Man Threatens Suicide on Pumpdotfun Livestream as Memecoin Craze Worsens

Solana-based memecoin launch platform Pumpdotfun has come under increased criticism from the cryptocurrency community following the emergence of a questionable trend. During the past weekend, a memecoin developer who launched a token through the platform went on live stream and threatened to hang themselves if buyers did not buy the token enough to push it to a particular market capitalization.

The bizarre attention-seeking move by the memecoin creator is not an isolated case; it continues a fast-growing chain of heinous attempts by memecoin devs to attract published interest in their project. In similar moves, a memecoin creator went on a live stream claiming they would do away with a young child if the token failed to perform well, while yet another fellow disclosed plans to go shooting in a school on the live stream.

These shocking developments have led many prominent voices in the community to call for a ban on Pumpdotfun or that the platform can at least disable the live stream functionality for memecoin creators. However, Pumpdotfun has yet to respond to any of the growing public criticism.

The platform is ranked among the top list of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols by revenue and has bounced back strongly after a smart contract exploit in May. According to data on DeFiLlama, the platform generated over $33 million in revenue in the past week alone.

Should the Government Ban Pumpdotfun?

Amid the latest trend on Pumpdotfun, the cryptocurrency community on X has been drawn into a debate as to whether the platform should be banned.

Critics argue that the ugly trend will escalate further as the bull market wears on, while some claim that the platform embeds the ethos of the cryptocurrency industry by allowing anyone anywhere to create a memecoin and enable trading within seconds. Still, others, like popular crypto influencer Cobie, warn that investors, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, may choose to stay off the website to avoid getting into a governmental agency blacklist in the future.

At this time, there is no publicly known effort by a governmental agency to ban the platform or make it inaccessible to investors. However, it is such a move would not be entirely surprising if the latest ugly trend continues.