PumpFun and its founder have been accused of manipulating ICOs, is there insider information about a previous Rug Pull?

Today (28) during the Asian session, the price of PumpFun (PUMP) continues to fall, currently reported at 0.002752 USD, with a daily decline of over 4%. After its launch on July 15, PUMP once rose to around 0.007 USD, but subsequently entered a one-sided downward trend. The public issuance price of 0.004 USD has not effectively stopped the decline, and today PUMP has even fallen below 0.003 USD, severely impacting investors' confidence in PUMP.

However, even more shocking is the report that one of the co-founders of PumpFun, Dylan Kerler, was allegedly involved in manipulating an ICO project as early as the age of 16, conducting a "Rug Pull" scam. This allegation stands in stark contrast to PumpFun's claimed "anti-evil vision," raising questions about its integrity in the market.

PumpFun Founder Dylan Kerler's "Dark History"

PumpFun, the world's largest Memecoin factory, allows anyone to create their own cryptocurrency. However, years before the platform was launched, a person with the same name as co-founder Dylan Kerler had already earned a small fortune by issuing and selling his own tokens.

According to a WIRED investigation, a person named Dylan Kerler issued eight tokens in 2017. At that time, Dylan Kerler, the co-founder of PumpFun, was only 16 years old. Two of the tokens—eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash—gained attention on crypto forums, and their prices subsequently fell, with investors accusing the developers of conducting a Rug Pull.

According to an analysis by blockchain security company CertiK, a developer using the name Dylan Kerler earned as much as $75,000 in cryptocurrency solely from the sales of eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash in 2017 — estimated at a value of around $400,000 based on today's prices. CertiK's Chief Security Officer Wang Tielei stated: "After waiting for market share and price to rise, they quickly cashed out and exited." "We strongly suspect that EthereumCash was designed by the developer as a tool for a Rug Pull."

The purpose of PumpFun, according to its co-founders, is to protect investors from unethical actors through a standardized token issuance method. However, there is evidence that Dylan Kerler was precisely the type of developer that the platform aimed to guard against in its early stages. As of the time of publication, neither PumpFun nor Dylan Kerler has responded to multiple requests for comments.

The Rise of PumpFun and Its Mysterious Founder

PumpFun was founded in January 2024 by three twenty-something entrepreneurs: Noah Tweedale, Alon Cohen, and Dylan Kerler. The platform quickly became the preferred incubator and trading venue for Memecoins. These types of cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and primarily created for speculation. According to third-party statistics, in just 15 months, PumpFun has generated over $600 million in revenue through a 1% transaction fee.

The three co-founders rarely disclose their identities, locations, or company structure. During an interview with WIRED last year, Tweedale stated that this anonymity is due to "personal safety" concerns to prevent the enormous crypto assets managed by PumpFun from attracting ransom or attacks.

Among the three, there is the least public information about Kerler. Aside from being listed as a director in documents from the UK Companies House, he has almost no public association with PumpFun. Tweedale stated to WIRED that Kerler is responsible for leading the development team in writing the platform's code and functionality iterations. Besides an account named @outdoteth on X ( original Twitter ), Kerler's online footprint is nearly nonexistent.

However, a series of "digital clues" left in the corners of the internet such as GitHub, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Medium still links this name to the suspected rug pull operations of eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash.

Digital Footprint: Tracing Early Token Promotion and Scam Models

In 2017, the two tokens eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash were initially promoted by two accounts on the crypto forum BitcoinTalk: DOMAINBROKER and ninjagod, both belonging to the same user. In a forum post promoting eBitcoinCash, DOMAINBROKER provided an email address containing the name Dylan Kerler, referring to it as a "personal mailbox"; while in another thread initiated by ninjagod about EthereumCash, several forum users directly referred to Dylan Kerler as the developer of the project.

At the same time, multiple clues suggest that PumpFun co-founder Dylan Kerler was in the same area as the developers of eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash—the latter had stated in an old Telegram group that he was located in Brighton, UK. Voter registration records reviewed by WIRED show that Kerler was registered at an address in the Brighton and Hove area at least in 2024. When a reporter visited that address on April 15, a resident responding through the intercom refused to disclose their identity but stated that Kerler "no longer lives here," indirectly confirming the accuracy of the voter registration. Company registration documents indicate that a physical company under PumpFun was registered at the same property located in Brighton and Hove. This address is also shared by two other companies, both of which list 62-year-old Kee Fatt Phoon as a director. Additionally, Phoon is also registered as a voter at that address.

Alias and Connections: Dylan Kerler or Dylan Phoon? It seems that Dylan Kerler may have used the alias "Dylan Phoon," which shares the same surname as Kee Fatt Phoon, suggesting a possible familial relationship between the two. Until recently, a GitHub account using the nickname "outdoteth" still retained an old code repository that contained an email address named after Dylan Phoon; the avatar used for this email also appeared on a Medium account named DylanKerler1, as well as on LinkedIn and YouTube accounts under the name Dylan Phoon. The aforementioned YouTube account uploaded a video about the cryptocurrency Skycoin. Although the project was created by others, its project logo had also appeared on the BitcoinTalk account of ninjagod, which can be seen as an indirect clue that both may originate from the same person. Another YouTube account named @dylankerler4130 had published videos about the "Equis" project, which promotes the slogan "Revolutionizing the Gaming Industry." Equis is also promoted by ninjagod on BitcoinTalk, and its code is identical to that of eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash.

In summary, the two names used by PumpFun co-founders—Dylan Kerler and Dylan Phoon—can both be traced back to accounts that promoted EthereumCash and eBitcoinCash on BitcoinTalk.

ICO bubble and early Rug Pull models: eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash were both launched during the peak of the ICO frenzy by developers using the name Dylan Kerler. During that time, hundreds of token projects raised billions of dollars from investors through the ICO model. ICOs became popular among crypto startups because they did not require equity dilution. Analysts pointed out that while some projects funded through ICOs, such as Ethereum(, are still operational, most ICOs were manipulated, exaggerated, or even completely fraudulent, ultimately leading to tighter regulations. Many developers exaggerated the utility of their projects, manipulated prices to create hype, and even fabricated return rates.

"Developers are aggressively promoting the fantasy of high returns," said Nicolai Søndergaard, a research analyst at blockchain analytics firm Nansen. "This is precisely the source of FOMO psychology." The hype of the ICO boom led many gullible investors to pursue profits with almost no due diligence )Due Dilligence(, a phenomenon that mirrors today's behavior of investing in dubious meme coins. "The meme craze has many similarities with ICOs," Søndergaard pointed out, "it's very easy to sell a story to the masses and then quickly harvest."

The rise and fall of EthereumCash: A developer known as Dylan Kerler began promoting his most popular token, EthereumCash, in early October 2017. The developer followed the standard script: minting tokens on Ethereum, setting up a website, and launching promotions on BitcoinTalk, Twitter, and Telegram. To generate hype, they distributed tokens for free through so-called "airdrops" and promised to release a white paper. At that time, a white paper was seen as a symbol of legitimacy and could drive prices up.

CertiK analysis shows that Dylan Kerler distributed millions of EthereumCash to wallets under his control just days after the token's issuance. One wallet starting with 0x7f3E2 was subsequently used to sell large amounts of the token to the market. Between October 19 and 21, 0x7f3E2 sold hundreds of batches of EthereumCash on the peer-to-peer trading platform EtherDelta. These sales coincided with a catastrophic fall in the asset's price, which dropped by 87.9%.

Panic began to spread on Telegram and BitcoinTalk. A user, probably looking for some amusement, started to mock the token by calling it "ECRASH." Others accused the developers of being fully responsible. Another Telegram user who participated in the EthereumCash airdrop told WIRED, "Everyone is very angry." "I think this is the first time I've experienced a Rug Pull." The highly anticipated white paper also never appeared, and ultimately, the developer named Dylan Kerler disappeared from BitcoinTalk posts and Telegram groups. Just a few days ago, he had written, "I can assure everyone that the plan is making significant progress."

In three transactions on October 20 and 21, the developer's wallet withdrew a total of 240 Ethereum from EtherDelta, amounting to about $75,000 at the time, with the code )ETH(. After each withdrawal, these ETH were immediately transferred to another wallet address )0xc8ae1(, which was subsequently dispersed into three wallets: 0x7EAbb, 0x31728, and 0x952F3. Ultimately, these ETH were transferred to centralized exchange accounts such as Binance, Bity, and the now-defunct Cryptopia—platforms typically used to exchange cryptocurrencies for fiat.

WIRED has identified at least 20 wallets used by a developer who claims to be Dylan Kerler. These wallets have been used for issuance, airdrops, or selling eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash, or for transferring related income to centralized exchanges. "The effect of this layered processing is to obscure the flow of funds," Søndergaard said, "If you have nothing to hide, there’s really no need to do this. It’s inherently suspicious." Although some investors still harbor fantasies about its return—on October 24, someone joked, "I smell the scent of a white paper"—all signs have long indicated the final outcome. In a BitcoinTalk post from early October, a developer wrote: "This will be like a Pump and Dump, a round of price increase followed by selling off, early investors can recover their costs. "I’m sorry to be so direct, but that’s the truth."

Wealth Creation and Forgetting: The Nature of the Meme Coin Market

As of today, the surge of PumpFun has not stopped. According to third-party statistics, its platform generates daily revenue of up to 1 million dollars. The wealth of its founders has skyrocketed, far surpassing eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash from back in the day. Meanwhile, while this "wealth creation machine" continues to operate, the contrary intention of Rug Pull is still being played out, with almost no one paying attention.

In November last year, a teenager started a live broadcast on PumpFun and created and sold a token in just a few minutes, netting $30,000. While shouting obscenities, he raised his middle fingers to the camera—this moment may truly be the footnote of this era.

Conclusion:

The PumpFun platform and its founder Dylan Kerler are suspected of having a history of manipulating ICOs and Rug Pulls, ringing alarm bells in the currently vibrant Meme coin market. Although PumpFun claims to aim at protecting investors from unethical actors, the founder's past experiences are contrary to this vision. This not only raises doubts among investors about the future of the PUMP token but also reminds us once again that when chasing high-risk, high-return Meme coins, it is essential to conduct thorough due diligence and be vigilant against potential fraud risks. While the "wealth-generating machine" continues to operate, we should also reflect on whether the essence of this market is innovation or a repetitive "pump and dump" game.