Pump.fun reportedly dismissed employees shortly before their PUMP token grants were scheduled to vest, leaving at least one former worker without an allocation now valued at seven figures.
Summary
- Employees were reportedly dismissed weeks before 25% of their PUMP grants vested.
- One former employee allegedly lost a token allocation now worth seven figures.
- Separate claims said 40 workers were cut one day before another vesting date.
- PUMP trades near $0.002, about 77% below its September 2025 peak.
Pump.fun layoffs preceded employee token vesting
Pump.fun reduced its workforce in late March and early April after rapidly expanding its operations, according to an investigation by Sandmark.
Documents, emails, and internal recordings reviewed by the publication showed that some employees lost their jobs shortly before their PUMP allocations were due to begin vesting. At least one former employee allegedly forfeited tokens now worth seven figures.
Workers had reportedly signed token grant agreements in June 2025. Under those arrangements, the first 25% of their allocations would vest after one year, followed by additional releases over time.
Sandmark obtained a termination email showing that Pump.fun head of talent Lloyd McCarthy called affected employees into a group meeting in late March. During the recorded meeting, co-founder Noah Tweedale said the company had “grew too quickly,” limiting its ability to operate “fast and rough.”
Contracts were terminated in early April, according to the report. Affected workers received severance payments based on how long they had worked for the company, but their unvested PUMP allocations were reportedly canceled.
Pump.fun has not publicly addressed the findings.
Former workers allege a second round of cuts
New allegations surfaced after former workers claimed that Baton Corp., the company behind Pump.fun, conducted another round of layoffs in mid-July.
A newly created X account named “ex pump employee” alleged that Baton dismissed about 40 employees one day before their PUMP grants were scheduled to vest. The account owner claimed to have worked for the company for more than a year.
The account also alleged that Pump.fun never intended to conduct a public PUMP airdrop because the company opposed “giving free money” to users. Pump.fun has not responded publicly to that claim.
However, Sandmark said it could not independently verify the allegation that 40 workers were dismissed immediately before the July vesting event. The claim therefore remains based on the former employee’s account rather than independently reviewed employment records.
The dispute centers on employee compensation rather than tokens already held by public investors. Still, the allegations could increase scrutiny of how crypto companies structure token grants and whether employment termination clauses allow firms to cancel large allocations shortly before vesting.
PUMP distribution moved $86.49M to 121 wallets
The allegations follow Pump.fun’s first major team and investor token distribution after a one-year lockup expired.
As crypto.news previously reported, on-chain tracking showed that 57.279 billion PUMP tokens, valued at approximately $86.49 million at the time, moved to 121 wallets on July 15.
Wu Blockchain said the distribution marked the start of a three-year vesting period for team and investor allocations. The transfers made previously restricted tokens available to recipients, although wallet movements alone do not prove that any of the tokens were sold.
For US token holders, the employment allegations do not change their ownership rights. The broader concern is market-related: continued insider distributions could increase transferable supply and create selling pressure if recipients move tokens to exchanges.
PUMP remains 77% below its record high
PUMP traded around $0.002 at press time, gaining nearly 5% over the previous 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Despite the daily rise, the token remained roughly 77% below its September 2025 all-time high.
The decline comes as Pump.fun continues to generate large numbers of short-lived meme coins. A June CoinGecko study examined 18.67 million tokens created through the launchpad between January 2024 and June 2026.
Researchers found that 12.8 million tokens, or 68.67%, recorded their final Pump.fun bonding-curve trade on the day they launched. Tokens that never traded were excluded because they had no measurable trading lifespan.
CoinGecko linked the high failure rate to the platform’s low barriers to token creation, which allow users to abandon launches quickly when early demand fails to appear.
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