PUMP is now near its ICO price but whales are selling

The newly launched token of Pump.fun is already trading after a chaotic presale. PUMP is now near its ICO price of $0.005, while whales are either taking short positions or selling outright. 

Soon after the launch of PUMP, the native token of Pump.fun, some of the early buyers switched to immediate selling. On Kraken, the market price sank from $0.006 to $0.005 within one red candle, with around $47M initial volumes. 

A day after the launch, PUMP traded between $0.005 and $0.006, on much lower volumes of around $12M. The token is still considered risky, and is mostly handled by whales. 

At the same time, retail and ‘trench’ traders are concerned about an eventual airdrop. For now, Pump.fun has distributed the large-scale allocations from the presale, but has left its community waiting for a retail distribution. 

PUMP has been distributed to 37,192 wallets, following earlier distribution to presale buyers. The token has been sent to influencer wallets that also participated in the presale. 

Wintermute, DWF Labs receive PUMP

The market maker Wintermute has received up to $97M worth of PUMP, and will possibly become one of the market makers for the token. 

DWF Labs, another market maker for meme tokens, received $17.4M worth of PUMP, suggesting either a whale investment or the recruitment of another market maker. 

🚨 DWF Labs Bags 2.5B $PUMP — Early Investor in https://t.co/43VQPYr5cz?

Just 12 hours ago, DWF Labs (@DWFLabs) received a massive 2.5 billion #pump tokens from https://t.co/43VQPYr5cz, valued at approximately $17.4 million. 👀

This strongly suggests that DWF Labs is likely one… pic.twitter.com/zHD7vHkexL

— EyeOnChain (@EyeOnChain) July 15, 2025

The market makers received the tokens into their well-known wallets about 12 hours after the sale launch. The inclusion of market makers has also sparked fears that PUMP may end up erasing its value, or trading in ways that would allow whales to extract value. 

Based on Bubblemaps data, PUMP has been distributed to several clusters of interconnected smaller wallets. The initial sale favored a relatively small number of whales, inviting caution about retail buying. The lack of an airdrop to Pump.fun meme traders has caused discontent and calls to bring PUMP down to zero. However, currently the token is mostly in the hands of large-scale whales, who are still trading cautiously. 

Whales are selling PUMP

In the first days after the launch, PUMP is mostly traded in large positions. Whales on Hyperliquid increased their foothold, with 75 active traders. The majority of traders are going long, expecting a breakout after the initial price crash. Some whales remain relatively confident, as PUMP only erased a part of its value and did not look like a rug pull. 

One of the largest Hyperliquid whales, however, took a notable short position after depositing 5M USDC. 

A whale deposited $5M $USDC into #HyperLiquid, bought 423M $PUMP for $2.3M, and also opened a $PUMP short position with 5x leverage.https://t.co/qJ6lVhSCWm pic.twitter.com/FGXd5SgSbm

— Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens) July 15, 2025

In the early hours, on-chain reports also showed whales were mostly selling PUMP, potentially with the ability to re-buy at a lower price. Earlier data showed the largest whales with positions above $500,000 were busy selling PUMP immediately after receiving their allocations. 

PUMP is already distributed to 37,192 wallets, though it is still held by a smaller number of real entities. 

PUMP is not done with its listings, and trading may evolve in the coming week. On-chain data shows transfers to some of the known Coinbase and Binance hot wallets. The token may expect high-profile listings in the coming days, increasing the available liquidity and the number of market participants. 

PUMP launched at a time when Pump.fun activity was sliding and losing market share to LetsBonk. The token still has a chance to boost its positions and enter a new stage of price discovery.

KEY Difference Wire: the secret tool crypto projects use to get guaranteed media coverage