Solana Lawsuit Shifts the Spotlight Back to Ethereum: Up Next $5,000?

Ben Graham · 6 horas atrás

Solana and meme coins are one, joined by the hip. The SOL USD price is shaped by the level of meme coin activity. Everyday thousands of meme coins are launched on platforms like Pump.fun. Most of these tokens don’t stand a chance but for the less than +1%, they sometimes rally, breaking the $100M market cap.

While meme coins are here to stay, not everyone is happy. The extremely low success rate is why there is a solid argument that meme coin trading is gambling, and that enabling launchpads like Pump.fun are max-extracting value from users.

When writing, PUMP, the native token of Pump.fun, is up a decent +72% from all-time lows posted in December 2025 despite being down nearly -70% from all-time highs. The question now is: With a lawsuit targeting the platforms, how will the PUMP USD price react?

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The Pump.fun, Solana Lawsuit: What You Should Know

A class action lawsuit involving Pump.fun and Solana-linked entities was first filed in December 2025 by law firms Burwick Law and Wolf Popper LLP in New York. They allege that Pump.fun is not a “fair” launchpad for meme coins but rather a “front-facing slot machine cabinet” designed to extract money from retail investors. They now want over $16Bn in compensation.

Pumpdotfun Legal Update

Today we filed a Notice of Defendant Misconduct in Aguilar v. Baton Corp. Ltd., et al. (SDNY), placing on the record documented harassment, identity misuse, and threats directed at plaintiffs and counsel during ongoing federal litigation. pic.twitter.com/YTCLD5INxa

— Burwick Law (@BurwickLaw) December 22, 2025

The two claim the system allows insiders to buy tokens at the lowest possible prices using “superior infrastructure” before retail investors can even participate. As evidence, they submitted over 5,000 internal chat logs. The plaintiffs argue these messages prove Solana Labs and Pump.fun engineers allegedly coordinated to ensure certain “insider” wallets could execute trades milliseconds before the general public.

They liken the launchpad’s user interface to a “slot machine cabinet” that looks fair to the player but is controlled by “rigged” backend infrastructure. What’s worrying is that Burwick Law and Wolf Popper LLP allege Solana Labs was a “knowing participant” in maintaining infrastructure that prioritized these insider transactions to maximize fee extraction.

They are now pushing for compensation, arguing that Pump.fun and Solana-linked entities ignored basic US laws. One of them, they claim, is that the launchpad moved hundreds of millions of dollars without proper state or federal licenses. What’s more? The suit highlights a total lack of KYC protocols, alleging this allowed the Lazarus Group to launder funds from the $1.5Bn Bybit hack by launching a meme coin called “QinShihuang.”

Lazarus Group use PumpFun to vanish $1.5B

They launched #500000 and vanished $44M

I spent 10h to reveal their laundering scheme

Here's what's happening and what's next pic.twitter.com/5SjIEs1UTU

— Atlas (@crptAtlas) February 23, 2025

Perhaps what would be damaging to meme coins like Fartcoin and WiF, all launched from Pump.fun is the allegation that every token minted is an unregistered security. Every “investor” on the platform rely on their marketing and “bonding curve” mechanics for profits, aligning with the Howey Test. This expectation for profit, in their view, qualifies every token issued to be an unregistered security. How the lawsuit evolves will determine whether the over 20M tokens launched on Pump.fun and deployed on Solana could tank to zero.

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Is Ethereum safer?

Both Solana and Ethereum prices are steady at press time. The lawsuit, however, is bad press for Solana. Because of building Solana, its developers now have to defend themselves on whether they are monetizing fraud every time they collect fees from Pump.fun. Unfortunately, the fee in question runs into hundreds of billions. In the last year alone, the meme coin launchpad generated nearly $600M.

(Source: Dune)

Therefore, even without a verdict, lawsuits matter. Large investors avoid chains under legal clouds because compliance teams hate surprises. That hesitation alone can redirect capital to competing platforms, mainly ETH USDT, helping it pump towards $5,000. The first smart contracts platform has its own problems, mainly high fees. But right now, the relatively high fees look boring in a good way. For institutions, boring means predictable. What’s more? Without lawsuits linked to co-founders, there is stability.

As of mid-January, Ethereum is the king of DeFi, managing over $75Bn worth of assets. Meanwhile, DeFi protocols on Solana have locked less than $10Bn. Ethereum also leads in looking at tokenized real-world assets like fiat, stocks, and bonds. This huge gap matters especially when asset managers are scouting for networks to deploy tokenized stocks or other assets. Institutional money is cautious money, while meme coins are usually retail cash, the “reckless” type.