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February 26, 2026 – Pump.fun’s $3 million Build in Public Hackathon continues to attract projects positioning themselves as foundational layers inside one of crypto’s fastest-moving ecosystems. Launched via the Pump Fund in January, the initiative backs founders who launch on Pump.fun, build in public, and demonstrate visible momentum; market traction provides the initial signal, and Pump Fund makes the final investment decisions.
Two recipients have already been announced: zauth (announced February 14, 2026) and Opal (@opalbotgg) as the second $250,000 selection, with additional picks ongoing. While many entrants remain at the idea or prototype stage, PumpMarket is already live on mainnet. In the first 48 hours since mainnet launch, with 63 markets resolved, 66 SOL in total volume and 150+ predictions made and settled.
A dedicated prediction market for crypto-native outcomes
General-purpose prediction markets have expanded rapidly across macroeconomic and political topics. However, they were not built for crypto-native micro-events, especially the rapid, high-frequency lifecycle of Pump.fun token launches.
PumpMarket addresses this gap by focusing on crypto-native outcomes that general-purpose prediction markets don’t cover. The platform launched with Graduation Markets (live on mainnet), where anyone can create a market on any new Pump.fun token and predict whether it will graduate from the bonding curve within a 1 hour window with settlement anchored to objective on-chain state changes.
Users participate by staking SOL on whether newly launched tokens will graduate within defined one-hour windows. The system operates through a parimutuel pool model, in which all stakes are pooled and distributed proportionally among correct participants once the market resolves.
By concentrating liquidity around a single, high-frequency event category, PumpMarket formalizes behavior traders already track rather than introducing entirely new mechanics.
Addressing the execution gap in Pump.fun
Pump.fun processes more than 20,000 token launches daily, yet graduation rates typically hover between one and two percent. While many traders believe they can identify promising projects early, execution remains unforgiving. Slippage, timing mismatches, and rapid liquidity shifts frequently undermine otherwise correct directional views.
“Pump.fun traders are right more often than people think,” the PumpMarket co-founder said. “They lose money because execution is unforgiving, not because they can’t read the market.” He added, “PumpMarket gives them a way to back their conviction without touching the token.”
By structuring participation around outcomes rather than asset ownership, the platform reduces exposure to price volatility between entry and resolution while preserving directional insight.
Mainnet & devnet validation signals product-farket fit
Prior to the hackathon, PumpMarket validated its infrastructure on devnet by resolving hundreds of markets against live on-chain Pump.fun data, proving the system could settle outcomes transparently and at scale. Since launching on mainnet, that validation has converted into real usage: users are actively creating and trading markets with real SOL, confirming demand for crypto-native outcomes in production, not just in testing.
The devnet phase also served as a stress test for the platform’s resolution infrastructure. Outcomes were verified in real time through integrations with leading Infrastructure providers like Bitquery, Helius, and Birdeye, ensuring that each market closed transparently and without discretionary intervention.
Beyond usage metrics, PumpMarket also received early ecosystem recognition during the devnet phase, including acknowledgement from Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko (“Toly”) and media coverage signals of growing awareness that have continued as the product operates in production.
“The Build in Public Hackathon is about proving product-market fit in the open,” the co-founder explained. “We didn’t show up with a pitch deck. We showed up with a live product people are already using.” He emphasised that credibility must be earned through execution. “If you’re building infrastructure, it has to work before it wins attention. That’s what we focused on.”
Building a broader prediction layer
Unlike broad prediction platforms that distribute liquidity across unrelated categories, PumpMarket is purpose-built for Pump.fun’s ecosystem. Its initial focus on graduation reflects a deliberate strategy to create depth rather than fragmentation. By transforming Pump.fun’s own ecosystem data into structured, outcome-based markets, the platform introduces a native prediction layer aligned with existing user behavior.
“Graduation markets are our starting point, not our ceiling,” the CEO said. “We’re building the prediction layer for every verifiable on-chain outcome that matters. Pump.fun is where we start. The whole crypto ecosystem is where we’re going.”
Following its devnet phase, PumpMarket launched on Solana mainnet and now plans to expand beyond graduation outcomes into additional categories, including token price decline markets, market capitalization milestones, trading volume thresholds, and exchange listing outcomes. Each expansion remains anchored in objectively verifiable on-chain events.
Over time, the infrastructure is intended to extend beyond Pump.fun to additional launchpads and ecosystems, with the long-term objective of supporting structured participation across a broad range of crypto-native milestones.
About PumpMarket
PumpMarket is a crypto-native prediction market built on Solana, designed to enable structured, outcome-based participation in verifiable on-chain events. The platform allows users to stake SOL on whether newly launched Pump.fun tokens will graduate within defined time windows, removing the need to trade or custody the underlying asset.
For more information visit https://pumpmarket.fun and follow updates at https://x.com/pumpmarketfun.
