higher.

Key Levels for August 2026

Resistance Levels

$0.002245 — today’s high, immediate short-term ceiling

$0.002300 — cup-and-handle neckline; a daily close above this level would confirm the pattern

Support Levels

$0.002060 — 200 EMA, first defense on any pullback

$0.001879 — 20 EMA, next structural level below

$0.001739 — 50 EMA, forming a cluster with the 100 EMA at $0.001749

Shorts Take $753,660 in 24 Hours as Volume and Open Interest Rise Together

Derivatives volume increased 54.06% to $265.39 million, while open interest rose 20.43% to $172.11 million. The parallel rise suggests new positions are being opened rather than the move simply exhausting short pressure.

Over the past 24 hours, short liquidations totaled $753.66 thousand, compared with $234.69 thousand on the long side, indicating that sellers absorbed most of the losses during the advance.

On Binance, top traders showed a long/short position ratio of 1.3566 and an account ratio of 1.4295. The broader Binance account ratio stood at 1.495, while OKX accounts were at 1.71, with professional and retail positioning leaning in the same direction.

Sandmark Report Says Pump.fun Fired Staff Before Token Vesting

🚨JUST IN: According to Sandmark, laid off several employees two months before their $PUMP allocations were due to begin vesting. Co-founder Noah Tweedale said the company had “grew too quickly,” preventing it from moving “fast and rough.” At least one… pic.twitter.com/2mJaKnQUtv — SolanaFloor (@SolanaFloor) July 31, 2026

🚨JUST IN: According to Sandmark, laid off several employees two months before their $PUMP allocations were due to begin vesting. Co-founder Noah Tweedale said the company had “grew too quickly,” preventing it from moving “fast and rough.” At least one… pic.twitter.com/2mJaKnQUtv

A Sandmark investigation found that Pump.fun laid off at least 40 employees one day before their $PUMP token grants were due to vest. Documents and recordings reviewed by Sandmark show co-founder Noah Tweedale telling staff in a recorded meeting that the company had grown too quickly. Employees dismissed in early April reportedly received tenure-based severance, but they lost the first tranche of token allocations that had been agreed under employment contracts signed in June 2025. Sandmark said at least one former employee missed a grant now valued in seven figures.

SolanaFloor highlighted the Sandmark findings on X, noting that Tweedale had described the company as having grown too fast to operate at its intended pace.

A separate round of alleged cuts was described by a newly created X account under the handle @ex_pump_employee, which claimed that Baton Corp., the development firm behind Pump.fun, dismissed the poster and around 40 others after more than a year of employment, one day before vesting. The same account also said the company never planned a $PUMP airdrop for users.

Pump.fun has not made a public statement in response to either set of allegations. Token vesting disputes have surfaced at other crypto startups, where equity-style grants can clash with the fluid staffing patterns common in early-stage Web3 teams; the Sandmark report’s detail about dismissals timed one day before vesting is the type of allegation that tends to draw regulatory and community scrutiny regardless of the company’s explanation.

$PUMP Weekly Forecast for August 2026

Upside and Downside Targets

Upside case: a daily close above the cup-and-handle neckline at $0.002300, with derivatives volume holding above $265 million and the 200 EMA at $0.002060 confirmed as support, points to $0.003000.

Downside case: failure to close above today’s high at $0.002245 and a move back below the 200 EMA at $0.002060 would reopen a retest of the 20 EMA at $0.001879, with the 50/100 EMA cluster at $0.001739 to $0.001749 serving as the deeper floor. Whether the volume uptrend and technical setup hold will also depend on how the company addresses the vesting allegations, given that unresolved governance questions have historically weighed on sentiment toward newly listed tokens.