pumpfunGUIDES · BASICS
How does Pump.fun work?
Pump.fun lets anyone launch a Solana memecoin and lets anyone trade it straight away. Here’s what happens, step by step, from a trader’s point of view.
1. Get a Solana wallet
You need a Solana wallet such as Phantom or Solflare, with some SOL in it. SOL pays for the coins you buy and the small network fees on every transaction.
2. Connect and pick a coin
On Pump.fun you connect your wallet and browse new coins. Each coin page shows its chart, its trades, and how far along its bonding curve it is.
3. Buy and sell on the bonding curve
New coins aren’t traded against other people’s orders. You buy from and sell back to an automatic price formula, the bonding curve. Every buy nudges the price up and every sell nudges it down, so early buyers pay less than later ones.
4. Graduation
When enough of the coin has been bought, the curve completes and the coin graduates. Its liquidity moves to a regular trading pool (today Pump.fun’s PumpSwap), and from then on the price comes from normal market trading.
5. Creating your own coin
Creators give the coin a name, ticker, image and description, then launch it. No coding is needed. Most new coins never reach graduation.
What it costs
Expect a trading fee on each buy and sell, Solana network fees, and slippage: the gap between the price you see and the price you get when the market moves fast. Check Pump.fun’s current fee page before trading, because fees change.
Where Terminal fits in
Many active traders use a separate trading app such as Terminal (formerly Padre) to trade Pump.fun coins with faster tools. Terminal is not Pump.fun. The cashback below is Terminal’s offer.
New here? Read What is Pump.fun? first. This guide is information, not financial advice. Most memecoins lose value.