More than 40 ex-employees of Pump.fun claim they were let go just before their PUMP tokens vested, missing out on payouts worth millions. The controversy escalated as the platform’s team unlocked 50 billion tokens weeks after these employees were dismissed.

An anonymous account on X, purportedly representing the former staff, published termination emails this week, highlighting the timing of the layoffs. Pump.fun has remained silent regarding these allegations.

Vesting Conflicts and Token Burns

In early April, the Solana-based launchpad cut contracts, with a quarter of each staff’s token allocation scheduled to vest two months later. Documents reviewed by Sandmark show grant agreements were signed in mid-June 2025, meaning the affected employees missed a critical vesting window. Co-founder Noah Tweedale explained the layoffs as a consequence of rapid overexpansion, leading to a shift from a fast, rough approach to a more cautious one. Severance packages amounted to one week’s pay for every month worked, but one employee reportedly forfeited PUMP tokens currently valued at seven figures.

That same month, Pump.fun burned $370 million worth of repurchased PUMP tokens, eliminating about 36% of the circulating supply. Co-founder Alon Cohen justified the burn as a strategic move to strengthen token value, asserting that unburned tokens would be reinvested toward the same goal.

The token release on July 12 unleashed 82.5 billion tokens, split between 50 billion for the team and 32.5 billion for investors. At current prices, the team’s portion is worth approximately $102 million, a figure that dwarfs Pump.fun’s reported revenue of $19.1 million for the month ending July 22. This payout is more than five times what the platform earned in that period, raising questions about internal resource allocation.

Despite the layoffs and token disputes, PUMP traded slightly higher on Friday, near $0.0020, a 6% gain, yet remains 77% below its September 2025 peak and 49% under its initial coin offering price. Verification of the layoffs remains limited, with no official statement to confirm a second round of job cuts.

Revenue figures continue to trend upward, with DefiLlama reporting a 22.6% monthly increase, reaching $764,802 on July 22 and over $1 billion earned since March 2024. Still, the stark contrast between employee losses and token releases fuels frustration within the community.

This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.