Pump.fun token issues and graduations have been shifting in the past few days, after introducing cashback coins. Weekly graduations increased to 1.15% of all tokens, the highest level since the summer of 2025.
Pump.fun ran another attempt to boost token creation and graduations. Over the past few weeks, token graduations have been rising, leading to higher fees for Pump.Swap.
Pump.fun graduations kept rising in the past weeks, reaching a seven-month high | Source: Dune Analytics
Overall, token graduations are on average 1.15% of new launches, as the metric climbed above 1% for the first time in months. Historically, the peak graduation rate has grown to around 2%, later sliding to as low as 0.5% or around 80 tokens daily.
Of all graduating tokens, very few trade for more than a month, and many end their trading arc within a day as traders take profits or remove liquidity.
Pump.fun splits incentives for token issuers
The latest boost to token creation was the shift in incentives from Pump.fun. In the past week, launches could follow two separate tracks. One was the usual creator fee coins, where creators took a share of the volume.
The new type of launch was for cashback coins, in which traders earned from volumes. Choosing the type of launch is irreversible and cannot be switched. Additionally, Pump.fun bans the creation of community takeover (CTO) tokens, which use cashback, to avoid incentivized fake trading volumes.
In the first week after the launch of the two types of memes, there is still no consensus on the effect. For now, the move translated into a general increase in launches and graduations.
As Cryptopolitan reported earlier, Pump.fun launched the cashback feature to curb the extraction of creator fees, which was also abused at times.
Pump.fun still produces high fees, traders give up on the trenches
Currently, Pump.fun is back among the top 5 fee producers, with $2.67M in daily fees. The collected fees reflect the rising trenches activity, with new wallet inflows in 2026, as well as PumpSwap’s trading fees.
However, the new fee schedule is testing traders, as daily active wallets fell in the past day. The initial enthusiasm for cashback coins turned into confusion, as traders started to abandon the trenches.
Traders in the trenches show periods of renewed enthusiasm | Source: Dune Analytics
Volumes and activity on Pump.fun are not guaranteed, and the platform has gone through multiple cycles of being nearly abandoned. However, incentives have also led to memecoin revivals, as traders still seek a venue with liquidity and the potential for high returns.
The goal of cashback coins is to build assets that will continue to trade actively, instead of just producing rewards for the team. Some traders have warned that this may incentivize bundling and fake trading, but the other option is idle tokens with no value.
Pump.fun aims to revive meme and DEX activity, as SOL faces headwinds and tries not to lose the $80 range.
