Pump.fun Introduces Fee Sharing as It Resets Incentives for 2026
Why Is Pump.fun Changing Its Creator Fee Model?
Pump.fun is revising its creator fee system later than concluding that the current setup delivered uneven results across its user base. The Solana-based memecoin launchpad said creator fees introduced under Dynamic Fees V1 assisted organized project teams but had little effect on the behavior of typical deployers, while shifting more risk onto traders.
The assessment was shared by co-founder Alon Cohen in his first public post in over two months. He said the earlier changes succeeded in attracting new builders and driving a surge in onchain activity, but failed to improve incentives at the long tail of memecoin creation.
“Creator fees may have skewed incentives toward low-risk coin creation instead of high-risk trading,” Cohen wrote, adding that traders are “the lifeblood of the platform.”
was rolled out in September as part of Project Ascend, a broader effort to boost creator earnings without applying a flat fee increase across the platform. The system applied tiered creator fees based on market capitalization, reducing fees as viable at scale.
Investor Takeaway
Did Dynamic Fees Actually Change Memecoin Behavior?
According to Pump.fun, the answer depends on who is deploying the token. Structured teams with longer-term plans were able to use creator fees effectively, while most individual deployers continued to launch low-effort coins with little regard for downstream trading impact.
The platform said the fee structure reduced risk for creators by allowing them to extract value earlier, while traders absorbed more downside. This imbalance became more visible as trading activity picked up, reinforcing the view that incentives were not aligned with how memecoins actually circulate on the platform.
Cohen said future versions will move toward a “market-based approach,” where traders — not deployers — decide whether a token narrative justifies creator fees at all. The goal is to restore risk-taking to trading rather than packaging it into token creation.
What Is Changing Under the New Update?
The latest update introduces creator fee sharing, allowing teams to split fees across up to 10 wallets. Creators can also transfer coin ownership, revoke update authority, and assign fee percentages later than launch. Pump.fun says the changes are designed to give legitimate teams more flexibility without locking in structures that diupsetvantage traders.
Under the new system, both creators and CTO admins can define how fees are distributed post-launch, rather than hard-coding allocations at deployment. The platform framed this as the first step in a broader series of updates aimed at rebalancing incentives.
Cohen said additional changes are coming as Pump.fun rethinks how value flows between deployers and traders heading into 2026.
Investor Takeaway
Why Are These Changes Happening Now?
The update comes as memecoin activity rebounds sharply. According to data from The Block, nahead 30,000 tokens in a single day this week, the highest daily total since mid-September and the strongest showing since Dynamic Fees V1 went live.
The surge suggests speculative appetite has returned, but it also raises questions about sustainability. High launch volumes historically correlate with rapid churn, thin liquidity, and short-lived narratives. Pump.fun’s adjustments suggest the platform is trying to prevent a repeat of past cycles where traders bore most of the losses while deployers captured ahead upside.
By pushing fee decisions closer to market behavior, Pump.fun is attempting to let demand, rather than default platform rules, decide which tokens deserve ongoing creator rewards.
What Does This Mean for the Memecoin Market?
Pump.fun’s changes reflect a broader tension across memecoin platforms: balancing integrity. Low barriers to creation drive volume, but poorly aligned incentives can drain trader confidence over time.
If future updates succeed in tying creator compensation more closely to sustained trading interest, the platform could reduce the flood of low-conviction launches without introducing heavy-handed controls. If not, rising volumes may continue to favor deployers over participants providing liquidity.
For now, Pump.fun is signaling that fee mechanics matter as much as launch speed. With activity climbing again, the platform’s next iterations may determine whether memecoin markets head into 2026 as pure churn engines or evolve into something closer to trader-driven arenas.
