Eye-watering crypto raises are back. On Saturday, Pump.fun, a popular website that lets anyone launch and buy memecoins, raised $600 million in 12 minutes through a public sale of its cryptocurrency. And it drummed up $720 million through private sales of the company’s tokens, according to a spokesperson. In total, Pump.fun is sitting on a stash of about $1.3 billion.
That’s big money, and arguably the largest crypto fundraise of 2025. But how Pump.fun raised money was also extraordinary. Any small-time trader—though not those in the U.S., U.K, and countries like Iran—could get in on the action through the public sale after verifying their identity. That’s a far cry from the last five years of crypto, when a harsher regulatory climate restricted the first-time sale of tokens almost exclusively to wealthy investors.
For traditional startups, there’s a well-trodden path to the public markets. Raise money from private investors, grow your business, and, if you’re lucky, file for an IPO, or initial public offering. This is usually a yearslong process, involves high-priced investment bankers, and requires scrutiny from financial regulators.
Soon, others were raking in millions, even billions, for blockchain companies through token launches. Those included boondoggles like Shopin, a blockchain shopping scheme that somehow raised over $42 million in an ICO, and whose tokens are today worth basically nothing.
Unsurprisingly, the Securities and Exchange Commission began cracking down, alleging that many tokens were akin to securities, or financial assets like stocks or bonds that must adhere to decades-old disclosure and registration requirements.
As financial regulators cracked down, companies looked for other ways to legally launch cryptocurrencies, which they claimed were more akin to commodities, or financial assets like gold or oil. They engaged in free “airdrops” to loyal users or sold them to wealthy investors who agreed to lengthy lock-up periods before reselling them.
While Cohen said he believes ICOs are one of the best ways to decentralize a crypto project, others are more cautious. “There’s the real prospect that history repeats itself, and there will be similar fraudulent and problematic offerings this time around,” Armstrong told Fortune.
Scams were rampant in the ICO era. Founders would release a jargon-filled academic paper, promise revolutionary technology, raise millions, and never deliver. But crypto industry adherents say this time is different.
Austin Federa, cofounder of the crypto startup DoubleZero, echoed Zahir. “I don’t see today a bunch of projects that are vaporware or have no revenue or have no sort of substance behind them raising crazy numbers,” he told Fortune.
In fact, Federa and his startup have creeped back into the U.S. In April, he and his team conducted a limited token offering to select buyers beyond just venture capitalists. He is cautiously optimistic that the return to more public cryptocurrency offerings is a boon for the industry. Still, he was careful not to be too bullish.
“A universal truth of crypto,” he said, “is that everything good can turn bad given enough forces.”
