Pump.not.so.fun?

Plus: How much is that DOGE in the window? ??

In this week’s edition of The Context, we discuss why pump.fun disabled its livestream feature, when the UK will regulate crypto, and whether Dogecoin is coming to X.

[Livestream of Conscience-ness]

Pump.fun, a platform for launching Solana memecoins, suspended its livestream feature after several users made posts perceived as dangerous.

What Media Said ????:

• One person “flagged a user in a Pump.fun livestream that was threatening to commit suicide if their coin did not reach a specific market capitalization,” explained Ezra Reguerra (Cointelegraph). There’s more. “One community member flagged a person who shot a gun out a window each time their coin went up. Some X users reported a child threatening to kill family members if a token did not reach a price goal, while another flagged a person who claimed they would shoot up a school if their memecoin didn’t pump.”
• Pump.fun doesn’t list terms of service on its website, but it does claim to moderate illicit content, wrote Vince Dioquino (Decrypt). Which had some users saying, Moderate this. Pudgy Penguins product manager “Beau” posted on x: “Shut down the livestream feature. This is out of control.” ??♂?
• The platform responded by deactivating livestreams on Monday, reported Jack Kubinec (Blockworks)—after it earned a “staggering $14.3 million in revenue on Saturday…nearly tripling its previous high.” But even without livestreams, it “has drawn comparisons to the anonymous forum site 4chan for its often-unhinged content and lax approach to moderation. Before this current wave of disturbing livestreams, pump.fun had a large number of racially insensitive or pornographic tokens, none of which are subject to content moderation.”

PR Perspective ??:

The incident exposes a core tension between safety and crypto’s anti-censorship ethos, which may ultimately require industry self-regulation to resolve. Given Pump.fun's prominent role in the memecoin landscape, the reputational damage to Solana could be severe; the backlash will likely influence how future platforms balance permissionless access with safety controls. ??

[Tic-Tac-DOGE]

Elon Musk responded “true” to a post speculating a payments function is in the works for X. Around the same time, Dogecoin, which Elon Musk is a proponent of, jumped in price.

What Media Said ????:

• Since buying the social media site, Musk has pursued money-transmitting licenses as he tries to turn X into an “everything app,” wrote Billy Bambrough (Forbes).
• “Dogecoin's price has a history of moving on payments-related news — no matter how fanciful,” wrote Krisztian Sandor (CoinDesk). “Some crypto enthusiasts speculate that the service, once live, might include transactions with some digital assets such as DOGE, given Musk's long-standing affection for the token.”
• It’s not like they’re imagining things. “Before buying Twitter, Musk teased potential plans to integrate Dogecoin for buying premium subscriptions, for example,” wrote Mat Di Salvo (Decrypt). “However, documents showed earlier this year that while a payment feature was in the works, crypto wasn’t a part of the plans—at least not at first.”

PR Perspective ??:

Sure, PR gets a bit easier when you have your own social media network and 206 million followers. But after years of teasing payments and playing footsie with DOGE, at some point Musk will have to deliver. If Dogecoin doesn’t feature, some will be disappointed, but it’s hard to imagine crypto not being the peanut butter to X’s jelly. ??

[Regulators Mount Up ??]

The UK’s main financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency will be finalized in 2026.

What Media Said ????:

Continue reading the full story + more here!

Subscribe to The Context ??, a newsletter by YAP Global that aims to help everyone stay up-to-date with developments in Crypto, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) & Web3.

Yapper Corner ??

Ever wonder how you can evaluate your Crypto PR campaign?

Read our latest blog on some insights here!

Connect with YAP Global: Website, X & Instagram

The usual disclaimer: This newsletter collates the main themes and headlines of the week in DeFi/crypto/metaverse/Web3/NFT land and tries to provide unbiased context. It's aimed at anyone who wants to keep an eye on the space. It's put together by a team at YAP and doesn't contain any promotion of our clients (if one is mentioned, we'll flag that).

The team: Founder Samantha Yap and consulting editor Jeff Benson, Andrew Wickerson, Emma Murphy, Nathalie Larrea, Trisha Goswami and Shajar Qureshi. Your feedback is, as always, welcome. Ping us at [email protected]. Old newsletters can be found here.

This newsletter is prepared by YAP Global, an international P.R. Consultancy focusing on helping cryptocurrency, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) and brands through impactful storytelling. Find out more about us here.