PumpSwap at the top of Solana DEX: A success as swift as fragile

Pump.fun, flagship of the Solana ecosystem, alternates bright green and darker red phases. But in recent days, the sky seems clear in this memecoins paradise. Its DEX, PumpSwap, keeps breaking records and its native token $PUMP regains color. Between technical dominance and social controversy, the story of this success looks like a crypto thriller mixing euphoria, doubts, and criticism.

PumpSwap surpasses Raydium and Meteora, Solana finds an unexpected champion

PumpSwap, the DEX of Pump.fun, signed an all-time record: $878 million volume in 24 hours, surpassing Raydium and Meteora. A first for a decentralized exchange based on Solana. The announcement was relayed by SolanaFloor, which highlighted the feat of PumpSwap: the platform dethroned Meteora and Raydium to become the top DEX on Solana. It recorded its highest daily transaction volume, reaching $878 million in just two hours.

This momentum is not isolated. Pump.fun bought back $12.19 million of $PUMP tokens in one week, representing 98.23% of its revenues and removing 5.36% of the circulating supply. Its token jumped 40% in seven days, nearly hitting $0.0048. 

Added to this is the regained popularity of livestreaming features, giving new momentum to a once contested project. The decentralized crypto exchange is not just a memecoins hub: it redefines crypto finance rules on Solana.

Project Ascend: when Pump.fun wants to reshape the creator economy

On September 2, Pump.fun unveiled Project Ascend, an overhaul aiming to transform its model. The core of this update centers on Dynamic Fees V1, a tiered fee system: 0.95% for small projects, 0.05% for larger ones. The goal is to encourage gradual growth. 

Immediate result: $2 million distributed to creators in 24 hours, compared to $198,000 the day before.

Some streamers saw their income explode, going from a few dollars to over $2,000 in a single day. Pump.fun takes advantage to push a new concept, capital markets for creators, where viewers become investors by buying streamer tokens. 

The Solana Foundation validated the approach: 

The creator economy has long operated on a model where views generate ad revenue. The pursuit of views forces creators to constantly run… producing an endless stream of content, impoverishing them and chasing algorithms. And despite this, they still don’t own their own audience.

Pump.fun thus wants to create a more authentic link between creators and community. But this radical change divides opinions.

A fragile success: between criticism, whales and crypto speculation

Not everything is rosy in this rise. Soju questioned what Project Ascend from @pumpdotfun means for @met_lparmy. According to him, more and more tokens are launched every day. Tokens don’t “pump” as much because deployers are incentivized to maintain a low market cap and artificially generate more volume to maximize fees. He also thinks this leads to more rug pulls, more tokens, and lower market cap ceilings.

Already, a rug pull case was reported: two streamers collected $13,990 in fees before their token crashed 80% in one minute.

The whales also set the pace. Some accumulate large long positions (up to $6.3 million), but 51% of holders on Hyperliquid remain short, showing market distrust. Despite $PUMP’s return to its ICO price, the future remains uncertain. A class-action lawsuit accuses Pump.fun of being an “unregulated casino” masked by aggressive marketing.

Key figures to remember

• $878M daily volume on PumpSwap, an all-time record on Solana;
• $2M distributed to creators in one day after the reform;
• 5.36% of $PUMP supply bought back and burned in a few months;
• 77% market share in Solana memecoins universe.

Solana itself is going through a turbulent zone. While overall activity remains sluggish, its native token SOL continues aiming higher. Some analysts now discuss a trajectory that could bring it to $1,000, proving that even in the storm, the ecosystem knows how to stay the course.