What happens when a pump.fun coin graduates
The bonding curve ends, a PumpSwap pool begins, and the creator's share of every trade can more than triple. Here's the mechanics, from pump.fun's own Fees page.
A pump.fun coin graduates when its bonding curve completes: its liquidity moves to its own canonical pool on PumpSwap, pump.fun's exchange, for a fixed 0.015 SOL. Traders pay about the same (1.25% on the curve; 1.25% down to 0.30% in PumpSwap), but from 420 SOL market cap the creator's cut jumps from 0.30% to 0.95% of every trade.
What graduation is
Every new pump.fun coin starts on a bonding curve: a pricing formula built into pump.fun’s program, where each buy raises the price and each sell lowers it (how the bonding curve works). There is no order book and no liquidity provider: the curve itself is the market.
When enough of the coin has been bought, the curve completes and the coin graduates. Its liquidity moves into a pool on PumpSwap, pump.fun’s own automated market maker (AMM). That pool is the coin’s canonical pool: pump.fun’s Fees page calls it “the associated pool on PumpSwap” for coins that launched on pump.fun and graduated. Anyone can open other pools for the same coin later; those are non-canonical and have different fees.
After graduation, the coin trades like any other pool token. Jupiter, wallets and trading terminals all route to the PumpSwap pool, so you can trade it on many more apps.
The graduation fee
pump.fun charges 0.015 SOL per graduation, “for every coin regardless of the asset it is paired with”. Who pays depends on the pair:
| Coin paired with | Who pays the 0.015 SOL |
|---|---|
| SOL | Deducted from the bonding curve’s SOL |
| USDC or another asset | Paid in SOL by the account that runs the migration, normally pump.fun, unless a user’s trade triggers it, in which case that user pays |
Creating a coin has no platform fee at all, only Solana network fees and rent.
What changes for traders: the fees
This is the part most guides get wrong. The total fee barely moves at graduation, but the split changes completely:
| Creator | Protocol (pump.fun) | LP (pool) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bonding curve | 0.300% | 0.950% | 0% | 1.250% |
| PumpSwap, under 420 SOL market cap | 0.300% | 0.930% | 0.020% | 1.250% |
| PumpSwap, 420–1,470 SOL | 0.950% | 0.050% | 0.200% | 1.200% |
| PumpSwap, 98,240 SOL and up | 0.050% | 0.050% | 0.200% | 0.300% |
pump.fun defines market cap as the coin’s current price in SOL times 1 billion tokens (USDC-paired coins use USDC: the 0.95% creator tier starts at 59,000 USDC). Three things happen once a graduated coin crosses 420 SOL:
- The creator’s cut more than triples, from 0.30% to 0.95% of every trade.
- pump.fun’s protocol fee nearly disappears, from 0.93% to 0.05%.
- The LP fee rises tenfold, from 0.02% to 0.20%. It stays in the pool and deepens liquidity.
A trader’s total falls only from 1.25% to 1.20%. As the market cap keeps rising, the creator’s share steps down tier by tier and the total falls with it, to 0.30% for the largest coins. The full PumpSwap ladder lists all 25 tiers, and PumpSwap fees explained covers how pools work.
In the pump.fun app, the 0.45% Platform Fee (0.40% with a referral code) applies before and after graduation alike. On other apps, their own fee applies instead. The fee calculator stacks it all for any venue and market cap.
What graduation doesn’t mean
Graduation is a milestone in the coin’s mechanics, not a safety check:
- Nobody vets a coin before it graduates. It only means enough SOL (or USDC) was put into the curve.
- Early holders can sell into the new pool. Creators, snipers and bundled wallets that bought at the bottom of the curve often do. Many graduated coins fall sharply soon after.
- Most memecoins lose most of their value, graduated or not.
Before buying any coin, check it: who holds the supply, whether the creator has sold, and how deep the pool is.
Questions people ask
What does it mean when a pump.fun coin graduates?
Its bonding curve has completed, so the coin stops trading on the curve and moves to its own canonical pool on PumpSwap, pump.fun's exchange. From then on it trades like any pool token, and other DEX aggregators can route to it.
How much does graduation cost?
0.015 SOL per coin, whatever it is paired with. For a SOL-paired coin it comes out of the bonding curve, not from a trader. For other pairs pump.fun normally pays it, unless your trade is the one that triggers the migration.
Do trading fees go down after a pump.fun coin graduates?
Only gradually. The PumpSwap fee starts at the same 1.25% as the curve below 420 SOL market cap, is 1.20% from 420 SOL, and falls step by step to 0.30% at 98,240 SOL and above.
Is a graduated pump.fun coin safe?
No. Graduation only means enough was bought to complete the curve. Creators and early buyers can still sell, and many graduated coins fall sharply. Check holders and liquidity before buying.