PUMP lost $700M in market cap as Alon Cohen shut down airdrop rumor
The price of Pump Fun’s PUMP token fell 14% on Wednesday at exactly the same time as the company’s CEO, Alon Cohen, was on a live interview shooting down rumors of an imminent airdrop.
According to CoinGecko, when the interview with Threadguy, aka Michael Jerome, started around 9 pm BST, the token’s price was $0.00388967. However, it soon began to plummet and by the time the 45-minute chat had ended, it was down to around $0.00335079.
Since then, it’s dropped another 8.5%, bringing its 24-hour decrease to 18% and current price to $0.003067.
Read more: Pump Fun’s token is crashing like a Pump Fun token
Judging by the price action, it’s fair to say the interview wasn’t well-received. Cohen shot down rumors that an airdrop would happen on July 24, and said it “is not going to be taking place in the immediate future.”
He also crushed the dreams of crypto streamer “Rasmr,” who was rumoured to get millions of tokens from the airdrop. A new iteration of its token swapping features, PumpSwap 2.0, was also teased.
Reactions to the interview from the Pump Fun community were far from stellar. Some noted that it lacked any substance, while others hinted that venture capital investors would likely be upset.
One user even joked that Threadguy wore all black clothing for “Pump Fun’s funeral.”
Read more: Burwick says Solana and Jito ‘co-conspired’ in $1.5B Pump Fun fraud
Pump Fun was a major catalyst for the memecoin trend and made over $774 million in the process. Now the platform faces major competition from rival Bonk Fun.
In the interview, Cohen said, “there’s a lot of short-term hype,” and “a lot of short-term tactics that are involved” with Bonk Fun.
Pump Fun is also facing fraud charges in a freshly amended lawsuit from crypto-focused legal firm Burwick Law. Its token has also performed poorly overall outside of yesterday’s interview.
When asked about its price, Cohen refused to comment and instead said he would boost sentiment by returning to the memecoin platform’s roots and addressing the core community.
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