Original Title: A review on the current state of the 'Trenches'
Original Author: @nicodotfun
Original Translation: zhouzhou, BlockBeats
Editor's Note: The Pumpfun ecosystem remains active during market downturns, with the launch of PumpSwap driving a recovery in trading, achieving daily trading volumes of $300 million to $500 million, resulting in significant fee income. Despite a decrease in users, veteran players in the trenches remain active, and new coins are currently more popular than old ones. Memecoins continue to be the most attractive speculative tools in the Solana ecosystem, with low entry barriers and high volatility, consistently attracting new liquidity.
The following is the original content (reorganized for better readability):
I have been entrenched in the "trenches" for a while now, while many on Crypto Twitter have long claimed that the trenches are "dead."
Indeed, the trading volume of memecoins is not what it was a few months ago, and the $TRUMP coin can be said to have reached a local peak in terms of popularity, trading volume, and liquidity attraction.
However, that was during a time when $SOL surged to $290, BTC exceeded $100,000, and the entire bull market was in full swing.
After that, BTC retraced to the $74k–$88k range, and SOL once dropped to a local low of $95. But now, SOL has risen back to $140+ (a 46% increase in 15 days), and BTC has also reclaimed the $90k mark, prompting us to reassess the current situation.
Although SOL's price is not considered high, combined with the overall market sentiment being bearish and some fatigue among participants, the data presents a different picture. Let's take a look at the data for April so far:
@pumpdotfun has generated approximately $650 million in trading volume to date. In April alone, its daily trading volume fluctuated between $1 million and $2.7 million, averaging around $1.5 million to $2 million, which is a high level within this range.
After SOL reached its peak and the popularity of the $TRUMP coin peaked, trading volume initially declined. However, in April, trading volume began to rise significantly again.
With the launch of pumpswap and the almost "instant migration" experience, the gameplay surrounding the "migration event" has become smoother, enhancing the overall trading experience. This can be seen from the weekly growth in total trading volume.
So far, 9.7 million tokens have been created on pump. In April alone, 20,000 to 40,000 new coins were launched daily, with about 100 to 350 completing "graduation" (i.e., entering the trading pool) each day, resulting in a graduation rate of approximately 0.4% to 0.8%.
The gradual decline in the graduation rate is actually synchronized with the decrease in user numbers and overall trading volume. This also indicates that the PVP (player versus player) component in the "trenches" is now higher—some small groups will band together to control new coins when they are launched, then sell off to each other. Once they find they cannot attract enough liquidity to continue binding tokens, they quickly choose to abandon and exit.
Active User Situation
During the peak period (from December 2024 to February 2025), about 200,000 to 400,000 users were trading memecoins on pumpfun daily. Since then, the number of users has steadily declined, and it has not returned to over 200,000 in the past two months.
Currently, there are about 150,000 active wallets daily, with a relatively balanced ratio of new to old wallets. However, it is important to note that most "trench players" trade using multiple wallets and occasionally switch their active wallets.
Trading Bot Data
As we all know, most of the trading activity for memecoins is currently conducted through the top five terminals, including: @AxiomExchange, @bullx_io, @tradewithPhoton, @gmgnai, and @TrojanOnSolana.
Platform Daily Active Users (DAU) Daily Trading Volume Daily Transactions
Axiom 17,000 - 30,000 $20 million - $33 million 700,000 - 1.5 million
Bullx 20,000 - 30,000 $20 million - $33 million 200,000 - 400,000
Photon 18,000 - 27,000 $30 million - $50 million 250,000 - 350,000
GMGN 10,000 - 18,000 $8 million - $20 million 180,000 - 290,000
Trojan 14,000 - 25,000 $7 million - $30 million about 20,000
This data generally aligns with the overall trend we observe—there are about 100,000 active users daily, with total trading volume exceeding $100 million.
Cumulative Fees & Platform Assets Under Management (in SOL) — estimated at SOL price of $140
Bullx: Cumulative Fees $186 million | AUM: 215k SOL (approximately $30 million)
Axiom: Cumulative Fees $39 million | AUM: not publicly disclosed, estimated slightly below Bullx
Photon: Cumulative Fees $382 million | AUM: 539k SOL (approximately $82.6 million)
GMGN: Cumulative Fees $66 million | AUM: undisclosed, estimated to be at least half of Bullx
Overall, across these platforms and other related venues, there is likely over $200 million in liquidity SOL actively circulating within the memecoin ecosystem.
PumpSwap Data
PumpSwap currently has a daily trading volume between $300 million and $480 million, accounting for 9%-19% of the total Solana DEX volume. Since all new coins from pumpfun are issued and traded on PumpSwap, this also indicates that a considerable portion of old coins is still actively traded on platforms like Raydium or Meteora.
PumpSwap is a very clever move by the pumpfun team
They set a trading fee of 0.25%, with 0.02% going to LPs (liquidity providers) and 0.05% going to the protocol itself.
After about a month since its launch, PumpSwap has accumulated approximately $25 million in fees (ranging from $100,000 to $240,000 daily), of which about $20 million has been distributed to LPs, and the remaining $5 million has gone into the protocol's pocket.
Moreover, this number is still rising, as PumpSwap's market share continues to expand. We can clearly see the trend: people are more willing to trade new coins rather than old ones.
This preference aligns with my judgment on the development path of memecoins: it is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate the "trenches" because those who remain are mostly veterans—hardcore players who have endured the decline in SOL prices, the quiet trading volumes, and the loss of users, yet still persist in the space.
The true driving force behind the memecoin ecosystem comes from "new liquidity," which is to say, the entry of new users.
This wave of new users initially consisted of some mainstream investors who suffered significant losses or "industry veterans," who, in pursuit of faster returns, turned to the embrace of memes.
As this ecosystem continues to expand, more and more retail investors are beginning to "dip their toes into the deep waters of the trenches."
Memecoins remain the most suitable vehicles for speculation, with Solana acting as the main stage for the casino. These coins are easy to understand, have low entry barriers, and for newcomers, the returns from a successful bet are often highly asymmetric—winning once can yield several times the investment.
Additionally, there is a lot of content, with new things happening every day; everything can be turned into a token: people, content, events, memes… In contrast, DeFi projects tend to feel boring and cumbersome, requiring constant attention to strategies, understanding mechanisms, with low operational ceilings and high risks.
If I had to choose a few other targets to bet on outside of memes, it would probably only be Hyperliquid and its ecosystem, along with fartcoin—after all, hot air does rise (laughs).
Do you think the trenches are dead?
No, the battle has just begun, and the mission is not yet complete.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
