Venture capitalists and the Solana community touted the ICO as a showcase for capital formation in the age of internet capital markets.
Memecoin launch platform Pump.fun raised $500 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) on Saturday, which sold out in about 12 minutes.
The PUMP token has a maximum supply of 1 trillion, and 33% of the supply was allocated to the ICO. 24% of the supply was allocated to the ecosystem and future community projects, while 13% was reserved for existing investors, according to the memecoin platform.
Of the 33% ICO allotment, 18% went to institutional investors, and 15% was offered to retail traders. Pump.fun’s ICO may signal the return of the memecoin sector, which experienced a sharp downturn after being one of the highest-performing asset classes in 2024.
The public token sale also portends the resurgence of initial coin offerings, which fizzled out due to regulatory pressure in the United States under the reign of former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Gary Gensler.
