Key points:
- Pump.fun spent $350 million on buying back PUMP, but the token continues to hit new lows
- Critics believe that insiders are selling tokens directly into the buybacks and using this as an exit
- In July 2026, about 41% of the supply could be unlocked, increasing price pressure
Pump.fun has spent about $350 million on buying back its own token since July 2025. But it didn't help. The price keeps falling anyway.
Currently, PUMP is trading about 81% below its peak from September. Moreover, the token recently hit new lows.
Against this backdrop, discontent is growing in the community. More and more participants believe that the project's tokenomics are not designed for growth, but rather for extracting liquidity.
There are especially many questions about the token buybacks. Critics claim that insiders may be selling tokens directly into these buybacks. In essence, using them as a convenient exit.
Additional pressure may appear as early as July 2026. At that time, about 41% of the total token supply will hit the market.
Why $350 Million Spent on Token Buybacks Did Not Work
Official data from Pump.fun shows that the project has already spent $350 million on buying back PUMP. About 116 billion tokens have been removed from the market.
Pump.fun revenue and PUMP purchases since token launch. Source: Pump.fun
This is about 32.9% of the total circulating supply. Almost all daily protocol revenue goes to buybacks, averaging about $1 million per day.
But even with this approach, the price does not hold. Currently, PUMP is trading at about $0.00165. This is significantly below the ICO price of $0.004 and far from the peak of $0.0088.
PUMP price performance. Source: TradingView
Users believe that insiders hold about half of the total supply. In their opinion, these tokens may be sold directly into the buybacks to lock in profits and exit their positions.
'They have about 50% of the $PUMP supply, they could easily sell into every buyback and use it as an exit… Probably one of the worst tokenomics in the industry,' wrote 0xSweep.
Supply Pressure and the July Unlock
Currently, only 59% of the one trillion PUMP are in circulation. A major unlock is scheduled for July 12, 2026. At that time, another 41% of tokens, which are currently locked, will enter the market. Founders and early investors received them almost for free.
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On-chain analytics data from March showed that a team-linked wallet transferred 1.75 billion PUMP to the Bitget exchange. This raised concerns about possible sales.
At the same time, total protocol revenue has already exceeded $1 billion, according to DefiLlama. But this has not affected the token price in any way.
Now the main question is different. Are token buybacks real price support, or just a convenient exit strategy? The answer will become clear when the locked tokens start hitting the market this summer.
