tl;dr
A Pine Analytics report reveals that on the Solana meme coin launchpad Pump.fun, token deployers systematically fund sniper wallets to buy their own tokens immediately after launch, manipulating the market. Over 15,000 launches and 4,600 sniper wallets were involved, generating over 15,000 SOL in p...
Pine Analytics has uncovered systematic market manipulation on the Solana meme coin launchpad Pump.fun, where token deployers fund sniper wallets to buy and quickly sell their own tokens immediately after launch. This tactic affects over 15,000 launches and involves more than 4,600 sniper wallets, generating over 15,000 SOL in profits with an 87% success rate.
These sniper wallets purchase tokens within the very first block and rapidly liquidate them—85% within five minutes—creating a false impression of demand that misleads retail investors and puts them at a disadvantage. This kind of sniping occurs in about 50% of Pump.fun launches, often obscured by unrelated bot activity and proxy use, which complicates detection and enforcement.
Despite some existing countermeasures, snipers adapt quickly, rendering current defenses inadequate. The report highlights that sniping on Pump.fun generates structured, highly profitable operational patterns, consistently exploiting the market over US trading hours. It identified 10,400 deployers involved in these manipulative activities.
The manipulation erodes trust in the platform and raises serious concerns about the integrity of the meme coin launch ecosystem on Solana. Pine Analytics calls for persistent, well-committed actions and a cultural shift toward transparency and fairness to combat this widespread issue. Without such changes, the meme coin community and Pump.fun’s ecosystem face significant risks going forward.
This case illustrates the challenges of policing decentralized launchpads where rapid, automated trading strategies can skew market dynamics, underscoring the urgent need for innovative regulatory and community-driven solutions.