Pump.Fun platform and its founder background investigation

Pump.Fun is a platform that allows users to create their own cryptocurrencies and is known as the world's largest Memecoin factory. However, investigations have shown that one of the platform's co-founders, Dylan Kerler, was suspected of profiting by issuing and selling his own tokens years before the platform was launched.

The investigation found that in 2017, a person named Dylan Kerler issued eight types of tokens. Among them, eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash experienced a price crash after gaining attention on cryptocurrency forums, with investors accusing the developer of conducting a Rug Pull. According to analysis, the developer earned approximately $75,000 in cryptocurrency solely from the sales of these two tokens in 2017.

Pump.Fun was founded in January 2024 by three entrepreneurs in their twenties: Noah Tweedale, Alon Cohen, and Dylan Kerler. It quickly became the preferred platform for Memecoins. According to statistics, within just 15 months, the platform has generated over $600 million through a 1% transaction fee.

The three founders rarely disclose their identities and company information. Among them, the public information about Kerler is the least; apart from being listed as a director in the company registration documents, he has almost no public association with Pump.Fun.

However, a series of "digital clues" links Kerler to the early eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash projects. These two tokens were initially promoted by the DOMAINBROKER and ninjagod accounts on the BitcoinTalk forum, both belonging to the same user. This user provided an email containing the name Dylan Kerler and was referred to as the project developer by multiple forum users.

At the same time, multiple clues indicate that Kerler from Pump.Fun was located in the Brighton area of the UK with the developers of these early projects. Voter registration records show that Kerler was registered at an address in Brighton at least as of 2024.

Kerler seems to have also used the alias "Dylan Phoon." A GitHub account has retained an old code repository that contains a Gmail address named after Dylan Phoon. The profile picture of that email also appears on a Medium account named DylanKerler1 and on LinkedIn and YouTube accounts under the name Dylan Phoon.

eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash were both launched during the peak of the ICO craze. At that time, hundreds of token projects raised billions of dollars from investors through ICOs. Most ICO projects eventually turned out to be scams or failures.

The EthereumCash project began promotion in early October 2017, following the standard ICO model: minting tokens on Ethereum, building a website, and promoting on social media. To create buzz, the developers conducted a token airdrop and promised to release a white paper.

Within just a few days, hundreds of people have registered to participate in the EthereumCash airdrop. By October 19, its market value had reached approximately $1.3 million. However, at this time, developers began to sell tokens in large quantities. Analysis shows that from October 19 to 21, a wallet suspected to be controlled by developers made hundreds of EthereumCash sales on the EtherDelta platform. These sales coincided with a dramatic 87.9% drop in the asset's price.

The highly anticipated white paper never appeared, and the developers eventually vanished from social media platforms. In three transactions, the developers' wallet withdrew a total of 240 Ethereum from EtherDelta, which was approximately $75,000 at the time. These funds were then transferred to multiple wallets and ultimately entered an account on a centralized trading platform.

Analysts point out that the practice of layering funds is intended to obscure the flow of funds, which is itself quite suspicious. The current frenzy of the Pump.Fun platform seems to make people forget these early events, with daily revenue reaching up to $1 million. While this "wealth creation machine" continues to operate, the contrary intention of Rug Pull is still being staged.