Meme token season attempts a comeback on Solana

Meme token and Pump.fun activity is picking up on Solana again. The levels of token generation and trading are close to an 11-month peak. 

Meme token activity on Solana showed its resilience, picking up again to an 11-month peak. The latest recovery cycle shows meme tokens are ready to react positively at any moment, and the market is far from done. 

This time around, meme token generation does not come with outsized valuations. However, new mints, wallet engagement, and fees remain elevated. 

In the past few weeks, interest in memes has picked up with launches on Bags. The major recovery came from Pump.fun, which saw a daily spike in new token generation. All other meme market metrics spiked, including general launchpad volume, active addresses, and creators. 

Over 320,000 addresses came back to the meme token market, on a mix of bots and “trenches” traders. In total, 13,690 token creators returned to the market. 

Is meme token trading making a comeback?

Meme tokens are always coming back with slight changes compared to the previous cycle. New Pump.fun creations still do not survive long, and even those that graduate to DEX activity rarely achieve high valuations. 

The latest drive in meme token creation got a boost from the attempts to spoof a Cloudflare Clawdbot token. Other hot memes gained a foothold in DEX activity. 

In addition to new token creation, DEX activity on Solana remained highly dynamic. Meteora rose as the most active DEX, standing just behind Pump.fun in terms of daily fees. 

The recent Solana meme token activity includes both newcomers like PENGUIN, as well as a return to the leading older memes, including WIF and PENGU. 

PIPPIN, the AI agent token, also reawakened with another 70% daily rally, similar to previous rapid pumps. The recent meme token performance shows Solana traders still have an appetite for risk. 

During the previous token downturn, some of the crypto activity spread to prediction markets. However, the return of liquidity to memes meant traders were always ready to seek winning tokens. This time, trenches traders came with more awareness of short-term risks, and token lifecycles came with lower valuations.

Pump.fun passes Hyperliquid with daily fees

The combined activity of Pump.fun and PumpSwap led to $5.4M in daily fees. Pump.fun passed Hyperliquid in 24-hour revenue, also getting ahead of other trading platforms. 

The current meme activity is seen as increasingly dynamic, with almost no opportunity to create cult tokens with a longer lifecycle. Users creating new tokens reported immediate botting and trading, with no incentive to hold and take unrealized losses. 

Despite this, the situation benefits fee production. This has allowed Pump.fun to continue buying back PUMP tokens, already holding over 20% of the supply. 

As with other meme token seasons, the question remains whether the trading creates value or extracts value from the Solana ecosystem.