Pump.fun Employees Outraged Over Missed Token Vests Amidst Layoffs
Former employees of Pump.fun are expressing anger after being laid off two months before their PUMP token allocations were set to vest. The team later unlocked a large portion of its own tokens, worth millions at current prices, while ex-staff reportedly lost significant value in unvested holdings. In April 2026, the Solana-based platform cut staff and attributed it to overgrowth. Despite this, Pump.fun burned $370 million in repurchased PUMP tokens that month, reducing circulating supply by nearly a third. The co-founders defended these actions as strategic moves for long-term value. On July 12, the team unlocked 50 billion of its own vested tokens—worth approximately $102 million at Friday's price—which far exceeds five months' worth of platform revenue.
Topics: crypto token economics employee compensation layoffs Pump.fun token vesting