Authorities in Los Angeles were caught off guard on 28 September when a group of crypto streamers climbed up Mount Lee and draped a Pump.fun logo over one of the letters of the iconic Hollywood sign.
The act, carried out by members of a streaming collective called BASEDD House, was designed to attract attention to the Solana-based meme coin launchpad.
Footage of the stunt quickly spread online, drawing coverage from influencers such as Mario Nawfal and YouTube channels including The Hollywood Fix.
Pump.fun, launched in January 2024, has rapidly become known as a “meme coin factory.”
The platform allows anyone to launch and trade tokens instantly, requiring little to no technical skill.
Its simplicity and low costs have helped fuel a wave of meme coin creation, with streamers often livestreaming pranks or provocative acts to generate attention and boost trading activity.
The spotlight on Pump.fun comes at a time of growing unease within the crypto community over the surge of offensive tokens.
Data shows that four of the top 15 trending tokens on DEXScreener contain racial slurs or references to skin colour.
These tokens, all launched through Pump.fun, illustrate how easily malicious content can be packaged into tradable assets.
Earlier this year, controversy erupted when an American rapper promoted a token named “Swasticoin,” while another titled “Hitler Musk” surfaced on Pump.fun shortly after Elon Musk’s salute during Donald Trump’s inauguration was interpreted as a Nazi-fascist reference.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has openly condemned what he described as “super-racist” meme coins, warning against normalising such content in decentralised finance.
Austin Federa, head of strategy at the Solana Foundation, suggested filtering mechanisms in apps as one possible safeguard.
Yet the very nature of decentralised exchanges — where no central body screens tokens before launch — makes intervention difficult.
Coinlive believes the events surrounding Pump.fun highlight more than just a publicity stunt in Los Angeles.
The ease of creating tokens without oversight has enabled not only viral experiments but also offensive and discriminatory projects to flourish.
While decentralisation is celebrated for giving power back to users, the darker reality is its role in amplifying the worst aspects of human behaviour.
The question now is whether platforms like Pump.fun should remain passive hosts or accept responsibility for how their technology impacts culture and society.
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