Pump.fun buys Kolscan: Traders profit millions by buying tokens just before acquisition was announced

Pump.fun acquired a small wallet-tracking tool called Kolscan on Friday.

The deal was not without drama for the controversial Solana memecoin generator.

Some traders booked huge profits as Kolscan’s token value soared from $500,000 to $22 million in less than an hour. It has since declined to $4 million.

Onchain data shows a cluster of connected wallets made over $3 million in profit by buying the tokens before the public announcement.

One trader even profited $37,000 after investing less than $400 to buy Kolscan tokens.

The Kolscan acquisition comes at a high-stakes period for Pump.fun as the platform is barrelling towards a $1.3 billion initial coin offering.

Its status as the memecoin king is also challenged by LetsBonk, a rival token vending machine that has become the new favourite for creating memecoins on Solana.

Memecoins themselves have lost their shine as a crypto market segment, and their combined market value is down about 50% from the $127 billion peak achieved in December.

Pump.fun and Kolscan didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

“Kill Facebook”

Pump.fun said it wants to “kill Facebook, TikTok, and Twitch.”

So the Kolscan acquisition may seem a curious first buy as it’s not a content creation platform. But the team says it fits with their strategy.

The meme generator’s co-founder, who goes by Alon, said onchain trading is a social sport and that success in the arena relies on following the right crowd.

“For those reasons, we believe that products that provide social insights or tools and gamify the trading experience are key to growing our ecosystem,” Alon wrote on X.

For Alon, integrating Kolscan is a vital part of building Pump.fun into a crypto social media platform “that can scale to the billions.”

Kolscan maps wallets linked to KOLs, so-called key opinion leaders.

KOLs are the crypto equivalent of verified tastemakers whose online clout translates to significant influence over token prices with their buys, sells, or even online comments about a project.

Their endorsements can make a memecoin go viral, and one negative post from them can tank the price.

Built on Solana, Kolscan packages this social layer of memecoin trading into a wallet-tracking tool that degens can use to copy-trade their favourite KOL.

Pump.fun did not disclose how much it paid for Kolscan.

Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. Got a tip? Please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.