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Crypto folk and regulators go together as well as water and oil, just ask Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and SEC Chair Gary Gensler, but even the wild west of Web3 should have its limits.
If FTX wasn't enough to convince you that crypto platforms need regulation, memecoin website Pump.fun just might.
Launched in January 2024, Pump.fun became the fastest-growing crypto app ever after reaching $100 million in revenue in September.
Perion Lim
Functioning as a memecoin launchpad, Pump.fun allows anyone to create a memecoin with just 0.02 SOL, enabling users to create and experiment at an affordable cost.
By making sure every token undergoes a fair launch with no presale and team allocation, Pump.fun ensures token safety by preventing rug pulls.
The platform generates revenue from charging a 1% fee on trades and a 2 SOL fee when coins receive ample liquidity to be listed on Raydium, a decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Solana blockchain.
However, giving degens an open platform with extremely low barriers to entry and limiting them only to the extremities of their imaginations has uncovered a whole new level of depravity.
Loyal Blockhead readers will recall how we took a swing at Pump.fun degens for capitalising on the death of One Direction star Liam Payne by creating a slew of memecoins in his "honor," tributing the likes of the hotel room in which he fell from.
Blockhead
But this was barely scratching the surface. Users clicking around on Pump.fun's livestreams will, before long, land on pornography, with streamers offering various sex acts in exchange for memecoin market cap targets.
"$65K for Topless, $100K for Fully Naked, $250K for Surprise" one cam girl wrote on her live stream that Blockhead innocently stumbled upon.
Worse still, as highlighted by X user AlwaysBeenChoze, Pump.fun's seedy underbelly is far darker than we'd first thought. Streamers acts go far beyond stripping. Suicide threats, rape, child abuse, and animal abuse are all present on the memecoin platform.
Is @pumpdotfun going to be banned soon?
— Choze👽 (@AlwaysBeenChoze) November 24, 2024
Calls to ban PumpDotFun have been growing over the past few days.
It all started cuz there’s been a bunch of crazy live streams popping up on the platform. Some of the stuff is seriously messed up, like:
> Criminal acts
> Suicide threats… pic.twitter.com/RTSFjOhoqN
In one screengrab shared by the X user, a dog is seen seemingly having relations with a woman, while another shows a child with the caption "it's in your hands or he will live" and similarly another still shows "11Mill MC OR DOG GET CAPPED." Other stills show women offering even more lewd offerings than simple nudity including being urinated on.
"Honestly, if PumpDotFun doesn’t take this seriously and do something to stop this kind of content, there’s a good chance the U.S. government might ban their platform in a few weeks or months," the X user stated.
"Their app is actually a big deal for memecoins, but this issue has gone way too far. If they don’t step up and shut down this kind of behavior, I bet we’ll see even crazier stuff."
One can't underestimate the extent to which human beings, and worse still, degens, will go to make a buck or two. "Worst case? Someone might actually kidnap people and demand their bag gets pumped as ransom," AlwaysBeenChoze suggested.
It's a warning to heed and regulators need to vigilantly monitor the crypto platform with urgency.
