Founder pump.fun Outraged After Memecoin LIBRA Scandal: "Community Needs Protection"

Pump.fun founder Alon has strongly reacted to the collapse of memecoin LIBRA, criticizing those who exploit users for personal gain. On 18/02, the founder of the memecoin pump.fun platform, Alon, posted an article on X, expressing extreme anger at what happened in the collapse of the memecoin LIBRA last weekend.

He does not hesitate to call this a large-scale internal fraud, where those behind profit personally, pushing thousands of small investors into bankruptcy, causing serious damage to the entire crypto market and even negatively affecting a country. Alon said: "I am truly outraged by what has happened to LIBRA. The masterminds behind this project have made a huge profit, while a lot of small investors have lost everything." Looking back, on February 15, LIBRA was promoted as the 'official memecoin of Argentina,' publicly endorsed by President Javier Milei. However, just a few hours after its launch, over 107 million USD in liquidity was withdrawn, causing LIBRA's market cap to plummet by 4.4 billion USD, becoming one of the fastest collapses in crypto history.

Under public pressure, President Milei hurriedly deleted the promotional post about LIBRA and denied any involvement, asserting that he was simply “sharing” rather than "promoting" this token. Subsequent analyses revealed an underground force not only behind controlling LIBRA but also related to MELANIA and a series of other memecoins, launching pump & dump campaigns to pocket hundreds of millions of USD from retail investors. The big shock came when LIBRA's 'insider' openly admitted that his group had been self-sniping LIBRA tokens to control enough initial liquidity when the token was issued. This confession has shaken the entire crypto market as internal trading cases like LIBRA have been happening for a long time and are still ongoing. It is the issues related to internal transactions and the 'expansion' plan of LIBRA's political memecoin team to other countries that have made Alon question the role of the development team and market maker in the memecoin market. He believes this is a loophole that allows a small group to manipulate the project and deceive investors. The founder of pump.fun shared: "Creating a memecoin is a simple process that anyone can do without relying on any intermediaries. The presence of development teams and market makers not only increases risks but also paves the way for manipulation and profiteering from investors." In addition, Alon also emphasized that the pump.fun platform was created to address the issues exposed by the LIBRA scandal by automating, standardizing, and democratizing the token creation process. Instead of giving control to development teams and market makers, pump.fun allows anyone to create memecoins transparently and fairly, minimizing the risk of manipulation to the maximum extent. Alon's statement is like a 'cold water bucket' pouring straight into the M3M3 launchpad, the platform for issuing memecoins that is currently under a big question mark about transparency, especially after shocking revelations about the involvement of Meteora and Kelsier Ventures in the LIBRA case. According to information from DefiTuna, M3M3 is not just a launchpad, but also a tool for Kelsier Ventures and Meteora to manipulate, extracting over 200 million USD from memecoin projects. Disclosures show that when a memecoin project wants to launch on M3M3, they are required to allocate a part of the token supply to transfer to Kelsier Ventures and their group. Ultimately, Alon refuted the view that the collapse of LIBRA could be the end point for meme coin On the contrary, the demand for creating and trading on-chain assets will continue to exist and grow strongly. "I understand that many people want to see the end of memecoin because of scams like this. But in reality, the demand to create and speculate on-chain assets freely will never disappear."

With that in mind, Alon emphasizes that launchpad platforms like pump.fun need to have better user protections, instead of allowing the market to fall into a 'free fall' state as it is now. He has made three main proposals to help users trade more safely while still meeting their needs including: Educate users on how to safely and ethically launch memecoins: pump.fun simplifies the coin creation process, but users still lack guidance on operation, supply management, and risk mitigation post-launch. Enhance the experience for new investors: The expanding crypto market attracts many professional traders, but platforms and KOLs need to support newcomers instead of focusing solely on advanced trading tools. Launch platforms should enhance user protection: hide suspicious tokens, set reasonable slippage below 20%(, and integrate tools to help users assess risks more effectively.

Under Alon's post, Bankless founder David Hoffman has proposed adding sniper control mechanisms to the pump.fun smart contract. He suggests that the platform could create a "sale window" within 30 minutes after the token launch to control transactions for a more stable price.

However, Alon opposes this idea, arguing that adding complex on-chain mechanisms may make users feel safer, while the actual risks remain unchanged.