Solana’s Pump.fun Token Sale Sparks Insider Advantage Concerns—Web3 VC Sounds Alarm

Another day, another crypto launch with whiffs of preferential treatment. Solana-based Pump.fun’s latest token sale has Web3 investors raising eyebrows—and not just at the project’s potential.

Early Birds Feast, Others Scramble

VC firm Modular Capital dropped a truth bomb: insiders and early backers might’ve gotten a golden ticket while retail traders fight for scraps. The mechanics? Classic ‘pump-and-dump’ optics, wrapped in DeFi’s favorite buzzwords.

Solana’s Speed, but at What Cost?

The chain’s blistering transaction speeds made Pump.fun’s launch seamless—for those who got in before the starting gun. Everyone else? Left parsing blockchain data to see if they’ve been outmaneuvered by whales with inside lanes.

Cynical Take
: Nothing unites crypto like the smell of asymmetric information—except maybe the collective amnesia when prices moon anyway.

Pump.fun token sale is delayed again?

There is speculation among market participants as to whether the Pump.fun token sale event has been delayed. The $4 billion auction has been delayed several times since the latter part of 2024, raising concerns among SOL ecosystem users. 

Journalist Colin Wu claimed in a recent tweet on X that sources close to the matter informed of a delay to mid-July 2025. It is important to note, however, that there is no official confirmation from the meme coin launchpad. 

As accounts of both the launchpad and co-founder Alon Cohen remain suspended, there is no further commentary on X. 

Retail traders should remain on the sidelines until price is stable: DWF Ventures

DWF Ventures has evaluated the opportunity for retail participants eyeing a piece of Pump.fun’s token sale and presented a balanced outlook with bullish and bearish arguments. While traders looking for low-risk meme coin exposure could consider the event an opportunity to profit from jumping in early, there is a downside risk from early sale of the token by insiders and early investors. 

The token’s price could face high volatility, and the VC firm addressed the rumors surrounding the early exit of investors.

Quoting the post: “If rumors are true, a complete unlock at TGE alongside potential profit-taking from early investors and airdrop recipients ($400m worth given token sale valuation) could result in major volatility early on. It might be beneficial for retail participants to remain sidelined until price action is more stable.”

Retail traders should therefore err on the side of caution, according to DFW, to safeguard their capital until the token price is relatively stable. 

Solana down 6% on Friday, SOL could slip another 10%

Solana price wiped out 6% of its value on Friday amid geopolitical tension and Pump.fun-related developments within the SOL ecosystem. SOL risks a double-digit decline over the weekend, per technical indicators on the SOL/USDT daily price chart. 

Solana could sweep liquidity at the $125 support, the upper boundary of a Fair Value Gap (FVG) on the daily timeframe. If the token fails to begin a recovery at this point and the downward trend persists, SOL could test the $95 support and lose the $100 milestone. 

Relative Strength Index (RSI) reads 36 and is sloping downwards. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator shows an underlying negative momentum in the SOL price trend. 

SOL/USDT daily price chart | Source: TradingView

Conversely, a recovery could see SOL test resistance at the upper boundary of FVGs at $160 and $168. A daily candlestick close above the $168 resistance could pave the way for a retest of the $190 level, a key resistance level throughout the past five months.