What 'graduation' actually means on pump.fun (and what it doesn't)

• Before graduation: the bonding curve
• The moment of graduation
• After graduation: a normal pool
• What graduation does not mean
• A note on referral codes

Disclosure: I run PumpFunReferralCode.vip, an independent guide that shares the pump.fun invite code SAVE100. It is a referral code, so I may benefit if you sign up with it. I’m not affiliated with pump.fun. Nothing here is financial advice.

“It graduated” is one of the most common phrases on pump.fun, and one of the least explained. Here’s what it means in practice, and what it doesn’t.

§Before graduation: the bonding curve

Every new pump.fun coin starts on a bonding curve. You don’t trade with other people’s orders. You trade with a contract that sets the price by formula. Each buy raises the price and each sell lowers it. There is a worked example with toy numbers on the bonding curve explainer.

On the curve, pump.fun’s fee page (read 1 October 2026) lists a fee of 1.25% per trade, split 0.30% to the creator and 0.95% to the protocol.

§The moment of graduation

When enough SOL has gone into the curve, the curve is complete and the coin moves to a regular liquidity pool on PumpSwap, pump.fun’s own exchange. The fee page lists a 0.015 SOL fee for a coin graduating to PumpSwap. That fee is charged at graduation, not on each of your trades.

§After graduation: a normal pool

From then on, the coin trades in an automated market maker pool. Three practical differences:

• Fees change. For canonical PumpSwap pools, the fee page shows a schedule that starts at 1.25% total and steps down as market cap grows. Non-canonical pools are listed at 0.3% total. The full table is summarised in pump.fun fees and safety.
• Other people’s liquidity matters. Your price impact now depends on how deep the pool is, not on a fixed curve.
• Other apps can route to it. Once there’s a normal pool, aggregators and other interfaces can trade the coin, and some of them add their own fees.

§What graduation does not mean

Graduation isn’t an audit, an endorsement or a safety check. It only means enough money went into the curve. Insiders can still hold a large share of the supply and sell into the new pool. Many coins fall hard right after graduating, because early buyers take profit as soon as there’s a deeper market.

Before buying a coin near or just after graduation, go through the 12 rug pull warning signs: holder concentration, creator history, copied branding and sudden volume spikes.

§A note on referral codes

A referral or invite code attaches to your sign-up. As far as I can verify, it doesn’t change curve fees, graduation or PumpSwap fees. What I could and couldn’t confirm about SAVE100 is on the guide’s homepage.

Risk warning: memecoins are extremely volatile and most fail. Only use money you can afford to lose, use a separate wallet, and never share your seed phrase.