Judge Dismisses Securities Claims Against Pump.fun and Solana Entities
Pump.fun (PUMP)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
Cryptotimes.io reports that a federal judge has dismissed securities claims against Pump.fun’s operator, clearing Solana Labs, the Solana Foundation, and their executives from the case. Judge Colleen McMahon ruled that the bonding curve mechanism does not constitute a common enterprise under the Howey test, dismissing the Securities Act counts with prejudice for the two tokens plaintiffs actually purchased. While the securities and gambling predicates failed, racketeering claims against Pump.fun founders Alon Cohen, Dylan Kerler, and Noah Tweedale survived.
The court found that Cohen’s statements describing the platform as an unruggable fair launch were factual assertions, not mere enthusiasm, if he controlled advance access for promoters. Plaintiffs estimate retail losses at $4 billion to $5.5 billion, with specific allegations that Kerler built tools for insider-first execution. Solana entities were dismissed because their commercial motive to increase revenue did not prove fraudulent intent without specific facts linking it to the deception.
The judge also rejected gambling predicates, noting that buying an asset is not a wager just because its future value is uncertain. However, an unlicensed money-transmitting business predicate survived against the founders because the platform exchanged SOL for tokens for a fee without FinCEN registration. Burwick Law brought the case, which began with filings in early 2025 and included a second amended complaint in December 2025.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for PUMP, measured when this story was written up on 1 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
PUMP is trading at $0.004453 with a 24-hour spot volume of $30,116,273 across 226,438 trades. The 24-hour buy ratio stands at 51.0%, while the 1-hour ratio has risen to 52.8%, indicating a short-term shift toward buying pressure. However, the 4-hour buy ratio dropped to 45.0%, suggesting that buying momentum may be fading over the near term. Volume delta shows a net positive of $592,428 over 24 hours, but a net negative of $407,303 over the last 4 hours. This divergence suggests that while buyers have dominated the full day, sellers have taken control in the most recent hour. The cumulative volume delta (CVD) for the 24-hour close is -$74,299, indicating that despite higher buy ratios, net selling pressure has slightly outweighed buying in this period.
The latest daily buy ratio of 47.7% sits at the 33rd percentile of the last 281 days, against a median of 49.1% - ordinary for this coin.
Twenty-four hours later
What PUMP did over the 22 hours after the story broke. The market moves for its own reasons; this is what happened, not what the story caused.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for PUMP, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, PUMP saw net buying on all seven days, with a 7-day average buy ratio of 53.2%. Today’s 24-hour buy ratio of 51.0% is 2.2 percentage points below this weekly average, marking a slight deviation from recent trends. Trading volume today is at 0.71x the weekly average, indicating a quieter day than usual. The price has declined 6.2% over the eight-day period, with a total volume delta of +$18,643,355. This represents a day of lower-than-average activity and a slight cooling in buying intensity compared to the consistent weekly pattern.