Pump.fun laid off more than 40 employees in the last two months, with at least one losing out on token allocations now worth over $1 million. The Solana-based memecoin platform cut staff starting in early April, just before its PUMP token unlock scheduled for June 2026.
Internal documents and meeting notes, obtained by Sandmark, reveal growing pains cited by co-founder Noah Tweedale as the reason for rapid layoffs. He reportedly admitted the company was expanding too fast to maintain cohesion. Those let go received severance equivalent to a week's pay for each month worked but missed out on valuable PUMP tokens due to timing.
The tokens were set to release a year after the initial agreement in June 2025, but departures in April meant affected employees never saw their allocations despite PUMP’s steep price drop from its 2025 peak. Still, the token value tied to lost allocations tops $1 million for some individuals. Another round of cuts reportedly hit in mid-July, fueling frustration reflected in posts like one from “ExPumpEmployee” claiming dismissal just before token release.
