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  • LetsBonk just flipped Pump.fun and changed Solana’s meme meta

LetsBonk just flipped Pump.fun and changed Solana’s meme meta

PLUS: Phantom is building a trading empire • ETH whales are back • Bullish IPO to hit Wall Street

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Cryptopolitan News
August 05, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Welcome back, friends —

Solana’s meme coin game just flipped. Pump.fun is out. LetsBonk.fun is in.
Meanwhile, Phantom is evolving from wallet to weaponized trading stack.
ETH whales are stacking billions, and Bullish just made its Wall Street move.
Feels like crypto’s meme era isn’t just fun, it’s funding the game.

Let’s break it down.

🐸 The meme wars: LetsBonk.fun just flipped Pump.fun

Pump.fun used to be the undisputed king of meme coin launches on Solana. It birthed thousands of tokens, onboarded an army of degens, and turned token creation into a sport.

But now, there’s a new sheriff in town: LetsBonk.fun

In July, LetsBonk.fun grabbed 66.5% of new meme token launches on Solana — flipping Pump.fun, which now trails behind at just 22%.

So what changed?

The BONK Effect

LetsBonk.fun didn’t just clone Pump. It leveled up.

  • It rode the cultural wave of $BONK, Solana’s most viral meme asset

  • It rewarded creators for trending tokens, making launchpads feel like leaderboards

  • It made the process faster, cleaner, and just more fun

Creators jumped ship. Traders followed. And just like that, the launchpad meta shifted.

This isn’t just a meme turf war. It’s protocol economics in disguise.

  • Every token launched = real on-chain activity

  • Every trade = fees paid in SOL

  • More meme activity = more demand for blockspace

So while meme coins might look like low-effort casino chips, they’re quietly becoming Solana’s retail growth engine: onboarding new users, juicing validator rewards, and keeping gas fees flowing.

Let that sink in: meme coins are helping fund Solana’s security.

Zooming out

Meme coins are attention markets. And LetsBonk.fun built a better funnel for attention.

Whether it keeps the crown or not, it’s already proven one thing:
In the Solana ecosystem, entertainment is utility.

✍️ TL;DR: What’s up with the Solana meme ecosystem?

  • LetsBonk.fun overtook Pump.fun as Solana’s top meme launchpad (66.5% share)

  • It won by rewarding creators, riding $BONK, and making launches go viral

  • Meme coins = real transactions = real fees = Solana growth

  • Degens memeing? That’s the new bull market onboarding funnel

👻 Phantom isn’t just a wallet anymore

Phantom started as the “nice and easy” wallet for Solana.
Now it’s turning into something much bigger and much faster.

On Monday, Phantom announced it’s acquired Solsniper, one of the fastest-growing meme coin trading tools on Solana. Think: sniper bots, wallet tracking, real-time alerts basically everything a serious degen wants.

And yes, Phantom said it loud and clear:

❝

We’ve acquired Solsniper… built for precision and speed.

But this isn’t just a cool product pickup.
This is Phantom making a move to evolve from a wallet…
to a full-blown trading stack.

The bigger picture

Let’s rewind.

Phantom launched in 2021 as a clean, secure wallet for Solana.
Then it expanded to Ethereum and Polygon.
Then it raised $150M from Sequoia and Paradigm, hitting a $3B valuation.

Now it’s spending that cash to buy market edge.

  • In February: Acquired SimpleHash (cross-chain NFT and metadata tool)

  • Now: Acquired Solsniper (meme trading + wallet analytics)

  • Next: Likely more acquisitions to chase real-time crypto activity

Phantom isn’t just storing your coins anymore.
It’s watching what you trade, when you trade, and what you’ll want next.

Because meme are here to stay.

Back in January, Pump.fun pushed $3B+ daily volume.
Traders needed fast tools to enter new token launches in seconds aka sniping.
That’s where Solsniper won: real-time token tracking, whale alerts, lightning swaps.

Now Phantom owns that edge. And they’re keeping Solsniper running as is for now.

But don’t be surprised if your wallet soon feels a little more… turbocharged.

✍️ TL;DR: What’s Phantom play?

  • Phantom acquired Solsniper to level up its trading game

  • It’s part of a bigger push to evolve into a full trading + analytics platform

  • Meme coins are sticky, high-volume, and community-driven and Solsniper gives Phantom a front-row seat

  • Wallets aren’t just for storage anymore. They're for alpha.

🧠 Signal vs Noise

Remember when analysts said institutions were asleep on Ethereum?

That aged like milk.

In just the last few weeks…

  • Nine fresh wallets stacked 628K+ ETH. That’s $2 billion worth.

  • SharpLink, The Ether Machine, and unnamed whales made nine-figure buys.

  • One address alone scooped 138K ETH in a single week.

  • OTC desks are buzzing. Onchain sleuths spotted $300M+ in off-exchange buys.

And it’s not just bags. It’s behavior.

Arkham, FalconX, Glassnode, and every whale tracker in town is flashing the same pattern: Big buyers are not waiting for lower prices.

Even ETH ETFs — once thought to be lagging are suddenly printing:

  • $727M inflows in a single day (mid-July)

  • $9.49B cumulative net flows to date

So, while panic sellers folded post-Powell, whales were buying the dip.
Quietly. Consistently. At size.

The short squeeze is real. The smart money has entered the chat.

🧃 Noise: ETH ETF hype is all talk. No one’s buying.

📶 Signal: The whales are very awake.

Top Data & On-Chain Accounts to Follow on X

Here are Cryptopolitan’s top picks:

@lookonchain – Smart money surveillance in thread format. Watch what whales are buying, selling, and aping into.

@ArkhamIntel – On-chain doxxing machine. Tracks funds, insider wallets, and suspicious inflows across chains.

@Dune– The data playground of crypto. Their X account curates fire dashboards covering trends across DeFi, NFTs, and memecoins.

@hildobby – The wizard behind top Dune dashboards (including active wallets & whales). Quiet but elite.

Wall street moves that caught our finance team’s eye

1/ Bullish wants Wall Street in its bag.


The Peter Thiel–backed crypto exchange just kicked off its IPO roadshow, targeting a $4.23B valuation.

Led by NYSE’s ex-president Tom Farley, Bullish wants to raise $629M, not to fund offices or marketing…
…but to buy stablecoins and inject liquidity into the market.

📌 24K BTC from BlockOne
📌 Daily volumes topping $2.9B in 2025
📌 BlackRock-linked firms may scoop up $200M in IPO shares

With Circle, BitGo, and Kraken also eyeing IPOs, the crypto-to-Wall-Street pipeline is heating up fast.

2/ Figma flew too close to the IPO sun.

After tripling on its NYSE debut, Figma’s stock just cratered 23% in a single session, dropping from $122 to $88.60. That’s a $33.40 nosedive erasing nearly all post-IPO gains in just four days.

Why the fall?

Despite solid revenue and profitability, the broader market mood is shifting.

📌 Deutsche Bank warns: 10–15% correction ahead
📌 SPX is overbought (RSI hit 76)
📌 August–September are historically brutal for stocks

Figma's still valued at $56B, but the IPO honeymoon may be over.

Intern picks: Our Intern is back from vacation

Youre Back Ryan Reynolds GIF by Welcome to Wrexham

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