The co-founder of the Pump.fun platform knew in advance about celebrity memecoin launches and received token contract addresses before public announcements — this is the accusation made by crypto promoter Sahil Arora, who presented screenshots of a Telegram correspondence.

According to Arora, it was he who organized these launches, and the Pump.fun co-founder, known as Alon, received insider information about upcoming listings. Pump.fun is a service on the Solana network where anyone can issue their own memecoin.

What the correspondence showed

In May 2024, Sahil Arora wrote to Alon that the official token of Caitlyn Jenner — the American TV star and former Olympic champion — would launch on the platform that same day. Judging by the screenshots, Alon initially did not believe it.

About four hours later, the JENNER token indeed appeared on the platform. After that, according to Arora, Alon wanted to participate in subsequent launches. In the screenshot, he asks how they managed to attract Caitlyn Jenner and whether she is personally involved. He then asks to send the contract address of rapper Rich The Kid's token — the unique identifier of the coin by which it can be found and purchased. Alon promised to bring other people into the purchase if he received the address before the musician's tweet.

Sahil Arora stated that this continued all summer:

  • from May to August 2024, he passed Alon the token addresses of roughly 20 celebrities;
  • Alon directly or indirectly held positions in these coins or brought buyers into them;
  • a trader under the nickname Ansem joined at the second token, constantly buying up celebrity memecoins and publicly supporting them.

If the claims are true, some market participants learned token addresses before the public. Ordinary buyers in such a situation enter later and at a worse price.

How relations with the platform deteriorated

By autumn 2025, the tone of communication had changed. Sahil Arora showed a group chat about the launch of rapper DaBaby's token on Pump.fun. A participant under the nickname sundown wrote that the team would prefer to run the project itself, explaining that the previous experience had been "not the most positive," and suggested a call. Later sundown clarified that the Pump.fun team wants to work with DaBaby directly.

Sahil Arora declined the call and promised to bring 20 more celebrities to Pump.fun within two weeks. In response, sundown remarked that one could earn far more by working honestly. Arora reacted rudely, stating that it was he who brought millions in volume to the platform and brought Hollywood to it. The post also includes a tweet from DaBaby in which the rapper announced streams and a launch on Pump.fun.

Among the screenshots there is also a correspondence between another trader and a user named Heathenz. The latter confirmed that it was about a partnership with Pump.fun and suggested switching from the Fomo app to Pump.fun for $5,000 for registration and another $5,000 monthly. The trader refused, explaining that he hardly trades memecoins.

Cryptalist analysis: The incident exposes a structural problem of the memecoin economy: the information asymmetry between platform insiders and retail traders turns celebrity launches into a mechanism for redistributing liquidity in favor of early participants. If the accusations are confirmed, the reputational risks for Pump.fun could increase regulatory pressure on the entire Solana memecoin segment and undermine trust in the influencer launch model.