Pump.fun Shifts Memecoin Rewards Toward Traders in New Fee Model Update

Pump.fun is a launchpad for memecoins within the Solana ecosystem, and they've introduced a new feature that diverts platform rewards from benefiting only token creators to benefiting individual traders instead. This change also alters the previous fee structure that generated >$15 million per day at peak, and indicates a new way of distributing value through memecoin economies.

New Reward Choice for Token Creators

Pump.fun has announced via X that creators of Memecoins can now choose whether their tokens will continue to have the traditional creator fees or to divert these fees as incentives to its traders through a mechanism called cashback coins.

This change allows those projects which deploy Memecoins to determine how to reward both of the following parties:

1. 1. Creators, who in the past have always received passive fees

1. 2. Active traders, who create liquidity and activity with their Memecoins.

How the Original Fee Model Worked

Originally, through the Pump.fun platform, token creators would receive 0.3% from all fee activity associated with the memecoins they created on the Pump.fun platform. When the Solana ecosystem was subject to speculative activity, this distribution model was proven to be profitable. At one point, the total daily revenue generated through the distribution mechanism exceeded $15MM.

Although the deployers of memecoins were able to profit from this revenue-generating model, it received critical reviews because it concentrated a majority of rewards to token creators instead of distributing rewards to the greater trading community that is responsible for sustaining the momentum of the token once launched on the market.

The importance of this change

A larger shift in the design of memecoins is represented by changing incentives towards traders.

Key implications for this change include:

* More participation by traders, as they will be financially rewarded for their participation through cashback-like rewards,

* Increased competitiveness among tokens by recognizing financially the traders who engage with their tokens,

* Less passively extracted value from traders for creators after a token launches.

The current update is in line with an overall movement towards cryptocurrency platforms that reward participation and demand for liquidity, as opposed to just providing a token to a user.

Memecoin economic system changes everything about memecoins and how they launch, while building interest.

Possible outcomes:

- Increased short-term trading volume due to cashback rewards.

- Creators more selective in launching tokens without assurance of making a fee.

- Increased experimentation on gamification aspects of tokens in fast growing ecosystems.

These trends are transforming the way incentive structures are created and run in the crypto world of social interactions through blockchains and speculation through the use of tokens.

Pump.fun is creating a major new way of doing things in the memecoin economy through having a platform that focuses on the trader incentives and how they work.

There is a new revenue share/surrender fee model for creators; they will be testing to see if rewards for participation will be greater than rewards for creator activity.

As the memecoin market goes through its usual cycles of mania and consolidation, new and innovative methods such as Cashback Coins could very well indicate how sustainable platforms such as Pump will be in the long run, giving its position in the competitive Solana ecosystem.