Sapijijju, co-founder of the pseudonymous Pump.Fun, rejected claims that the project cashed out more than $436 million in stablecoins, calling the allegations “complete misinformation” from blockchain analytics firm Lukochain.
In an X post, Sapijijju addressed the report, insisting that none of the transferred funds were sold. He said the USDC originated from the initial coin offering (ICO) of the PUMP token and was redistributed to internal wallets as part of the company’s treasury management process.
“What is happening is a part of Pump’s treasury management, where USDC from the $PUMP ICO are moved to different wallets to allow the company’s runway to be reinvested into the business,” Saipijju. “Pump has never worked directly with Circle.”
Treasury management is when a project allocates, stores, and transfers its funds, such as operating capital, ICO proceeds or reserves, to ensure it can remain operational. Transfers do not necessarily indicate sales and may include wallet restructuring and budgeting for future growth.
Cointelegraph contacted LookOnChain and Pump.Fun, but did not receive a response by publication.
Fund movement raises fears of selling pressure
Sapijijju’s comments come after Lukochain reported that wallets associated with Solana Memecoin Launchpad have transferred $436 million in USDC to crypto exchange Kraken since mid-October, in what was widely interpreted as a massive cash-out.
The fund’s activity coincides with Pump’s monthly revenue falling below $40 million for the first time since July, after falling to $27.3 million in November, according to DeFillama data.
Despite this, data platforms DeFillama, Arkham and Lukochain showed that Pump.fun-tag wallets still hold over $855 million in stablecoins and over $211 million in Solana (SOL).
Nikolai Sondergaard, research analyst at crypto intelligence platform Nansen, interpreted the alleged selloff as a harbinger of further selling. EmberCN said the funds originated from an institutional private placement of PUMP tokens rather than active dumping.
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Community divided between skepticism, defense and demands for audit
The community reaction to Sapijijju’s explanation was divided. Some argued that the wording raised more questions, while others supported Pump.Fun’s right to manage its own treasury.
एक्स उपयोगकर्ता वॉस ने कहा कि बयान में विरोधाभास हैं, क्योंकि सह-संस्थापक ने दावा किया कि वह हस्तांतरण में शामिल नहीं था, जबकि यह भी कहा कि वे अपने खजाने का प्रबंधन कर रहे थे। “Certainly did not contradict yourself on a post you had 10 hours to respond to,” Voss wrote.
Another community member with the handle athsheepwhale completely rejected Saapijiju’s announcement and criticized what he described as “price manipulation via airdrop” and poor execution that left the token trading below its offering price.
CoinGecko data showed that the PUMP token traded at $0.002714, 32% below its ICO price of $0.004. The token was also down nearly 70% from its September high of $0.0085.
Some community members were more sympathetic, saying that the real issue went beyond wallet flows to transparency about reserves.
User Matty.Soul said that Pump.Fun had the right to deploy its revenues and ICO proceeds as it wished. Matty wrote, “Even if this is true, there is nothing wrong in it. It is your own revenue.”
User Ooga NFT said that there are legitimate projects transferring USDC after the ICO, and the main question was whether the USDC reserves actually support the circulating supply.
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