Report: Pump.fun layoffs weeks before PUMP tokens are unlocked

Pump.fun was exposed to layoffs before the employee token award was about to be vested, and former employees lost seven-figure assets

Summary

Employees were reportedly fired several weeks before the 25% share of the PUMP token award was about to be vested.
A former employee allegedly lost the current seven-figure token allocation as a result.
There is another account that 40 employees were laid off one day before another vesting date.
The current trading price of PUMP tokens is approximately US$0.002, down approximately 77% from the historical high in September 2025.

Pump.fun layoffs before employee tokens are vested

According to a survey, Pump.fun made layoffs in late March and early April after rapidly expanding its business. Relevant documents, emails and internal recordings show that some employees lost their jobs before the allocation of PUMP tokens began. At least one former employee allegedly lost tokens currently worth seven figures as a result.

According to reports, employees signed a token grant agreement in June 2025. According to the agreement, 25% of its allocation will be vested for the first time in a year, and then gradually released as planned. A dismissal email obtained by the investigation agency showed that Pump.fun's talent director, Lloyd McCarthy, convened affected employees to a collective meeting at the end of March. In a recorded meeting, co-founder Noah Tweedale said the company was "expanding too quickly", limiting its ability to operate "quickly and flexibly." The report stated that the contract was terminated in early April. Affected employees received severance pay based on their years of service with the company, but their unattributed PUMP token allocation was reportedly cancelled. Pump.fun has not publicly responded to these survey results.

Former employee accuses second round of layoffs

After the initial news broke, new allegations emerged. Baton Corp., the company that runs Pump.fun, made another round of layoffs in mid-July, former employees said. A newly created X account called "Former Pump Employees" claimed that Baton fired about 40 employees the day before their PUMP token awards were due to belong. The account owner claims to have worked for the company for more than a year. The account also alleges that Pump.fun never intended to conduct a public PUMP airdrop because the company opposed "providing free funds to users." Pump.fun has not publicly responded to this.

However, the investigators said they could not independently verify claims that 40 employees were immediately fired before the July handover incident. As a result, the charge is still based on the former employee's statements rather than independently reviewed employment records.

The focus of controversy is employee compensation, not tokens already held by public investors. Still, the allegations could intensify scrutiny of how cryptocurrency companies structure token granting mechanisms and whether employment termination clauses allow companies to cancel large allotments before vesting.

PUMP token allocation: 121 million tokens flowed into 121 wallets

These allegations emerged after Pump.fun made its first large allocation of team and investor tokens, which was made after a one-year lockup period expired. On-chain tracking data shows that on July 15, approximately 57.279 billion PUMP tokens (valued at approximately US$86.49 million at the time) were transferred to 121 wallets. According to relevant analysis, this allocation marks the beginning of a three-year vesting period for team and investor tokens. These transfers make previously restricted tokens available to the recipient, but the movement of the wallet does not in itself prove that any tokens have been sold.

For U.S. token holders, these employment allegations do not change their ownership. Broader concerns are at the market level: continued insider allocation could increase the amount of liquid supply and could create selling pressure if recipients move tokens to exchanges.

PUMP token fell 77% from its historical high

As of press time, according to market data, the PUMP token trading price was approximately US$0.002, up nearly 5% in the past 24 hours. Despite the daily gains, the token is still down about 77% from its all-time high in September 2025.

This decline occurred against the backdrop of Pump.fun continuing to generate large amounts of short-term meme coins. One study surveyed 18.67 million tokens created through the platform between January 2024 and June 2026. Researchers found that 12.8 million of these coins (68.67%) completed their last joint curve trade on Pump.fun on the day of launch. Tokens that have never been traded are excluded because they have no measurable trading life. The study attributed the high failure rate to the low threshold for platform token creation, which allows users to quickly abandon projects when early demand is insufficient.