Let me start off by saying: I’ve been around the crypto block. I remember the hype days of 2017 when ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) were all the rage, and then the NFT craze in 2021. It seemed like every year, crypto found a new trend to latch onto, and every new wave brought a fresh set of both opportunities and pitfalls.
In the last couple of years, specifically around 2024 going into 2025, meme coins on Solana became the new hot thing. People were launching tokens faster than you could refresh your Twitter feed.
Some folks made thousands, some made millions, and others were left feeling completely wrecked. Right in the middle of that mania stood Pump.fun, a platform that promised you could launch a meme coin in literally seconds for “almost no cost.” With that pitch, it gained enormous popularity almost overnight.
But, as I—along with many others—started digging deeper, we found a lot of hidden catches. That’s when I came across TheCoder Token Creator, a tool that basically took everything Pump.fun claimed and reimagined it in a way that actually put the power in creators’ hands. No forced fees, no weird liquidity locks, and total ownership.
In this article, I’m going to lay out exactly why Pump.fun, in my personal view, is not just flawed but can be downright unfriendly (if not harmful) to both creators and investors. I’ll reference actual user complaints, dive into hidden fees, forced liquidity, and show you a side-by-side comparison with TheCoder.
By the end, if you’re on the fence about where to launch your token (or if you’re simply curious about the drama behind these platforms), you’ll hopefully walk away with a crystal-clear sense of which approach is best for you.
Let’s get started by setting the stage: the meme coin explosion.
2. The Meme Coin Explosion and How We Got Here
Before we dive straight into Pump.fun vs. TheCoder, let’s rewind and talk about how we even got to this point where thousands of new tokens appear almost every month.
Meme coins are essentially tokens that might not have a serious “use case” or deeply thought-out utility. Think: the OG meme coin Dogecoin, or later phenomena like Shiba Inu, Pepe, and countless others. The allure is usually fun, humor, and FOMO: “Hey, who knows, maybe this random meme coin will be the next big 1,000x.” Of course, the big caution is they can crash just as fast as they rise.
2.1 Why Solana?
Solana gained a reputation for super-low transaction fees and high throughput, meaning you could create tokens cheaply and trade them quickly. So, it became a prime hunting ground for meme coin creators. Tools started popping up to simplify the process. Instead of manually coding a token or dealing with complicated stuff on Etherscan (like you would on Ethereum), you could just press a few buttons and bam—a Solana token is born.
2.2 The Role of Platforms Like Pump.fun
Pump.fun stepped in at just the right moment: it offered a shortcut. Instead of learning any technical details, you could go on Pump.fun, enter a name and ticker symbol (like “CATS” or “YOLO”), pay a tiny fee, and watch your coin go live. Everyone else on Pump.fun could see your coin too, trade it right then and there, and try to jump in early. The marketing soared with lines like “Create a coin in under a minute!” or “Launch a meme coin with no code or big fees!”
But—as we’ll keep discussing—what’s easy upfront can become quite messy later. It’s basically a “walled garden” approach, meaning Pump.fun controls a lot about your token, including the supply, the fees, and the entire launch mechanism.
Alright, that sets the stage. Now let’s talk specifically about Pump.fun: what it is, how it works, and why so many people have started to label it as a “casino” or even a borderline scam.
3. What Is Pump.fun?
3.1 Quick Overview of Pump.fun
Pump.fun is a Solana-based launchpad. It claims to let anyone spin up a new token in literally seconds. You click “Create New Token,” specify a name, pick an image, and pay an extremely small amount of Sol (maybe 0.02 SOL, which might be about $1 at times, though Sol’s price fluctuates). Then Pump.fun automatically sets up everything: the supply, the trading mechanics, and a unique “bonding curve” that dictates how the price moves when people buy or sell.
The platform also has its own user interface where people can discover new tokens as soon as they launch. Typically, you get a big feed of newly minted coins with bizarre names (like “BANANAWOW” or “DORKDOGE2”), each with some silly icon. People can jump in to buy these coins, hoping they moon. And if the tokens do well, they eventually “graduate” to a more official decentralized exchange (DEX) listing—like on Raydium or Orca—where they can get more mainstream visibility.
That’s the marketing pitch. Now let’s look at the real story.
3.2 Hype vs. Reality: Where Pump.fun Emerged From
Pump.fun wasn’t the first to come up with a one-click meme coin factory. But it perfected the viral marketing part. By launching around the time memes on Solana were going wild, it capitalized on user excitement. Influencers, YouTubers, and random Twitter personalities started pumping out content: “Look at my insane gains on Pump.fun coin XYZ!” or “Just minted a coin in 30 seconds, LOL.”
However, the platform’s business model (which we’ll dissect soon) quietly funnels a lot of money from every single transaction back to the creators of Pump.fun. They realized that if there’s a big mania, and thousands of tokens are launching with high trading volumes, skimming a consistent cut of every trade can yield massive profits.
As you’ll see in user testimonials, this approach—while profitable for Pump.fun—often leaves both the token creators and investors feeling exploited or at least disappointed. The question arises: “Am I truly creating my own token, or am I basically handing control (and a slice of the profits) over to Pump.fun’s platform?”
Let’s break down the mechanics in detail.
4. Under the Hood of Pump.fun
If you want to understand why Pump.fun can be dangerous or at least suboptimal, you need to grasp how it operates under the surface. The platform’s biggest selling points revolve around:
- Bonding Curve for trading.
- Supposedly low upfront fees.
- An “automatic DEX graduation” feature.
- The claim of “fair launches” (no presale or big dev allocations).
But each of these aspects has a catch.
4.1 The Bonding Curve Mechanism: Quick Explanation
A bonding curve is basically a mathematical formula that sets the price of a token based on how many tokens are in circulation versus how many remain in the contract. Whenever someone buys, the price inches up along that curve. Whenever someone sells, the price dips down. This is automated, so you don’t need a separate liquidity pool in the early stages.
Pump.fun uses such a curve to let people buy newly minted tokens. The idea is that if you get in early, you pay less, and the price might climb quickly if there’s a lot of demand. That’s cool in theory, but from a creator’s standpoint, it means you don’t actually own the supply. It’s locked in that contract, waiting for buyers. If you as the creator want tokens, you must buy them just like everyone else. If the token blows up, you might scramble to buy it at a much higher price than the earliest watchers.
This might seem “fair” initially, but it’s also extremely limiting.
4.2 Advertised Fees vs. Reality
Pump.fun is known for saying, “Launch your token for only $2!” or “Just pay 0.02 SOL and you’re golden.” True, the immediate cost is low. But they take a 1% cut (sometimes reported as higher depending on the token type) on every trade. That means whenever someone buys or sells your token on Pump.fun, you’re losing a chunk to the platform. If your community is actively trading, that 1% can become massive.
On top of that, once you reach a certain threshold (often around $69k in market cap), Pump.fun does something called a “graduation fee” or “listing fee,” which might be 1–2 SOL or more. Creators often do not expect this. They only see the marketing that says “create for pennies,” not realizing they’ll be charged a big chunk later when their token is actually succeeding.
In essence, Pump.fun is basically profiting from two angles:
- The constant drip of trading fees.
- The chunk they take when your token “graduates” to an external DEX.
4.3 Forced Liquidity: Why It Matters
A lot of Pump.fun tokens, upon reaching that threshold, get forcibly locked into a liquidity pool. The platform automatically pairs some of the raised SOL with the newly minted tokens, deposits them in a Raydium pool, and then often burns the LP tokens. Burning these LP tokens is supposed to reassure buyers that the liquidity won’t be rug-pulled. That’s all well and good if your biggest worry is a typical rug, but for legitimate creators, it means:
- You don’t get to decide how that liquidity is used or how big the pool is.
- You can’t reallocate funds if you want to shift your project’s strategy.
- The SOL locked in that pool is gone for good, so you can’t use it to develop or market the token.
This is why many creators say they end up with no real compensation from their own token success. The liquidity is locked, Pump.fun takes its fee, and you’re left basically with scraps (or you have to buy tokens to hold a stake).
4.4 Ownership and Control: Do You Actually Have Any?
The biggest bombshell for me when I first explored Pump.fun was that the creator does not automatically get any portion of the tokens minted. You have to purchase them on the open market. On top of that, you cannot choose your total supply—Pump.fun decides that for you (often 1 billion tokens, or 800 million, or some other large, pre-set number). You can’t change decimals, can’t add or remove from supply, and so on.
The entire model is locked-in. You’re basically using Pump.fun’s contract, abiding by Pump.fun’s rules, and paying Pump.fun’s fees. Sure, you get the convenience of launching a token in under a minute, but you sacrifice a ton of control and often end up paying more over time than if you’d minted a token yourself.
That is the key reason we see so many user complaints. Let’s check out some actual experiences next.
5. Real User Complaints About Pump.fun
Countless folks have jumped on Reddit, BlackHatWorld, Blockworks comments, and various crypto forums to vent about Pump.fun. Let’s condense some of the main points. I’ll share these from a perspective of someone who’s read a lot of these threads. You can find references to them in the footnotes or by searching keywords like “Pump.fun hidden fees,” “Pump.fun forced liquidity,” etc.
5.1 Hidden Fees and Mystery Charges
Scenario: A user launched a token believing it would cost them only ~0.02 SOL. They got the token up and running. But as soon as trading started, they noticed a chunk of SOL missing from each transaction. That’s the 1% fee. But they also saw random small increments of fees popping up they couldn’t account for. Some suspect extra “admin fees” or “curve transaction” fees not clearly disclosed.
It might not always be malicious—some might just be normal Solana transaction costs. But the lack of clarity triggers serious mistrust. People hate feeling they’re being nickel-and-dimed or dealing with random phantom costs.
5.2 Lack of Ownership: “It’s My Token, But Not Really?”
This is the biggest one: creators realize they don’t actually hold the supply. They read the fine print (or see it in practice) that Pump.fun minted the tokens into a bonding curve, not into the creator’s wallet. If they want tokens, they have to buy them—sometimes losing out to bots or whales that get in quicker.
5.3 The Casino-Like Environment
A handful of folks describe Pump.fun as a “meme coin casino,” where it’s basically gambling whether your token thrives or dies in a day. The environment encourages rapid speculation, pump-and-dumps, and no real loyalty. If you were planning to build a legit community project, you might find it overshadowed by this frenzied speculation—where people hop in, pump the price, dump on new buyers, and move on to the next new coin. It’s chaotic, stressful, and borderline exploitative.
5.4 Forced Liquidity Locks and Surprise Graduation Fees
Graduation is often seen as a milestone. Pump.fun says, “Hey, once your token hits around $69k market cap, we’ll automatically list you on Raydium, lock liquidity, and burn the LP tokens.” For some, that might sound good. But many creators were shocked to learn they lose control of that liquidity—and that Pump.fun charges a chunk of SOL to do this. So you might find out too late that a big portion of your earnings vanish in the name of “liquidity provisioning.”
5.5 Support Issues and “Where Do I Even Ask for Help?”
When something goes wrong on Pump.fun—like a transaction gets stuck, or you realize your token data is messed up—who do you call? The platform doesn’t offer robust customer support. Maybe they have a Telegram or Discord, but from user reports, it’s not always helpful or responsive. For a no-code tool that’s used by thousands, you’d hope they’d have decent support channels.
This can be a big problem if you’re new to crypto and rely on a service to guide you. If you’re left in the dark, that’s not a great user experience.
6. Digging Deeper: Common Pump.fun Scenarios
In this section, I want to walk through a few typical scenarios that have played out for creators and investors on Pump.fun, just to highlight the ways people can end up burned or confused.
6.1 The “Launch and Abandon” Meme Coin
Many people who launch tokens on Pump.fun are purely there for speculation or a quick joke. They create a coin with a silly name, hype it for a few days on social media, and try to get a quick price pump. After maybe a week or so, once the hype dies, they abandon the project. Because the liquidity is locked, they can’t rug pull in the traditional sense, but they also have no incentive to keep supporting the coin since the bulk of funds is forcibly locked and they only hold a small portion (if they even bothered to buy it at all).
Result: The community sees no updates, the coin gradually dies, and the mania moves on. Pump.fun doesn’t care, because it made its cut from every trade during that short flurry. This leads to a graveyard of meme coins with no ongoing development.
6.2 The Whale Dump: Bots and Early Insiders
Certain advanced users or insiders might monitor Pump.fun 24/7. The moment a new token is created, they can jump in with bots, buy up a large chunk of tokens at super low cost, then wait for latecomers to see it on the trending list. When the price spikes due to FOMO, these early whales dump their entire bag, pocketing big profits. The new wave of buyers is left holding overpriced tokens.
Creator: The ironically sad part is that the creator might not get any real stake if they didn’t personally buy in early. So, random whales effectively overshadow the very person who launched the token.
6.3 The Lost Creator: “I Launched a Token and Got Nothing!”
I’ve read multiple stories where a user says, “I launched a coin, it even got some traction, but after the forced liquidity lock and Pump.fun’s fees, I ended up with less than 1 SOL out of the entire venture.” They realize too late that the platform controls the flow of funds. By the time it’s done locking liquidity and taking its share, there’s barely anything left for the developer or future marketing.
Naturally, this kills any motivation to develop the token. If your grand plan was to actually build something, you have no budget. The hype fizzles, the coin stagnates.
6.4 The Surprised Investor: “Wait, I’m Paying 1% on Every Trade?”
Some investors or casual buyers only notice after they do a few trades that a chunk is missing each time. Pump.fun might bury that 1% fee in disclaimers, but a lot of new users don’t realize it’s happening. Over time, that 1% adds up if you’re trying to flip coins or move in and out frequently.
End result: Some folks compare it to a casino’s house edge—no matter how many times you spin the wheel, the house is collecting from each spin. Doesn’t exactly build trust, especially when you add in the possibilities of whale dumps and abandoned projects.
All of these scenarios paint a picture: Pump.fun is built to revolve around quick speculation, with the platform (like a house in Vegas) always taking its cut. That’s where TheCoder Token Creator offers a very different approach—true ownership, no hidden fees, and actual creator empowerment. Let’s dive into that now.
7. Introducing TheCoder Token Creator
So, imagine you still want that convenience of creating a token on Solana without coding. You want it to be easy, but you also want to ensure you actually own your token, can control your supply, and you’re not paying hidden fees to some platform that’s effectively your middleman. That’s what TheCoder Token Creator is all about.
7.1 What Is TheCoder?
TheCoder offers a simple, no-code solution for creating SPL tokens on Solana—no technical knowledge required. Unlike centralized launchpads like Pump.fun, TheCoder provides a fully automated workflow that puts your token directly in your wallet, ensuring full custody. With the support of a Telegram bot, anyone can launch their token effortlessly and at a low cost, making the process accessible and hassle-free.
This means:
- You define the total supply.
- You decide how many decimals it has.
- You choose whether or not you want the authority to mint more later.
- The entire supply is minted to your personal wallet immediately.
No forced distribution, no mandatory bonding curve, no platform that taxes your trades. Done. That’s exactly what many creators are looking for if they’re serious about building a token project, be it a meme coin or something with real utility.
7.2 Origin and Philosophy: “Creator Control First”
TheCoder’s team (from what I’ve read on their site and various discussions) was basically responding to frustrations with other platforms. They recognized that a lot of no-code solutions either charge big fees or lock you into their ecosystem. TheCoder took a simpler route: charge a small one-time network fee—which is basically the cost of deploying a token contract on Solana (roughly 0.1 SOL)—and that’s it. No monthly charges, no trade fees.
Philosophy: you should own everything from day one. If you want to distribute tokens, you can do airdrops, private sales, or list it on a DEX. If you want to add liquidity, you do it yourself. If you want to build token utility, go for it. TheCoder doesn’t lock you into a closed environment. It’s your token, your rules.
7.3 Basic Features and How It Works
In practice, you go to TheCoder’s website or use their Telegram bot, connect your Solana wallet (Phantom or whichever you prefer), fill in some details (token name, symbol, supply, decimals), confirm the transaction, pay about 0.1 SOL, and in under five minutes, the token is minted.
You instantly see the tokens in your wallet. That’s it. From there, TheCoder might provide guidance on how to add liquidity on Raydium or do an airdrop. But there’s no forced mechanism—you decide how you want your token to be used, traded, or distributed.
8. Major Differences Between Pump.fun and TheCoder
Let’s do a direct, point-by-point comparison to really hammer home why TheCoder’s approach stands out.
8.1 Cost Transparency: Paying 0.02 SOL vs. 0.1 SOL
Pump.fun brags about an extremely low creation fee (~0.02 SOL). That is indeed smaller than TheCoder’s ~0.1 SOL. But the catch is that Pump.fun then charges 1% on every trade. If your token sees decent volume, you can end up paying far more than 0.1 SOL over time. Also, you’ll eventually face the forced graduation fee. TheCoder, by contrast, charges a slightly higher creation cost but has zero ongoing fees. That often works out way cheaper in the long run, especially if your token gains any traction.
8.2 Ongoing Fees: 1% Perpetual vs. Zero
This is huge. Pump.fun’s 1% trading fee is basically an indefinite tax on your project. TheCoder does not impose any trading tax or platform fee. Once your token is created, you can list it on a DEX, and you’ll pay the standard DEX fees (like 0.2% or 0.3%, depending on the exchange), but TheCoder doesn’t take a cut. You keep the benefits.
8.3 Ownership from Day One vs. “Buy Your Own Token”
Pump.fun holds the entire supply in a bonding curve. That’s how they claim it’s a “fair launch.” But it also means you start with zero tokens. TheCoder mints the full supply right into your wallet. If you launch on Pump.fun and your coin moons, you have to rush to buy some tokens, and might end up paying a high price. With TheCoder, you already own them. If you want a fair launch distribution, you can handle that by airdropping or letting people buy directly from you, but the difference is you’re in control.
8.4 Supply Customization vs. Forced One-Size-Fits-All
Pump.fun typically enforces a 1 billion supply or some large fixed number. TheCoder lets you choose: maybe you just want 10,000 tokens for a small membership club or 50 million for a bigger community coin. You can also decide on the decimals. Pump.fun’s rigid structure is convenient for them, but it can hamper your creativity or real use case.
8.5 Decentralization: A True SPL Token vs. A Platform-Managed Launch
Pump.fun is semi-centralized: your token is effectively governed by their contract until it “graduates.” TheCoder token is a standard SPL token from the second it’s minted—you are the contract owner. There’s no third-party controlling your coin’s destiny. That’s not only better from a philosophical standpoint but also from a practical business viewpoint. If you truly want to integrate your token into other apps or scale it, having full decentralization from day one is vital.
9. Why Ownership Truly Matters
Let’s unpack the “ownership” aspect a bit more. Some folks might think, “Hey, if I can create a meme coin quickly, does it matter if I own the supply?” The short answer is yes, it really does. Here’s why:
9.1 You Control Your Project’s Destiny
When you own the supply, you can decide how it’s distributed, how you want to reward your community, how you might want to lock some tokens for future development, or even how to do a private sale if that’s your jam. You’re not at the mercy of a bonding curve that decides who gets in first or how liquidity is locked.
9.2 Avoiding Surprise Locks and Burns
With Pump.fun, you might find out that the platform decided to burn a chunk of tokens or forcibly lock liquidity at some arbitrary threshold. That can ruin your personal plans. With TheCoder, if you want to voluntarily lock liquidity or burn tokens to show commitment, you can do so. But it’s entirely your decision.
9.3 Setting Up Your Own Tokenomics
Let’s say you’re launching a coin for your gaming community. You want 10 million total tokens, with 2 million allocated for a reward pool, 5 million for the treasury, and 3 million for an initial public sale. That’s feasible if you own the supply from day one—just keep 5 million in your treasury wallet, put 2 million in a “rewards” wallet, and so on. You can’t do that if you have to buy your own tokens from a bonding curve.
In short: ownership is about the freedom to shape your coin’s future and ensure you’re not giving away your rights (and money) to a third-party platform.
10. Hidden Pitfalls of Pump.fun’s Business Model
I’ve touched on these already, but let’s go deeper into the fundamental flaws that keep coming up in user complaints and analyses.
10.1 The House Always Wins: 1% Trading Fee Ecosystem
A casino thrives because it always has an edge. Pump.fun’s 1% trade fee is akin to the house edge. No matter how many tokens launch, how many fail or succeed, Pump.fun is raking in a fraction of each transaction. During meme coin frenzies, that fraction can translate into a huge daily income. There were times when Pump.fun was rumored to be making hundreds of thousands of dollars a day from fees alone.
This might be fine if you want a quick fling, but if your intention is building a sustainable project, you’re effectively paying an ongoing tax to Pump.fun. That’s not healthy or fair for your community. And if you’re an investor, well, guess what? You’re also paying that 1% on every trade. If your coin trades back and forth often, that’s a lot of money funneled straight to Pump.fun.
10.2 Forced Liquidity Burns and Creator Incomes
Because Pump.fun forcibly burns liquidity provider (LP) tokens at the $69k cap graduation, they can champion it as “rug-proof.” But it also means the creator can’t access that liquidity for, say, developing a dApp or marketing the token. Meanwhile, Pump.fun sometimes extracts an additional 1–2 SOL as a listing or admin fee when that liquidity is locked.
Imagine your token raises 80 SOL from excited early buyers. If half or more of that gets locked, the rest might go to fees. You, as the creator, might be left with a pittance. That might be okay if your entire plan was just to do a short-term meme flip, but if you had bigger ambitions, you’re stuck.
10.3 Incentives That Don’t Align with Creators
From Pump.fun’s perspective, volume is everything. More trades = more 1% fees. Does that mean they have a real interest in your project’s long-term growth? Probably not. If your project fizzles out and a new one emerges that draws trading mania, Pump.fun still profits. There’s no direct alignment with your success or longevity. They’re basically making money regardless.
11. User Experience Showdown
Let’s break down the UX (user experience) of Pump.fun vs. TheCoder, because at the end of the day, that’s often the biggest factor for newcomers.
11.1 Pump.fun’s Interface and “One-Click Launch”
Pump.fun’s site is undeniably straightforward. You can literally create a token with a few clicks. The UI is bright, flashy, full of meme references, and designed to get you excited about launching or buying. If you’re purely a gambler at heart, it’s quite thrilling. You see new tokens popping up all the time, watch them pump, maybe you buy some.
But ironically, the platform doesn’t walk you through any of the ramifications: it doesn’t clearly highlight the fees or the fact that you don’t automatically receive tokens. It’s more of a “launch now, read the fine print later” vibe, which is often how people get blindsided.
11.2 TheCoder’s Interface and Step-by-Step Guidance
TheCoder’s approach is a bit more “traditional,” though still user-friendly. You connect your Solana wallet, you’re asked about your token name, symbol, total supply, whether you want the token to be mintable in the future, etc. Then you confirm your transaction. Because the entire supply goes to your wallet, it might feel more like you’re “minting a standard SPL token” rather than using a special platform.
Pros: You know exactly what’s happening. You pay about 0.1 SOL once and you’re done. You get direct instructions: “Here’s your token. If you want to list on a DEX, do X, Y, Z. If you want to airdrop to your community, do A, B, C.” The devs apparently offer support channels or at least some docs to help you out, which is more than can be said for Pump.fun’s random environment.
11.3 Support and Community: Where to Turn for Help?
Pump.fun, from user anecdotes, doesn’t have robust support. TheCoder claims to offer 24/7 assistance or at least a quick response time, which is a big plus for newbies.
Why does that matter? Because launching a token is easy, but actually managing it and building a community can bring questions: “How do I set up a liquidity pool?” “How do I add metadata?” “How do I freeze mint authority later?” Having a place to ask is a relief.
12. Is Pump.fun a Scam? Or Just Misunderstood?
I want to address the S-word: “Scam.” People throw this around a lot. A platform can be shady or exploitative without necessarily being a full-blown illegal scam. My personal take:
- Pump.fun is not a pure scam in the sense that it does exactly what it says: you create a token quickly, it’s placed on a bonding curve, people can buy and sell. They do disclaim the fees somewhere in their docs.
- However, Pump.fun can be seen as exploitative or misleading because those disclaimers are not front-and-center, and the real cost (like the 1% fee and forced liquidity) is not hammered home. Many unsuspecting users get burned.
- The environment fosters a “pump-and-dump” mentality, with minimal protective measures for the average user.
12.1 Defining Scams in Crypto
In crypto, we typically call something a scam if it’s intentionally defrauding participants or lying about key details. Pump.fun might not lie, but it definitely downplays certain aspects that might have changed how people approach the platform. It also encourages a system that seems designed to generate maximum fees for the platform. So, some might call it a borderline scam, others might label it a “highly predatory business model.”
12.2 The “Casino” Vibe vs. The Reality of Some Memes
Some say, “Hey, crypto is basically gambling anyway. Pump.fun is just honest about that.” But ironically, they’re not fully honest about it—the 1% fee hits you even if you don’t realize it upfront. The forced liquidity locks can also blindside creators. So, if you want to gamble, sure, Pump.fun can be a playground, but be aware that the house (Pump.fun) is always winning.
12.3 Legal and Ethical Questions
We won’t go too deep into the legal realm, but given how many people have lost money due to unclear terms or forced liquidity, one wonders if regulators might eventually come knocking. If enough complaints pile up, we could see lawsuits or probes. Some user-based suits might already be in motion, though their outcomes remain uncertain. Meanwhile, TheCoder’s approach is simpler: they just provide a tool, like a hammer. What you build is on you. They’re not taking a cut or interfering with your token’s trading, so it’s less legally murky.
13. Case Studies and Stories
Now, let’s share some anecdotal or real-world examples. While I can’t personally vouch for each user’s story, these are typical from the community chatter.
13.1 Real Examples of Pump.fun Fails
- Case A: A user minted a token, CatFunCoin, to try to replicate the success of other cat-themed meme coins. They saw immediate hype. Volume soared to over 100 SOL worth of trades in the first couple of days. People were tweeting about CatFunCoin. Then it approached the $69k “graduation” cap. Boom—Pump.fun auto-locked a chunk of liquidity, took out some fees, and the user ended up with less than 1 SOL in their wallet. The user actually posted their frustration on Reddit, saying, “I basically got zero reward, even though I ‘created’ this coin. The platform made more from my token than I did.”
- Case B: Another user documented a scenario where they saw the 1% fee was actually higher than 1% at times due to fluctuations in token price or slippage. They felt cheated. They tried to contact Pump.fun’s support to clarify but got no response. They basically concluded the platform was “rigged” against the average user or investor.
- Case C: Several folks jumped into a new token, DegenPumpCoin, hoping it would 10x. Big wallets front-ran them, pushing the price up so that by the time these normal buyers got in, it was already inflated. Then the whales dumped, leaving them with near-worthless tokens. The platform, ironically named Pump.fun, gave no recourse. Some buyers realized they paid a big chunk in fees on top of their losses.
13.2 Real Examples of TheCoder Success
- Case D: A small indie game studio minted a token with TheCoder to use as an in-game currency. They minted 10 million tokens, decided to keep 3 million for the dev team in one wallet, 2 million for promotional giveaways, and 5 million were earmarked for a public sale. Because they owned the entire supply from the start, they chose to list on Raydium with a moderate liquidity pool. Over time, the game grew, and the token’s value rose. They used some profits from token sales to fund more game updates. No forced fees, no locked liquidity they couldn’t touch. A healthy setup all around.
- Case E: A charity group minted a fundraiser token. They minted 1 million tokens, gave half away to donors, and left the other half for various philanthropic campaigns. Everything was transparent, and the token holders saw the group truly owned the supply. If they had done this with Pump.fun, they’d have to buy their own tokens or watch them get locked away. TheCoder was straightforward, cost them about 0.1 SOL once, and that’s it.
These success stories highlight the creative freedom you get with TheCoder. Instead of funneling tokens into some platform’s contract, you get to shape your token’s path from the ground up.
14. Deep Dive: Creating a Token with TheCoder
If you’re considering switching to TheCoder or want to see how it actually works, here’s a step-by-step guide in plain language.
14.1 Step 1: Connect Your Solana Wallet
First, you go to TheCoder’s site (or use their Telegram bot). You’ll see a button that says “Connect Wallet.” You can use Phantom, Solflare, or any Solana-compatible wallet. Once connected, TheCoder will read your public address to see how much SOL you have.
14.2 Step 2: Choose Your Token Name, Symbol, Supply
They’ll ask you for a token name (e.g., “DragonCoin”), a symbol (e.g., “DRGN”), and the total supply. This is your chance to be creative or purposeful. Maybe you want exactly 100,000 tokens or 1,000,000, or 10,000,000, etc. You can also pick the decimals—like if you want your token to be divisible up to 9 decimal places or fewer.
Optionally, you can decide if you want to be able to mint more in the future or if you want to lock it in as a fixed supply from day one. If you want a deflationary style, you might set it to a fixed supply and then just burn tokens. TheCoder basically does the behind-the-scenes magic.
14.3 Step 3: Pay the Network Fee (~0.1 SOL)
When you confirm, you’re asked to approve a transaction in your wallet for around 0.1 SOL. That’s basically paying for the creation of a brand-new SPL token on the Solana blockchain. TheCoder’s devs also might keep a small portion of that for their operational costs, but crucially, they do not impose any additional or ongoing fees.
14.4 Step 4: Done! You Have Full Ownership
Within moments, you’ll see your newly minted tokens in your wallet. Now you’re free to distribute them or do whatever you please. Because you hold them personally, you can:
- Airdrop some to community members.
- Send a chunk to a liquidity pool on Raydium and keep the LP tokens for yourself.
- Launch a private sale or presale among your supporters.
- Keep some aside for your dev team or future marketing.
- Burn any if you want to reduce supply later.
It’s your call. No forced curve, no forced fee, no forced liquidity.
14.5 Optional: Setting Up Liquidity
If you want your token to be tradable on a DEX, you’d go to Raydium (or a similar platform) and create a new liquidity pool for your token. This is a separate process, but it’s not too complicated—TheCoder provides instructions. You deposit a certain ratio of your tokens and SOL (or USDC, etc.) to form a pair. You then own the LP tokens, which you can lock or keep. That’s a crucial difference from Pump.fun, where they do the liquidity part for you (and burn the LP) whether you like it or not.
15. What If You Want Liquidity Right Away?
One reason people like Pump.fun is that you don’t have to figure out liquidity yourself. The curve automatically allows people to buy and sell. Here’s why TheCoder’s approach is still better.
15.1 Pump.fun’s Automatic Approach
Yes, with Pump.fun, you get immediate trading via the bonding curve. However, it’s not normal liquidity in the sense of a standard DEX. It’s a closed environment with a preset formula that can lead to crazy volatility. If you want normal liquidity on a DEX, you still have to “graduate” (and pay extra for that).
15.2 TheCoder’s DIY (and Why It’s Better)
Sure, you might have to take an extra 10 minutes to set up a Raydium pool, but then it’s done your way. You choose how much liquidity to provide, and you keep the LP tokens. This means if your project changes direction or you need to reclaim some liquidity, you can. That’s a big advantage. Plus, if you really want a fair distribution, you can do something like an IDO (Initial DEX Offering) or a public sale approach, but it’s on your own terms, not forced by a platform.
16. Community Building and Marketing
16.1 Pump.fun’s Built-In Hype vs. Short Lived
Pump.fun sometimes tries to position itself as a “marketing channel,” letting your new coin appear on their site’s front page. Admittedly, that can give you a short burst of visibility. But a day later, your coin might be overshadowed by the next 100 coins that launched. The environment is so crowded that your project gets lost. And the crowd it attracts is mostly short-term gamblers, not dedicated community members.
16.2 Building a Solid Community with Full Ownership
With TheCoder, you might not get that instant hype from the “Pump.fun front page,” but if you’re serious about your project, you’ll want to build a real community anyway—through Discord, Twitter, or your existing user base. You can show them that you own the supply, you’re not paying a random platform fee, and you have actual plans. It’s more sustainable in the long run.
17. Addressing Common Myths About Pump.fun
Let’s tackle a few statements that Pump.fun fans (or the platform itself) often promote, and see if they hold water.
17.1 “Isn’t It Cheaper to Use Pump.fun?”
Well, yes and no. The immediate creation fee is cheaper (0.02 SOL vs. 0.1 SOL). But you then pay a 1% fee on every trade. If your coin does well and people trade a lot, that 1% quickly dwarfs the difference in creation cost. Also, you risk paying 1–2 SOL upon graduation. So in almost all cases, if you plan for any success, Pump.fun ends up more expensive.
17.2 “Don’t I Get More Exposure on Pump.fun?”
You might get a short burst of attention from the Pump.fun user base. But that crowd is typically flipping coins rapidly. They’re not necessarily supporters of your project. You could get a quick pop in price, but you might also get dumped on. If your aim is building a loyal community or a brand, that exposure might be worthless.
17.3 “But Pump.fun Is So Easy!”
That’s absolutely true. Their user interface is extremely simple. But TheCoder is not that much harder. It’s still a no-code process; you just have to manually add liquidity if you want immediate trading, which is maybe a 10-minute job. The difference in difficulty is minimal, while the difference in control and fees is massive.
18. Practical Tips for a Successful Token Launch Without Pump.fun
So you’ve decided Pump.fun might not be your jam, and TheCoder (or a similar approach) is more appealing. How do you actually ensure success? Let’s talk a little about best practices.
18.1 Planning Your Tokenomics Properly
Unlike the forced structure of Pump.fun, you now have freedom. So decide:
- How many tokens do you want in total?
- Are they going to be all minted at once, or do you want the authority to mint more later?
- Do you want to reserve some for your development team, your treasury, or marketing?
- Are you planning to do burns?
Write all of this down so your community sees a clear plan. Transparent tokenomics goes a long way toward building trust.
18.2 Educating Potential Investors: Transparency
Explain to new buyers how your token got minted (e.g., “We used TheCoder for creation”), show them the transaction on Solana Explorer, and highlight the fact there are no forced fees or locked liquidity. People love transparency. They might be more inclined to buy and hold your token if they know you’re not pulling shady tactics.
18.3 Listing on a DEX and Maintaining Liquidity
If you want immediate trading, go to a DEX like Raydium, create a liquidity pool, and add tokens plus some SOL or USDC. The ratio you choose sets the initial price. Keep an eye on that pool if you need to balance it out or add more liquidity as the project grows. It can be wise to keep a portion of tokens and some SOL in reserve specifically for liquidity.
18.4 Ongoing Community Engagement
Don’t just launch and vanish. Keep your community updated, run events, giveaways, or AMAs. Meme coins especially rely on hype and engagement, but if you’re building a more utility-focused coin, then share real progress updates. Make them see you’re in it for the long haul. Remember, TheCoder tool gave you the keys; now it’s up to you to drive.
19. Expert Opinions and Reddit Feuds
19.1 Summarizing Key Reddit Threads
A quick glance at r/solana or r/cryptocurrency reveals a split: some folks see Pump.fun as an “exciting new frontier,” while others label it a “den of pump-and-dump gamblers.” There’s not a ton of middle ground. Those who tried it and lost money or control are quick to call it out. People who claim they made money often did so by preying on newbies or front-running tokens. Rarely do we see a genuine, community-led project praising Pump.fun as a foundation for long-term success.
19.2 Insights from Blockworks and BlackHatWorld
Blockworks published an article detailing how Pump.fun was raking in huge fees at the height of the mania, even surpassing some major DEXes in daily revenue. That might be impressive from a business standpoint, but it signals a massive outflow of funds from users. Meanwhile, BlackHatWorld had a thread where a user documented their “journey” on Pump.fun and concluded it was rife with hidden costs and manipulations. This aligns with everything else we’ve discussed.
20. Conclusion: TheCoder as the Future of No-Code Token Creation
After exploring all these angles, hopefully it’s clear why TheCoder Token Creator stands head and shoulders above Pump.fun—particularly if you care about transparency, ownership, and building a real project (as opposed to a short-lived gamble).
Here’s a final rundown of the key takeaways:
- Pump.fun might look cheap at first but actually bleeds you with 1% fees, forced liquidity locks, and hidden charges.
- You don’t own your tokens at launch on Pump.fun. You must buy them from the bonding curve, and that can leave you with minimal stake, especially if whales front-run you.
- Pump.fun’s environment is extremely speculative—like a crypto casino. If you’re aiming to build a meaningful project, do you really want that vibe to overshadow your efforts?
- TheCoder Token Creator charges a simple ~0.1 SOL for token creation with no further taxes or forced rules. All tokens are minted to your wallet, letting you set tokenomics and distribution as you see fit.
- With TheCoder, you can add liquidity wherever, whenever you want. No forced burning, no forced “graduation” fee. If your coin does well, you keep the benefits—not some platform raking 1% on every trade.
- If your intention is to have a fun, sustainable meme coin or a more serious utility token, full ownership and no hidden fees go a long way toward building trust and longevity.
At the end of the day, Pump.fun might be appealing if you’re just bored and want a quick shot at meme mania. But if your goal is to create a legit token, build a community, and keep your rightful ownership, TheCoder is the obvious choice.
Final Words
Crypto is still the Wild West in many ways. Tools like Pump.fun might be flashy, but you have to ask: “Who’s actually benefiting?” The answer, more often than not, is the platform itself. TheCoder’s approach brings us back to the ideals of decentralization and user empowerment: you pay a small cost once, and you truly own your token from day one. No strings attached.
I hope this massive, conversational deep dive has clarified all the ins and outs of Pump.fun vs. TheCoder Token Creator. If you’re ready to launch your own coin, you now have a clearer picture of the pitfalls to avoid and the approach that can set you up for success—without giving away your project or your funds to some middleman.
Cheers to a more transparent, creator-friendly future in crypto!
