Vitalik called it a slot machine. Fine. Pull the lever.
Ethereum's founder says pump.fun turns people into gamblers who click until their bags are gone. Meanwhile the slot machine settles in 400 milliseconds for a fraction of a cent. The research blog is still loading.
Paraphrased from remarks attributed to Buterin in a post on X, as reported by HokaNews.
Three pills pays out. One Ethereum diamond means you wait for the next block.
He said a lot. Here's what reached the trenches.
His points, paraphrased as reported. Our translation underneath each.
Pump.fun has been a net negative for crypto since it launched in 2024.
Since 2024 more people launched a coin than finished reading a rollup roadmap. Negative for whom?
It turns retail into gamblers instead of investors.
Retail was always gambling. We just stopped charging them a gas fee bigger than the bet.
It's a slot machine. People keep clicking until their funds are gone.
A slot machine pays out in seconds. An optimistic rollup withdrawal takes seven days. Pick your casino.
The tokens have no real-world utility.
Neither do The Verge, The Purge and The Splurge, and those got their own diagram.
It drains activity from the broader market.
The activity didn't drain. It moved to a chain where it confirms.
The tale of the tape
One chain, one launchpad, no bridges, no seven-day wait.
| Solana + pump.fun | Ethereum + a blog | |
|---|---|---|
| Block time | About 400 ms | 12 seconds, every time, forever |
| Base fee per signature | 5,000 lamports (0.000005 SOL) | Depends on the mood of the mempool |
| Launch a coin | Pick a name, upload a picture, done | Write a contract, get it audited, find liquidity, bridge to an L2, explain the L2 |
| Getting your money back out | Sell. It's there. | Up to seven days if you used the wrong rollup |
| Roadmap | Ship it this afternoon | The Merge, The Surge, The Verge, The Purge, The Splurge |
| Response to criticism | This website | A 9,000-word post with footnotes |