Pump.fun pairs 0% Solana trades with a 0.45% app fee it plans to give away

Pump.fun has rolled out a new fee setup for its mobile app and website. It pairs 0% trading fees on Solana trades through the mobile app with a fresh 0.45% platform fee on trades placed through the app or web.

The twist is where that 0.45% ends up. The Solana-based token launchpad says it will send all of the revenue from the fee back out through referral rewards, so none of it is booked as platform profit.

How the new structure works

The revamped structure takes effect on October 17, 2026. The referral program behind it was announced a day earlier, on October 16, 2026.

The mechanics are fairly simple. Users who arrive through a referral get a 10% discount on fees. They are also eligible for matching bonuses on deposits, capped at $50.

The people doing the referring get a perk as well. Pump.fun is running a limited-time 4x boost on referrer bonuses, which rewards anyone who brings new traders onto the app.

The fees that are not changing

Not everything is being reworked. Pump.fun’s existing bonding-curve fees stay in place at a combined 1.25%.

That 1.25% splits two ways. Token creators receive 0.30%, and the protocol keeps 0.95%.

A bonding curve is a pricing formula that sets a token’s price automatically based on how much of it has been bought. Early buyers pay less, and the price climbs as demand grows. It is how Pump.fun lets anyone launch a token without lining up liquidity first.

Once tokens move beyond that initial phase, they trade on PumpSwap, the platform’s decentralized exchange. PumpSwap carries its own set of graduated fees, which are also unaffected by this change.

Alon Cohen’s near-zero-fee vision

The direction did not come out of nowhere. Co-founder Alon Cohen endorsed a near-zero-fee trading vision for the app around September 29-30, 2026, framing it as a way to boost visibility and distribution.

Cohen’s emphasis has been on retention. His strategy leans on social and referral mechanics to keep users engaged rather than simply attracting them once.

What this means for traders and the platform

For everyday traders, the near-term math looks favorable. Solana trades on the mobile app carry no fee, referred users get a 10% discount, and deposit bonuses of up to $50 sweeten the onboarding.

For active recruiters, the 4x referrer boost turns the app into something closer to an affiliate program.

For creators, nothing changes. Their 0.30% cut of bonding-curve fees stays intact, so the economics of launching a token on Pump.fun hold steady.

By committing all of the 0.45% platform fee to referral rewards, the company is giving up a potential income stream in exchange for growth. That leaves the protocol’s 0.95% share of bonding-curve fees and its PumpSwap fees doing the heavy lifting on the revenue side.