Pump.Fun platform and its founder background investigation

Pump.Fun is a platform that allows users to create cryptocurrencies, founded in January 2024 by three entrepreneurs in their twenties: Noah Tweedale, Alon Cohen, and Dylan Kerler. The platform quickly became a major trading venue for Memecoins, generating over $600 million in revenue through a 1% trading commission in just 15 months.

However, there is evidence that several years before Pump.Fun was established, a person named Dylan Kerler had profited by issuing and selling his own tokens. According to the investigation, in 2017, a 16-year-old Dylan Kerler issued 8 types of tokens, among which eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash attracted attention on crypto forums, but their prices quickly plummeted, and investors accused the developers of conducting a Rug Pull.

Analysis by blockchain security company CertiK shows that this developer earned approximately $75,000 in cryptocurrency in 2017 solely from the sales of eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash, which could be estimated at $400,000 based on today's coin prices.

The purpose of Pump.Fun is said to be protecting investors through standardized token issuance, but evidence suggests that Dylan Kerler may have been the type of developer that the platform was trying to guard against. As of the time of publication, neither Pump.Fun nor Dylan Kerler has responded to requests for comment.

The three co-founders rarely disclose their identities, citing security concerns. Among them, the publicly available information about Kerler is the least; apart from being listed as a company director, he has almost no trace online.

However, a series of "digital clues" on the internet link this name to the suspected Rug Pull operations of eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash. In 2017, these two tokens were promoted by the DOMAINBROKER and ninjagod accounts on the BitcoinTalk forum, both accounts belonging to the same user. DOMAINBROKER provided an email containing the name Dylan Kerler in a post, referred to as a "personal email."

Multiple pieces of evidence indicate that Dylan Kerler, co-founder of Pump.Fun, was in the same area as the developers of these tokens. Voter registration records show that Kerler was still registered in the Brighton and Hove area of the UK at least in 2024. A physical company of Pump.Fun was also registered at the same property in that area.

Dylan Kerler seems to have previously used the alias "Dylan Phoon", sharing the same surname as another registrant of the address, Kee Fatt Phoon, suggesting a possible familial relationship between the two. Until recently, a GitHub account still retained a Gmail address named Dylan Phoon, and the profile picture associated with that email also appeared on other social media accounts.

eBitcoinCash and EthereumCash were both launched during the peak of the ICO craze. At that time, hundreds of token projects raised billions of dollars from investors through ICOs. Most ICO projects were eventually found to be manipulative, exaggerated, or outright fraudulent.

In October 2017, a developer claiming to be Dylan Kerler began promoting EthereumCash. They followed standard practices: minting tokens, building a website, and promoting on social media platforms. To create buzz, they conducted token airdrops and promised to release a white paper.

However, just as early investors were full of expectations, the developers began to secretly sell off. CertiK's analysis shows that Dylan Kerler distributed a large number of tokens to wallets under his control and sold off a large amount between October 19 and 21, resulting in a price drop of 87.9%.

Investors began to panic and blamed the developers. The promised white paper never appeared, and the developers eventually disappeared from forums and social groups. In just a few days, the developers withdrew approximately $75,000 in profits from the platform and transferred the funds through multiple wallets, ultimately depositing them into a centralized exchange account.

Analysts point out that this layered processing approach is intended to obscure the flow of funds, which is itself very suspicious. In the end, this action is consistent with the developers' previous announcement on the forum: "This will be like a Pump and Dump, a round of raising prices to sell off, allowing early investors to recoup their costs."

As of today, the development momentum of Pump.Fun has not slowed down, but the Rug Pull behavior that goes against its original intention continues to unfold. Last November, a teenager live-streamed the creation and sale of tokens on the platform, making a profit of $30,000 in just a few minutes. This scene may be a true portrayal of this era.