Weekly Market Highlights Review (6.3 - 6.7): Pump.Fun Issue Coin and Analysis of South Korea's New Policies

This week, the overall cryptocurrency market is in a game of searching for direction with fluctuations, mainly showing a rebound and drop. On the positive side, a certain trading platform's ecosystem token has seen a general rise due to the launch of a liquidity promotion campaign, and the phone call between Trump and Xi Jinping indicates a shift towards peace talks. Circle's listing has performed well under stablecoin policies; on the negative side, the focus is mainly on steel tariffs and the Trump-Musk feud on Friday, while interest rate cuts have yet to materialize. This article will focus on Pump.Fun issuing coins, as well as cryptocurrency policies in South Korea and Singapore.

1. Pump.Fun issue coin

On June 4, sources revealed that Pump.Fun plans to conduct a $1 billion token sale at a $4 billion valuation, with tokens being sold to both the public and private investors, and they may be issued within the next two weeks. This news quickly sparked widespread discussion in the market.

1.Issue Coin Opportunity

• Market Liquidity

On January 18, 2025, Trump issued the Solana-based $TRUMP token on the eve of his inauguration, attracting a lot of market attention. In February, Argentine President Milei launched the $LIBRA token, but it quickly fell into scandal and its value plummeted, raising regulatory concerns about the issuance of political tokens. These two large-scale meme issuance events rapidly drained market liquidity at the time.

Analysis of company data shows that half of the wallet addresses of $TRUMP and $MELANIA token holders had no prior history of purchasing Solana-based altcoins. About 47% of buyers created their wallets on the same day they acquired these tokens. Under such inflow, Doge fell by 6% and PEPE dropped by 10.5%.

Solana's TVL decreased by 10% during the issuance of $LIBRA, while Ethereum's TVL only dropped by 2% during the same period. After reaching a daily trading volume peak of $35.5 billion on January 17, on-chain activity on Solana sharply declined to $3.1 billion by February 17. These two events triggered panic in the market, causing many investors to withdraw from the cryptocurrency market, leading to an overall decline in liquidity.

• Platform Siege

Since last year's meme craze, Pump.Fun has basically held a monopoly position in the Solana meme space, but its practice of selling coins as they are earned and its negative impact on the Solana ecosystem has led to Believe and LetsBONK.fun joining the fray, quickly eroding Pump.Fun's leading position and market share.

For a long time, Pump.fun has dominated the Solana meme coin launchpad space, with a market share that once exceeded 98%. However, according to data from the data platform, at the beginning of May, Pump.fun's daily token market share sharply dropped to 56.2%. LetsBonk holds a 29% market share, while Launchlab accounts for 7%. This decline signifies that Pump.fun is facing real competition for the first time, highlighting the rise of new competitors.

• The meme craze fades and income plummets

The trading volume on Pump.fun has dropped from $118.9 billion in January 2025 to just $25.1 billion, a decrease of 79%.

With the steady decline in the number of tokens created on the platform, daily revenue has also sharply decreased. This shift indicates that interest in the issuance of speculative meme coins is rapidly fading. In May, the Pump.Fun platform generated $46.6 million in revenue, a 42.85% decline from $137 million in January.

The main advantage of Pump.fun lies in its rapid issuance and instant trading features, but it lacks unique technology or economic models to protect its market position. Its revenue is highly dependent on the overall prosperity of the Solana ecosystem; once Solana's liquidity or user activity declines, Pump.fun's trading volume and revenue will be directly affected.

2. Valuation

The only reason for the high valuation of Pump is its cash flow income. Since its launch in March 2024, its revenue has approached 700 million US dollars.

We simply use P/S (Price-to-Sales Ratio) as a measure of valuation. A low P/S may indicate that the valuation is undervalued, while a high P/S reflects market optimism about future growth. Pump.fun's P/S ratio is 9.1, based on a $4 billion valuation and approximately $440 million annualized revenue.

General Range:

• Undervalued Range: P/S < 5, which may indicate that the project is undervalued, and the revenue is relatively high compared to the market value, making it suitable for value investors to pay attention to.
• Reasonable range: P/S 5-20, reflecting that the project has a stable income stream and the market has certain expectations for its growth, commonly seen in mature DeFi, Layer 1/2 protocols, etc.
• Overestimated range: P/S > 20, which may indicate that the market has overly high expectations for the future growth of the project or there is a speculative bubble, and risks should be taken seriously.

Overall, the current valuation of 4 billion carries a high risk, especially if revenues continue to be sluggish or competition further erodes market share. It is recommended to closely monitor its revenue recovery, the effectiveness of token sales, and the overall performance of the Solana ecosystem.

2. Policy Regulation

1.【6.3】The newly elected South Korean president Lee Jae-myung has promised to promote the development of cryptocurrency ETFs and a won stablecoin

• Promote the legalization of spot crypto ETFs: Lee Jae-myung pledged to support the legalization of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to attract investors and integrate South Korea's crypto market with the global market.
• Issue Korean Won Stablecoin: He plans to launch a stablecoin pegged to the Korean Won, aimed at curbing capital outflow, enhancing Korea's financial sovereignty, and providing local investors with a more stable investment tool for cryptocurrency assets. According to data from the Bank of Korea, in the first quarter of 2025 alone, the trading volume of stablecoins pegged to the US dollar has reached 57 trillion Korean Won, accounting for more than half of the total trading volume of stablecoins.
• Guiding Institutional Investment: Lee Jae-myung plans to guide national institutions such as the National Pension Service of Korea to allocate crypto assets, which is seen as a bold policy. He believes that the entry of institutional investment will significantly enhance market size and may drive mainstream crypto asset prices, such as Bitcoin, to new highs. The National Pension Service of Korea is one of the largest pension funds in the world, with an asset management scale exceeding $800 billion; if a portion allocates to crypto assets, it will have a profound impact on the market.
• Optimizing Regulation: South Korea's current cryptocurrency regulation is relatively strict. The 2021 "Specific Financial Transaction Information Act" requires exchanges to conduct real-name verification and operate with high compliance, limiting market flexibility. Lee Jae-myung plans to reduce the tax burden and transaction fees on cryptocurrency trading through policy adjustments, easing the investment burden on retail and institutional investors, attracting more market participants, and may revise the high compliance requirements in the "Specific Financial Transaction Information Act" (implemented in 2021) to enhance the operational efficiency of exchanges.

2.【6.2】Singapore's financial regulatory authority will prohibit unlicensed overseas cryptocurrency services

All cryptocurrency service providers registered or operating in Singapore must cease providing services to overseas clients by June 30, 2025, if they do not obtain the DTSP license, and MAS has clearly stated that there is no grace period.

• Strict DTSP licensing requirements:

All entities registered or established in Singapore, whether providing digital token services (including coin issuance, trading, custody, transfer, node operation, consulting, and publishing research reports) domestically or abroad, must obtain a DTSP license issued by MAS. Alternatively, they must hold an existing license as stipulated under the Payment Services Act, the Securities and Futures Act, or the Financial Advisers Act. Companies that fail to comply will face severe penalties, including fines of up to 250,000 Singapore dollars (approximately 200,000 US dollars) and possible imprisonment.

• Broad definition of "business premises":

"Business premises" includes any location used for conducting business (even mobile stalls), with a very broad scope. Employees of overseas companies working from home may be exempt, but the definition is vague, and MAS has the final interpretation.

• The definition of digital token services is broad:

Covering token issuance, trading, custody, consulting, and the publication of analysis or research reports related to digital tokens (in electronic, print, and other forms), even KOLs may need permission to publish research and investment content.

• No transition period and strict approval:

The new regulations will take effect directly on June 30, 2025, with no transition period. MAS stated that it will approve DTSP licenses with "extreme caution" and will only grant approval in "extremely limited circumstances," with a very high compliance threshold.

Additionally, MAS allows overseas company employees to work from home in Singapore, but the definition of "employee" is ambiguous; whether project founders or shareholders fall under the definition of employee is determined by MAS.

The third phase of the FSM Bill (effective June 30, 2025) marks Singapore's shift from "crypto-friendly" to stringent regulation through a strict DTSP regulatory framework, ending the era of regulatory arbitrage. Key points include extensive licensing requirements, vague definitions of "place of business," a wide range of covered services, no transition period, and strict AML/CFT measures. In the short term, small and medium projects may withdraw or merge with large institutions due to high compliance costs. In the long term, the new regulations could enhance market trust, but may weaken Singapore's attractiveness as a Web3 innovation hub. In the coming month, Hong Kong, Dubai, Tokyo, Malaysia, and the United States may become preferred locations for project withdrawals.

3. [6.4] A large bank plans to allow customers to use Bitcoin ETFs as collateral for loans.

When BTC can be used as collateral for loans, its financial attributes are significantly enhanced, transforming from "static asset" to "liquid capital", improving its capital utilization rate, valuation premium, and overall market demand. Customers can obtain loans by collateralizing Bitcoin ETFs without the need to sell assets, providing investors with new ways to utilize funds and optimize investment strategies.

As a globally systemically important bank (G-SIB), its acceptance of Bitcoin ETFs as collateral indicates that crypto assets are being recognized by mainstream financial institutions as legitimate investment tools, similar to gold or stocks. This grants Bitcoin ETFs a "hard asset" status, which could encourage other banks to follow suit, further enhancing the institutional acceptance of crypto assets.