Legal Battle Around Pump.fun: 15,000 Chat Messages Reveal the Reality of the Crypto Market

When dreaming of 100x profits becomes the norm, lawsuits are waiting in line. The case against Pump.fun and the Solana ecosystem is not just another crypto scandal but a civil lawsuit unfolding before our eyes.

From Micro Losses to a Notorious Conspiracy

The story began modestly. On January 16, 2025, investor Kendall Carnahan went to court after losing $231 on the $PNUT token. Two weeks later, Diego Aguilar filed an additional lawsuit, but with a broader range of complaints — his losses involved several meme-coins. Judge Colleen McMahon from the Southern District of New York quickly recognized: why consider separately what is essentially the same?

On June 26, both cases were officially consolidated. Instead of Carnahan and Aguilar, Michael Okafor appeared — the person with the largest losses — approximately $242,000. This choice was logical under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA): the main plaintiff should be the one with the greatest harm.

But everything truly began after this consolidation. On July 23, the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint, which radically changed the nature of the case. The list of defendants was expanded to include Solana Labs, Solana Foundation, and their leadership, as well as Jito Labs — key players in the ecosystem.

The Three Pillars of the Network

The plaintiffs described a conspiracy consisting of three parts. Pump.fun served as the platform, Solana provided the blockchain infrastructure, and Jito offered tools for extracting value (MEV). Together, they form a system that appears decentralized but is actually controlled.

According to court documents, the technical integration among these players went far beyond ordinary partnership. Plaintiffs claimed that hundreds of messages between the teams prove coordination, especially around the use of Jito bundles for front-running. Insiders, aware of these “tricks,” paid additional fees for priority execution of their orders — while regular users remained unaffected.

Central Allegations: From Papers to RICO

The case is developing along several vectors. First, the plaintiffs consider all meme tokens issued on Pump.fun as unregistered securities — directly meeting the Howey Test criteria. This legal standard, established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1946, defines an investment contract as an agreement where a person invests money in a common enterprise with the expectation of profits derived from the efforts of a third party. If a token meets this test, it must be registered with the SEC and accompanied by disclosure.

Second, the plaintiffs described Pump.fun as a “meme-coin casino” — without licenses, KYC, or AML procedures. The platform earned a 1% fee on each transaction, similar to a casino earning money from every bet.

Third — fraud through electronic means. Advertising a “fair launch” without pre-sales conflicted with the content of Jito integration. It was manipulation — the image of fairness masked the reality of insider advantages.

Most notably, the plaintiffs filed charges under RICO — the federal Organized Crime Control Act. In August, they described three companies as a “racketeering organization” operating under the guise of innovation.

Evidence Comes Quietly but Heavily

A turning point occurred in the fall. A “secret informant” provided plaintiffs’ attorneys with about 5,000 internal chat messages. Then, on October 21, a second batch arrived — over 10,000 messages and materials.

These chats allegedly detail: technical coordination between Pump.fun and Solana Labs, integration of Jito MEV tools, discussions of “optimizations” in trading processes (plaintiffs consider this euphemism for manipulations). Lawyers stated that the materials “reveal a carefully planned fraudulent network” — moving from assumptions to what is at least serious grounds for their review.

The workload was enormous. On December 9, the court allowed a second amended complaint to be filed, but attorneys needed time to review, sort, translate, and analyze 15,000 chats. On December 11, Judge McMahon extended the deadline to January 7, 2026.

Silence as a Tactic

Meanwhile, the market told its story through numbers. Weekly trading volume on Pump.fun dropped from the January peak — $3.3 billion — to $481 million. That’s more than an 80% reduction. The PUMP price fell to $0.0019, about 78% of its maximum.

The crypto market viewed this as part of a cyclical downturn, but the insights fueling the decline were different. Co-founder Alon Cohen disappeared from social media. Leaders of Solana and Jito remained silent publicly.

The only thing that did not stop was the buyback. Pump.fun continued daily token purchases, accumulating $216 million through buybacks — about 15.16% of the circulating supply.

Questions That Remain

By early 2026, the case enters a new phase. Several major unknowns remain dark spots of permission:

Who exactly is this informant? A former employee, competitor, or regulator? What is truly contained in the 15,000 chats — genuine evidence of conspiracy or business conversations taken out of context? How will Solana, Jito, and Pump.fun defend themselves?

The discussion about decentralization, fairness, and integration in the crypto market has already gone beyond theory. Court documents, plaintiffs’ words, and defendants’ silence create a portrait: is Pump.fun really just a platform, or is it a machine designed to extract money from unwitting investors for the benefit of select insiders?

Answers are expected from January 7.