Pumpfun Project Ascend reshapes memecoin wars with dynamic fees and community empowerment

Pump.fun has fired another shot in the ever-intensifying “memecoin wars” by unveiling its boldest initiative yet—Project Ascend. Announced on 2nd September, this tiered fee structure overhaul could reshape how creators, communities, and investors engage with one of Solana’s largest token launchpads. The aim is straightforward but ambitious: increase creator earnings by up to tenfold while offering memecoins a more credible path towards long-term sustainability.

The Driving Force Behind Project Ascend

According to data from Blockworks, Pump.fun has recently reclaimed market dominance over its closest rival, Bonkfun. This resurgence is no small feat, considering Bonkfun briefly seized control in July, securing a whopping 77% share of Solana’s launchpad market. The losses forced Pump.fun into strategic innovation, culminating in September’s pivotal launch.

At the heart of Project Ascend lies Dynamic Fees V1, a market cap-based pricing model exclusive to PumpSwap. Unlike flat-rate fee systems, Dynamic Fees adjusts creator earnings in line with token performance:

• Higher-cap tokens: Lower fees, enabling scaling projects to attract whales and institutional-sized buyers.
• Lower-cap or early-stage tokens: Higher fees at launch, channelling extra resources towards early growth drivers such as marketing campaigns, exchange listings, and development costs.

Co-founder Alon Cohen framed the innovation as a push to deliver enduring value for retail investors and creators alike. In his words: “For us as a space to grow 100x, we need far more success cases. Coins with value that can last and give retail genuine opportunities in making money. At the moment, we’re really limited at these kinds of opportunities if solid teams don’t want to launch coins.”

This approach addresses one of the nagging criticisms of flat-fee systems—namely, that high initial fees cut deeply into liquidity, driving away bigger investors who could otherwise sustain the project. In Cohen’s view, “Really high fees create low ceilings on coins because big players don’t want to size into trades when they’re instantly down 10%.”

Market Dominance Recovery: A Calculated Comeback

Project Ascend is being launched against the backdrop of Pump.fun’s impressive recovery in August. The platform posted $35 million in revenue with a commanding 68.2% dominance across Solana’s launchpad market. Contrast that with July, when rival Bonkfun raked in $37.4 million—leaving Pump.fun with a mere $15.4 million—and it’s clear how decisive this move has been.

The rebound was aided in part by Pump.fun’s aggressive $44.5 million buyback of its native PUMP token in August. This substantial investment underscored the platform’s intent to strengthen its ecosystem, stabilise creator incentives, and showcase confidence in its longer-term growth trajectory.

This strategy mirrors similar plays by other ecosystems that invest heavily into liquidity and token buybacks to stabilise their dominance. It positions Pump.fun not just as a comeback story but as a blueprint for balancing sustainability with aggressive tokenomics.

The New Framework for All Tokens—Old and New

One important feature of Project Ascend is inclusivity. The dynamic fee structure applies retroactively to all tokens launched through PumpSwap, not just new ones, granting existing communities and creators an immediate earnings uplift. By removing the “cut-off” disadvantage seen in other platforms, Pump.fun reinforces its identity as a decentralised and creator-first launchpad.

Importantly, protocol fees and liquidity provider compounding rates remain untouched. This ensures traders and investors can maintain their expected yield positions without altering essential token economics, while creators enjoy a significant boost in funding.

Community Takeover: Power Shift to Active Leaders

Memecoins often thrive or fade based on community engagement, not just technical structures. Recognising this, Project Ascend accelerates the processing time for Community Takeover (CTO) applications—from days to mere hours. This feature empowers motivated communities to assume control of languishing projects by redirecting creator fees from inactive or disinterested deployers to active leaders who can prove ongoing development and marketing efforts.

As the official announcement stated: “Don’t think a creator deserves Creator Fees? Submit a CTO application to begin receiving Creator Fees on a coin you’ve taken over.”

For crypto recruiters and web3 recruitment agencies, this is a fascinating cultural shift. It demonstrates how leadership roles in decentralised economies don’t always need to align with original founders. Instead, contributors and new leaders who display vision and expertise can seize key governance opportunities, blurring boundaries between talent acquisition and grassroots activism.

The Broader Impact on Crypto and Crypto Recruitment

Pump.fun’s revamp carries consequences far beyond token fees. By incentivising stronger teams and providing scalability pathways for standout memecoins, this initiative may also alter the landscape of crypto recruitment and blockchain recruitment.

A few implications become clear:

• Demand for stronger teams: Cohen’s comments underline the crucial role professional teams play in legitimising memecoins as viable long-term plays. Expect higher demand for experienced developers, token economists, and marketing specialists.
• Crypto recruiters in focus: Platforms will increasingly rely on web3 recruiters and blockchain headhunters to connect credible professionals with community-led projects, particularly in markets like Solana where spikes in user activity magnify both risk and opportunity.
• DeFi recruitment growth: With Dynamic Fees freeing up liquidity for operational budgets, DeFi-savvy teams will need specialists who can handle integrations with exchanges, partnerships, and innovative tokenomics.

This goes hand in hand with wider hiring trends documented by Spectrum Search across the sector, from blockchain careers emerging in 2025 to specialised communities demanding compliance, marketing, and governance professionals.

A Magnet for Mainstream Talent

Cohen positioned Project Ascend as a pivotal bridge to mainstream adoption of blockchain-based creators and communities. By offering accelerated onboarding, fairer fee scaling, and new avenues for leadership, Pump.fun is actively inviting creators to treat token launches as credible entrepreneurial endeavours—not just speculative gambles.

He summarised this vision succinctly: Pump.fun will serve as “the hub for the most successful projects and creators the world has ever seen.” The platform’s target is exponential increases in creator participation across streaming worlds, startup ecosystems, and community-building verticals.

For crypto recruiters, this ambition signals a larger talent surge waiting to ignite. Where speculative chaos once reigned supreme, sustainable project economics and community empowerment may carve a new employment frontier in the digital asset industry.

As these dynamics unfold, one thing is certain: initiatives like Project Ascend are redefining not just who profits in crypto, but who leads, who innovates, and who gets hired to build the next era of Web3.