Graduation
 Image: original illustration, memecoin.wiki | |
| part of speech | noun, verb form graduate |
|---|---|
| scene | Solana launchpads, pump.fun |
The moment a launchpad token completes its bonding curve and migrates to a full decentralized exchange, historically Raydium and later PumpSwap.
Graduation is the moment a launchpad meme coin completes its bonding curve and migrates to a full decentralized exchange. A token that reaches this milestone is said to have graduated, and the event is also called migration or, informally, bonding ("the coin bonded"). Graduation marks the transition from the launchpad's closed pricing mechanism to an open market with pooled liquidity.
Mechanics
On pump.fun, a token graduates when buyers have absorbed the roughly 800 million tokens sold along the curve, historically at an indicative market cap near 69,000 dollars. Trading on the curve halts, and the SOL collected is paired with the remaining supply to seed a liquidity pool. Before March 2025 graduated tokens migrated to Raydium, a process that carried a 6 SOL fee. On March 20, 2025 pump.fun launched its own decentralized exchange, PumpSwap, and graduations became instant and free, with PumpSwap operating as a constant product exchange comparable to Uniswap v2. Competing launchpads such as Raydium's LaunchLab replicate the same pattern.
Usage
Graduation rate is the trenches' basic quality statistic: only a small percentage of launched tokens ever complete their curve, so "graduated" functions as a minimal credential. Traders debate strategies keyed to the event, since graduation triggers a burst of attention, bot activity, and often a sell wave from curve buyers taking profit into the new pool. "About to bond" is a common call to action in alpha chats (see alpha group), while a coin that graduates and immediately collapses is mocked as a graduation rug pull.
History
The term derives from pump.fun's own framing of curve completion and entered general crypto vocabulary during 2024 as the platform came to dominate Solana meme coin issuance. Industry data trackers publish daily graduation counts as a barometer of meme coin market health, and declining graduation rates in later cycles were widely reported as evidence of trench fatigue.