Bad replay for Pump.fun. Since the weekend, screenshots of internal messages from the memecoin platform have been circulating on X as a fresh revelation. They actually come from a complaint filed on January 7 in New York in the class action which has targeted Pump.fun since January 2025 and whose racketeering aspect survived the judge's sorting at the end of August.
The case is called Aguilar v. Baton Corporation. Baton is the company that operates Pump.fun. The case is being heard in the federal court for the Southern District of New York, under number 1:25-cv-00880, before Judge Colleen McMahon. The plaintiffs are defended by Burwick Law and Wolf Popper.
Small correction in passing. “Document 125” brandished on X is a letter from Pump.fun’s lawyers to the judge. The citations come from the next document, the 186-page Second Amended Complaint, filed on January 7, 2026. The date "01/07/26" in the header is in American format.
On page 104, an intertitle summarizes the plaintiffs' thesis. The team's internal conversations reportedly prove that the platform was "deliberately designed to maximize addictive trading and fee income." The messages cited date from spring 2024 and come from a whistleblower.
On April 27, 2024, co-founder Alon Cohen wrote that Pump.fun broke down the barriers that protected individuals from “really really low” odds. He talks about “gambling”. And it promises “happier (even if most lose)” users.
The day before, in an exchange with his associates Dylan Kerler and Noah Tweedale, the team called for “flashing lights” and “constant animation”. The complaint describes a goal of new content every two seconds, slot machine style. Management suggests consulting an “Instagram guy” to understand web2 “tactics.” On May 1, Cohen shared in the team chat a user's comparison between the app and crack.
These are all still allegations, and the sorting has already taken place. On August 31, 2026, Judge McMahon issued a 79-page decision that seriously lightened the case. Solana Labs, the Solana Foundation and their leaders, including Anatoly Yakovenko, are emerging. The requests based on stock market law for the FRED and GRIFFAIN tokens also fail, due to lack of “joint enterprise” within the meaning of the Howey test.
Ironically, the judge dismissed the theory of illegal gambling, since buying a memecoin is not a bet under New York law.
The heart of the matter holds, however. Charges based on RICO, the federal anti-racketeering statute, still target Baton, Cohen, Kerler and Tweedale. The Wolf Popper firm specifies that the judge found plausible a de facto association between the company, its founders and 25 unidentified promoters. According to the summary published by Crypto Times, the facts of fraud retained are based on three posts by Cohen from late 2024 touting a “fair” launch platform protected from rug pulls.
The plaintiffs estimate the losses of individuals between 4 and 5.5 billion dollars. It's a part number. Still according to Crypto Times, the judge also excluded trading losses from the scope of RICO, leaving only execution costs and losses in the balance.
We found no public reaction from Pump.fun to the viral captures as of Monday morning. In court, his lawyers described the fairness promises as mere “puffery,” a commercial exaggeration with no legal significance. In his January letter, Baton points out that the tokens are created by the users themselves, and even contests using the commercial name Pump.fun.
Fees fall regardless of the fate of the token. On the bonding curve, the mechanism which sets the price before arrival on PumpSwap, the official grid takes 1.25% per transaction, including 0.95% for the protocol and 0.30% for the creator. Since October 17, a platform commission of 0.45% has been added to the site and the mobile application. A round trip therefore costs around 3.4% before the slightest price movement.
DefiLlama credits all Pump products with $63 million in revenue over thirty days, and approximately $1.38 billion since launch. A part finances the redemption of the PUMP token. It trades at $0.0042 according to CoinGecko, for a capitalization of $1.93 billion. This is 52% below its record of $0.0088 from September 14, 2025.
Saturday October 24, analyst The Smart Ape claimed on Profits would land on a wallet holding approximately $1.03 million in USDC. We have not been able to independently verify these addresses, and Pump.fun has not commented. The scheme is nothing new: 98.6% of tokens created on Pump.fun never see the light of day.
Before purchasing a newly launched memecoin, open the list of holders on Solscan. Several wallets funded from the same address and entered in the same block sign a bundle. And at 1.7% per visit to the application, three round trips during the day already eat up 10% of your stake, without the price having moved a single cent.
