Pump.fun runs a "buy and burn": it spends part of its revenue buying PUMP on the open market and then removing those tokens from circulation. That is the only mechanical link between the token and the business, and it is explained as a definition in what the PUMP token is. The part almost every older write-up gets wrong is the timing. Daily buying began in mid-2025, but daily burning only began in April 2026, and the platform's own ledger quietly relabels those early purchases as burns.
How the buy and burn works now
Half of the revenue Pump.fun earns goes to buying PUMP on the open market and burning it (source: Pump.fun token page). Revenue here means the platform's blended take across the bonding curve, PumpSwap, and Terminal, on Solana and on the chains it also runs on. Where that money comes from is its own subject, covered in what funds the PUMP buyback.
The 50% figure is a flexible target. On the token page's own daily record, most recent days land a little above it, in the low fifties by percent of that day's revenue. So the share moves day to day, and it has been running slightly over half rather than exactly half.
What changed on April 28, 2026, and why the old story is wrong
For about nine months after launch, Pump.fun put all of its revenue into buying PUMP, and on some days it spent more than all of it. The platform's own chart shows one day at nearly 132% of that day's revenue. So the old policy went beyond all of revenue. On some days it spent more than all of it.
Here is the trap. Daily buying ran from roughly the middle of 2025, but daily burning had yet to begin. The bought-back tokens simply piled up, unburned, for nine months. The public ledger on the token page has a column headed "PUMP burned" for every one of those early days, but those rows record purchases rather than destructions. The ledger relabels the old purchases as burns after the fact. If you read only that column, you get the timing exactly backward.
On April 28, 2026, Pump.fun changed the policy (source: CoinDesk). It moved from spending all of its revenue on buybacks to spending half, and it kept the other half for product, hiring, marketing, and acquisitions.
The one-time burn
The same day, the whole nine-month pile was destroyed at once. The co-founder put the figure at about $370 million of PUMP, roughly 36% of the circulating supply, removed in a single event (source: a1lon9 on X). On-chain, the account that had been holding the accumulated buybacks dropped from about 124 billion PUMP to under a billion in one move. It has since been drawn down to zero.
That one burn was among the largest single supply cuts in crypto by share of tokens. What it means for the total once you net it against tokens that are still unlocking is a separate question, worked through in pump burn set against token unlocks, and the wider supply picture is in pump tokenomics and supply.
How committed is it, really
Pump.fun describes the new policy two ways on the same page. In its methodology note it says half of revenue is programmatically locked and set to be burned for one year, which reads like a firm, coded commitment. In its disclaimer, on the same page, it says the information commits to future purchases only as deterministically programmed before the cutoff. So it is presented as both locked and conditional.
The page even disagrees with itself on the cutoff date. The methodology says the change is in force as of April 28, 2026, while the disclaimer twice refers to what was programmed before April 29, 2026. A one-year lock therefore has an end date the issuer's own text leaves ambiguous by a day.
Two more things a holder should carry. The same disclaimer reserves the right for entities affiliated with the platform to buy or sell the token on a discretionary basis either way. And the burn addresses are published on the token page, so the removals can be checked on-chain rather than taken on trust. Those addresses are working destinations rather than a sealed vault, so their balances move up and down over time.
If PUMP's supply mechanics lead you to trade it, the PUMPUSDT Perpetual carries funding and fees worth checking against the fee schedule before you size a position.
What the buy and burn leaves open
Whether the buy and burn should move the PUMP price is a separate question, and this page leaves it open. The mechanics reduce the number of tokens, but price depends on more than supply, and that checklist lives in what moves the PUMP price. A burn is a supply cut more than a payment to holders; nothing lands in your wallet when tokens are destroyed, a point covered in whether PUMP is a fee-share token.
Looking to trade PUMP? To get started, you'll need to first create a BloFin account, fund your account with cryptocurrency, and navigate to the PUMP/USDT Spot trading page or PUMPUSDT Perpetual page.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Pump.fun buy and burn?
It is the platform using part of its revenue to buy PUMP on the open market and remove those tokens from circulation. Since April 28, 2026, the share is half of net revenue, programmatically set to run for one year.
When did Pump.fun actually start burning PUMP?
Daily buying began around the middle of 2025, but daily burning only began on April 28, 2026. For the first nine months the bought-back tokens accumulated unburned, even though the platform's ledger later relabels those early purchases as burns after the fact.
How much PUMP was burned in the one-time event?
The co-founder said about $370 million of PUMP, roughly 36% of the circulating supply, was destroyed in a single event on April 28, 2026. On-chain, the account holding the accumulated buybacks fell from about 124 billion tokens to under a billion.
Is the buyback guaranteed to continue?
Pump.fun states it both ways on the same page. It calls the 50% allocation programmatically locked for one year, and it also says in its disclaimer that the commitment extends to future purchases only as already programmed. The page even prints the cutoff as both April 28 and April 29, 2026.
Does the buy and burn pay me anything?
A buy and burn returns nothing directly to your wallet. Burning removes tokens from circulation, which can support the price through added scarcity, yet it hands holders no cash payout. PUMP gives its holders a claim on that scarcity rather than a share of the platform's earnings. The disclaimer even reserves the right for entities affiliated with the platform to buy or sell the token themselves.
Researched and written by the BloFin Academy editorial team with AI-assisted drafting. Primary sources are Pump.fun's own published documentation and announcements, CoinDesk's reporting, and the co-founder's public statements. All facts independently verified against cited documentation current as of September 2026.
This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not financial, investment, or trading advice. Digital assets are volatile and many newly launched tokens lose all value. Do your own research and consider your own circumstances before trading.