Strategic Overview

Beyond the Pump: A Better Way to Launch Crypto Projects

The Current Landscape

Over the past year, Pump.fun has seen wild success, sometimes generating close to $1 million a day in trading fees. However, that success has also brought a wave of low-effort launches, scams, rugpulls, and growing concerns about extractive dynamics from the community.

While greed still dominates much of the landscape, many users are growing weary of losing money. Meanwhile, real builders and projects are being drowned out in a sea of low-quality tokens, struggling to raise awareness and gain attention for their work.

This presents a clear gap in the market for launchpads that prioritise trust, long-term value, and alignment with project communities.

Various teams are now competing to fill this gap by developing more sustainable and ethical launchpad platforms that are less extractive toward their communities (Launchpad wars, anybody?).

Notably, even Pump.fun's creators have recognised this shift, implementing a revenue-sharing plan in Pump.swap to distribute trading fees to token creators and counter perceptions of being maximally extractive.

Pump.Build's Strategic Approach

Rather than chasing volume or degen-fuelled launches, Pump.Build is designed around long-term value. We believe the next wave of crypto platforms won’t be shaped by speculation, but by sustainability and trust in projects that offer real utility.

Our shift from quantity to quality aligns user behaviour with the continued success of projects launched on our platform. This represents a fundamental departure from existing models in the crypto space.

Challenges and Trade-Offs

This shift toward quality introduces trade-offs: sell penalties before a project completes its bonding curve, slightly higher trading fees, and the reservation of a small portion of token supply to align incentives.

These requirements undoubtedly impose higher costs on project founders and may lead to a decrease in the total number of launches and, consequently, lower trading fees and platform revenue.

Additionally, since much of Pump.fun’s activity is driven by well-funded bad actors who manipulate prices or engage in other shenanigans, these actors are unlikely to migrate to Pump.Build. While this aligns with our goal of hosting ethical, quality projects, it also means a smaller initial user and founder base.

This ultimately presents a strategic trade-off: project founders must feel that our benefits outweigh these costs, and users must understand how they can both contribute to — and benefit from — the system.

Fee Structure and Community Alignment

The higher token fees implemented by Pump.Build may initially seem excessive. However, we believe they serve a strategic purpose in aligning the entire Pump.Build community with the success of every project launched on the platform.

This creates a mechanism where even users who may not have invested directly in a particular project still benefit from that project's success through any sale in the future where token proceeds are distributed to the staking contract, based on governance-directed trading decisions.

This alignment mechanism creates a more sustainable ecosystem where all stakeholders are incentivized toward long-term project success, regardless of whether they were early or late to the project, or whether they hold those tokens, rather than short-term gains — because the Pump.Build platform and $BUILD token will serve as the central anchor connecting all users, founders, and projects together.

Building a Reputation for Quality

Over time, as projects launched on Pump.Build become successful, more careful consideration and restrictions can be applied to prospective founders and projects. This selective approach will serve to establish stronger market differentiation.

By curating high-quality launches, the platform will develop a reputation where being accepted to launch on Pump.Build becomes a meaningful signal of project legitimacy.

This reputation creation operates as a flywheel effect – as high-quality projects succeed, more legitimate founders will be attracted to the platform, further strengthening its brand.

While Pump.fun optimises for volume and fees, we optimise for sustainable growth, strong founder support, and investor protection.

Conclusion

Pump.Build's vision represents a paradigm shift in the crypto launchpad ecosystem. By prioritising quality over quantity and implementing mechanisms that align all stakeholders toward long-term success, we are positioned to address the market's growing demand for ethical, sustainable alternatives in the crypto and web3 space.

While our approach may not immediately generate the revenue volumes seen on platforms like Pump.fun, it establishes a foundation for enduring growth and trust. As the crypto market matures, we believe users and developers will increasingly seek platforms that offer genuine value and protection against scams and exploitation.

The real measure of our success will not only be daily trading volume or fee generation, but rather the lasting impact and value created by the projects we launch. By building a community bound by shared incentives and a commitment to quality, Pump.Build stands to become the preferred destination for serious projects and investors who prioritise integrity with a fair trustless launch over short-term gains.

In a landscape often characterised by extractive practices, Pump.Build offers a vision of what crypto launchpads can and should be: catalysts for innovation that serve all stakeholders in the ecosystem, not just platform owners or founders themselves. This principled approach may require patience, but positions us to lead the next evolution of crypto project launches.