Solana Meme Coin Launchpad Pump.fun Bans UK Users After Regulator Warning

Solana meme coin launchpad Pump.fun is no longer available for use in the United Kingdom, with the site's creators taking action following a warning from the country's financial regulator. Pseudonymous co-founder Alon told Decrypt that this is not a temporary measure, and confirmed that only the UK is affected.

According to a site notice, the UK is now a restricted jurisdiction for Pump.fun, which lets users create and trade Solana tokens with no coding experience. This move was made “in accordance with the laws and regulations of the United Kingdom,” the notice reads, further noting that “this site is currently unavailable to users in the United Kingdom.”

The ban on UK users comes three days after UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) put a warning out against the launchpad.

“This firm may be providing or promoting financial services or products without our permission,” the FCA site reads. “You should avoid dealing with this firm and beware of scams.”

The FCA declined further comment to Decrypt. Alon confirmed to Decrypt that the decision was made by Pump.fun, and that the platform was not forced to exclude UK users.

“Everything that has to be said is on the site,” Alon told Decrypt. “This is permanent.”

Pump.fun has been embroiled in multiple controversies since its January launch. In May, a user on the platform set himself on fire, while livestreaming on Kick, to promote his meme coin—which Pump.fun responded to by adding streaming as a native feature for creators.

Then in October, child sexual abuse material was found on Pump.fun after it slipped through the moderation team’s fingers. More recently, the livestream meta returned with threats to animal life, the beheading of a chicken, and a faked suicide. The site then removed the livestreaming feature.

Despite its questionable ethical and legal standing, Pump.fun accounted for 62% of transactions on Solana in November, according to on-chain data from Dune. 

Prior to the meme coin dev setting himself on fire, a disgruntled ex-employee drained the protocol of $2 million. He said that he did it because he wanted to “kill” the protocol, due to it “inadvertently hurt[ing] people for a long time.”

Jarett Dunn (aka Stacc on Twitter) pleaded guilty in August, but is attempting to withdraw this plea—as it appears he is looking to argue the attack was done in an attempt to be a whistleblower against the company.

“Where is this company registered and paying taxes?” Dunn wrote on Twitter, in response to the UK user ban.

Pump.fun is registered in the UK as Baton Corporation Ltd., with its employees—at the time of the attack, at least—working in London. As such, the UK user ban asks serious questions about the legal future of the company.

Crypto lawyer Preston Byrne, Managing Partner at Byrne & Storm, warned about this last week, claiming that the UK does not tolerate low levels of content moderation—which it appeared the platform was suffering from. Equally, the site had “no terms of service, no DMCA registration, and copyright policy, no privacy policy,” which Byrne said puts the company in a precarious legal position.

“The fact that the individuals rumored to be the founding team are all UK residents complicates the picture somewhat,” Byrne told Decrypt, “as it means the UK has greater leverage over them than they would a U.S. team.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward