Pump.fun vs Bonk.fun: Which Memecoin Launchpad Is Better?

The Pump.fun launchpad earned $33.06 million in September 2026 on DefiLlama's revenue figures, more than 100 times what its rival took in. In Pump.fun vs Bonk.fun, that makes the older launchpad the better one for launching and trading memecoins. It also brings deeper trading, a published fee schedule and creator fees of up to 0.95% after graduation.

The order ran the other way in July 2025, the month of the flip, when Bonk.fun's own dashboard logged $32.80 million against the older launchpad's $17.30 million on DefiLlama. By September 2026 the newer launchpad's share of their combined revenue had dropped from 65.47% to under 1%. Its monthly revenue fell more than 99% over those fourteen months, while the older launchpad's rose 91.08%.

Pump.fun vs Bonk.fun at a Glance

What Is Pump.fun?

Pump.fun is a memecoin launchpad where anyone can create a coin without paying a platform fee, only the network's own costs. Each coin starts on a bonding curve that lifts its price as people buy, and once buyers fill the curve it graduates to PumpSwap, the platform's own exchange.

The scale is hard to match. In September 2026 coins on the curve traded $3.04 billion and PumpSwap handled $14.57 billion, according to DefiLlama. Its fee schedule also covers trades on EVM chains, so Solana is no longer its only home.

Its PUMP token has traded on Phemex as a perpetual and a spot pair since July 2025. Phemex's profile of co-founder Alon Cohen and his Solana meme empire covers the team behind it.

What Is Bonk.fun?

Bonk.fun is a Solana memecoin launchpad built around the BONK community, and its terms of service describe it as a front end for smart contracts that Raydium maintains. It started out as LetsBonk, the name its revenue dashboard still carries, and those same terms say it has no affiliation with Raydium.

The contracts belong to LaunchLab, Raydium's launch program, which lets outside teams run a branded launchpad with their own fees. Raydium's guide to LaunchLab platforms sets out what each platform can and can't change. On its own site, the launch feed sorts coins into Classic and Bonkers launches and lets you filter for coins paired with USD1, a dollar stablecoin.

For the DEX underneath it all, Phemex's Jupiter vs Raydium token comparison covers Raydium's own token.

How Do Pump.fun and Bonk.fun Differ?

On screen the two look alike, and the differences sit in what a trade costs and where the fee money ends up.

Pump.fun Fees vs Bonk.fun Fees

The older launchpad charges 1.25% on a standard bonding-curve trade, with 0.30% going to the coin's creator and 0.95% to the platform. It last updated its published fee page in early October 2026. After graduation its PumpSwap pools charge 1.25% in all below a 420 SOL market cap, stepping down to 0.30% at 98,240 SOL and above.

On a $1,000 buy on the curve, that's $12.50 in fees, with $3 for the creator and $9.50 for the platform.

Bonk.fun's terms and dashboard give no fee rate, but its settings on Raydium's LaunchLab are public on chain. They charge 1.5% on a curve trade, a 0.25% LaunchLab fee plus the platform's own 1.25%. The same $1,000 buy costs $15, with $12.50 for the platform. Graduated coins move to Raydium pools, where Raydium's fee comparison puts LaunchLab's default fee at 0.25%.

Graduation to PumpSwap vs Raydium Pools

Graduation is the point where a coin leaves its curve for an open trading pool. Phemex explains what a bonding curve is and how it works in its academy.

The older platform charges 0.015 SOL to move a coin into its PumpSwap pool, and LaunchLab pays about 0.04 SOL out of the curve's reserves to open a Raydium pool.

The bigger gap comes later. The PumpSwap schedule pays creators up to 0.95% of every pool trade in the 420-1,470 SOL market-cap tier, so a coin that keeps trading keeps paying its launcher. LaunchLab caps a creator fee on the curve at 0.5%, and Bonk.fun's terms give no rate for one.

Pump.fun Buyback vs Bonk.fun's BONK Purchases

The PUMP token page puts the policy in one line, "Half of every dollar Pump.fun earns buys $PUMP on the open market, then burns it forever". Since 28 April 2026 that half has been locked in code for one year, the page adds. On the launchpad's September 2026 revenue alone, half comes to about $16.5 million.

The BONK launchpad has stopped burning altogether. Its revenue dashboard shows the buy-and-burn share cut from 50% to 40% on 11 August 2025 and to 35% on 10 September 2025, then removed on 3 December 2025.

From that date, 51% of revenue buys BONK for the digital asset treasury of Bonk Inc., the Nasdaq-listed company that trades as BNKK. The other 49% goes to BONKsol staking, user rewards and a set of marketing and team budgets.

Pump.fun vs Bonk.fun Revenue Since July 2025

Measured by revenue, the "pumpfun vs bonk" market-share question now has a one-sided answer, and the July 2025 flip survives as a single month's lead.

Method: daily revenue from DefiLlama's protocol page for the older launchpad and the daily rows of its rival's own revenue dashboard, summed by calendar month. The newer platform logged its July 2025 revenue in weekly batches, and the batch dated 1 August 2025 falls outside the month, so its July lead is if anything understated.

The dashboard shows $32.80 million for July 2025 and $20,335 for September 2026. That later figure counts only revenue paid in SOL and USD1, while the platform also collects fees in BONK and dozens of other tokens, from tokenized stocks to other memecoins. DefiLlama's Bonk.fun series is no fix, because the vault address it reads holds the fees of other launchpads on Raydium's LaunchLab too.

Is Pump.fun Better Than Bonk.fun?

Yes, by a wide margin, for anyone launching or trading memecoins. The older launchpad earns more than 100 times as much, publishes every fee tier and spends half its revenue buying back its own token.

Bonk.fun doesn't win on cost. A curve trade there costs 1.5% in all against 1.25% on the older launchpad, and its own terms don't state the rate.

The lead isn't new either, and Phemex's report on why the PUMP token rallied on Solana meme dominance tracks the comeback.

Which Is Better for Launching a Memecoin?

Pump.fun is the better place to launch a memecoin. Its PumpSwap schedule pays you up to 0.95% of pool trades after graduation, and its coins trade in a far bigger market.

Bonk.fun makes sense only for a coin whose audience is the BONK community itself. If you launch there, know that the platform's cut of your coin's trades no longer burns BONK, and most of it buys BONK for a listed company's treasury.

PUMP vs BONK Price Outlook

PUMP's mid-October close on the Phemex perpetual was $0.00497, down 11.69% on the day from $0.005628. Futures use leverage, and a leveraged position is closed automatically if losses reach its margin.

The buyback drives the PUMP case, since half of everything the platform earns goes into buying the token. The BONK launchpad's buying runs at a fraction of that pace, so BONK's outlook rests mostly on demand for the coin itself.

Phemex's Bonk (BONK) Price Prediction 2026-2030 sets out that coin's ranges year by year, and the Bonk (BONK) price page on Phemex tracks it.

Risks of Pump.fun and Bonk.fun

• Rugs and launch-block buying. Anyone can launch a coin on either platform. Wallets that buy in its first block can sell into everyone who arrives later, and the creator's wallet is no exception. A bonding curve keeps what buyers pay in, which blocks a liquidity pull before graduation and does nothing to stop a dump.

• Fees you can't see. Bonk.fun's 1.25% platform fee appears in neither its terms nor its dashboard, and LaunchLab raised its cap on platform fees to 5% on 26 August 2026, so the rate can rise at any time. The older launchpad's fee page warns that third-party trading apps on an outdated program can charge fees on every pool in a multi-pool route.

• A buyback that depends on revenue. PUMP's buy-and-burn is locked in code only until April 2027, and the token page states that PUMP "does not represent a right to revenues". Launchpad fees can shrink fast, as the BONK launchpad's collapse since July 2025 shows.

• A company treasury as the buyer. The BONK bought with launchpad revenue goes to Bonk Inc., so that buying follows one company's treasury plan and stops if the plan changes. The company's shares trade on Nasdaq under the ticker BNKK, apart from the BONK coin itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Pump.fun safe?

The platform publishes its fees and terms, but its coins carry real risk. Anyone can launch one, and its own welcome screen warns that prices can move quickly. Treat every new coin as able to go to zero, and check who holds the supply before you buy.

Can Pump.fun coins be rugged?

Yes, in the way most traders mean it. Wallets that buy at launch, the creator's included, can sell into later buyers and crash the price. The bonding curve holds buyers' money until graduation, so the risk is a dump and not a liquidity pull.

Is Bonk.fun legit?

It's a working launchpad on Raydium's LaunchLab contracts, with a public dashboard of where its revenue goes. The caveats are a 1.25% platform fee that its own terms don't state and a steep fall in revenue since its July 2025 peak.

What is LetsBonk?

LetsBonk is the launchpad's original name, and it still appears on the revenue dashboard and in a web address that opens the same app. A separate LETSBONK token is a community coin, and Phemex has delisted its LETSBONK perpetual.

Bottom Line

Bonk.fun's July 2025 lead lasted a month, and it has since dropped the BONK burn it once sold as a way to reduce supply. The question that matters now sits with the older launchpad, where half of revenue buys PUMP under a code lock that ends in April 2027. What the platform decides by then will matter more to PUMP holders than anything its rival does.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.