Pump.fun Tempeted By Ex-Employee, Loss $1.9M; Are User Funds Safe?

Pump.fun, the memecoin launcher on the Solana blockchain, underwent an exploit, losing $1.9 Million in a bonding curve attack.

Solana (SOL) memecoin creation tool Pump.fun’s exploit is a new addition to the list of crypto exploits. The launcher’s ex-employee succeeded in stealing over $1.9 Million through a bonding curve attack.

How Was $1.9 Million Exploited From Pump.fun? 

On May 16, a tweet from Pump.fun shook SOL token holders as the launcher recently encountered a hack. The former employee accessed the withdrawal authority using their privileged credentials and compromised the protocol’s system.

The incident occurred between 3:21 pm and 5:00 pm UTC on May 16.

Furthermore, the exploiter used flash loans on a Solana lending protocol, Raydium, to borrow SOL and stole over 12,300 SOL tokens. At the time of the hacking, the bonding curve contracts had over $45 Million. 

At press time, SOL was trading at $168.30 after a surge of 3.09% in 24 hours, with a market cap of $75,528,760,817 and $3,520,352,725 in volume.     

The attempt impacted users’ funds, and the protocol ensured 100% liquidity. Nevertheless, the protocol didn’t reveal the name of the former employee and didn’t respond to any comment.

Measures Taken By Pump.fun to Safeguard the Contract 

Pump.fun tweeted the successive steps on the coin migration issue to calm the users. The team has deployed the contract and will be available for trading for the next 7 days with 0% trading fees.  

In the same way, coins that hit 100% during the hacking period ceased and can’t be traded until the case is resolved. Also, the protocol has been collaborating with legislative bodies to minimize the damage.  

The Exploit’s Impact on SOL’s Performance

As Pump.fun is Solana’s memecoin launcher, the exploit also hurt SOL’s performance. On May 16, before the exploit, the SOL price was standing at $163.97 with $4.37 Billion in 24-hour volume. 

The attack news dropped SOL’s price to $157.08 and degraded the 24-hour volume to $3.93 Billion. However, SOL regained its momentum on May 17, hitting $168.30 at the time of writing. 

Pump.fun’s assurance of smart contract safety and 100% liquidity for affected users resulted in SOL’s price surge.  

Pump Recently Surpassed Uniswap in Weekly Revenues

The memecoin launchpad Pump.fun is doing well in the crypto market and has surpassed Uniswap, the largest decentralized exchange (DEX), in terms of weekly revenue.  

Pump ranking by fees and revenue I Source: DefiLlama

According to DefiLlama, Pump secured over $13.4 Million in revenues in the past 30 days, and Uniswap Labs, alternatively, generated $10.04 Million.  

Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast, with a major in macroeconomics and minor in business statistics. She believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks, and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning. She frequently researches, and posts content on the top altcoins, their theoretical working principles and technical price predictions.