Pump.fun cut over 40 employees right before their $PUMP token grants were set to vest, causing at least one former staff member to miss out on a payday exceeding $1 million. The layoffs happened in two shots, one in late March and early April, and another in July.
Internal communications reviewed by Sandmark reveal the company claimed these moves were needed because it "had grown too quickly," preventing them from moving "fast and rough." Fired employees received severance equal to one week per month worked, but lost their token allocations since they left before the tokens unlocked in June 2026.
Co-founders Noah Tweedale and Alon Cohen didn’t respond to inquiries, and Pump.fun has remained silent since these reports surfaced. The platform, built on Solana and focused on memecoins, has generated around $1.3 billion in revenue to date, still making roughly $1 million every day despite the upheaval.
