RiskMemecoins are highly speculative, and most lose nearly all their value. Nothing here is financial advice. The risks in full
What is a dev buy?
A dev buy is the coin creator's own purchase of their coin, made in the same transaction that creates it. Because nobody can trade before the coin exists, it's always the first buy, at the curve's starting price.
- “Dev” means the wallet that launched the coin, or the person behind it.
- A dev buy is optional: a coin can launch with no buy at all.
- The wallet that made it shows on the coin's holder list like any other, often labelled as the dev.
How much does a dev buy get?
On pump.fun, a 1 SOL dev buy gets about 34 million tokens, 3.4% of the supply. Larger buys get proportionally less per SOL, because each SOL raises the price for the next.
| Dev buy | Tokens | Share of supply | Market cap after |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 SOL | 3.5 million | 0.35% | 28 SOL |
| 0.5 SOL | 17.4 million | 1.74% | 29 SOL |
| 1 SOL | 34.2 million | 3.42% | 30 SOL |
| 2 SOL | 66.3 million | 6.63% | 32 SOL |
| 5 SOL | 151.7 million | 15.17% | 38 SOL |
| 10 SOL | 265.8 million | 26.58% | 49 SOL |
| 20 SOL | 426.0 million | 42.60% | 77 SOL |
Every row pays pump.fun's 1.25% first, as all curve buys do. The pump.fun calculator works out any other amount, and How memecoin bonding curves work explains the formula behind the table.
What does a dev buy cost besides the coins?
pump.fun's 1.25% trading fee, a small deposit for the wallet's account for the coin, and any launch tool's fee. Through memetools that's 1% of the buy, or 0.25% with Pro.
Creating the coin itself costs about 0.0225 SOL whatever the buy. The full list is in pump.fun fees, explained.
What do buyers see?
Everything. The dev's wallet, how much it bought and whether it has sold are public, and most trading tools show them on the coin's page.
- Dev holdings as a share of supply, often in a coin's headline stats.
- “Dev sold” labels when the creator's wallet sells, which many traders watch closely.
- Other early wallets. A bundle launch's wallets show up in the first block, and bundle checkers flag them. See pump.fun bundle launches.
How big should a dev buy be?
There's no right size, and nothing here recommends one. A dev buy trades off what the creator owns against how much of the coin buyers see in one wallet.
- A small dev buy means the creator holds little, and buyers can see that.
- A large one gives the creator a big share at the lowest price, which buyers read as a wallet that could sell into them.
- Selling it moves the price down for everyone else, by the same formula that moved it up.
- No dev buy is a choice too: the creator holds nothing and earns only creator fees.
However big it is, don't present your own buying as outside demand. Buyers can see the wallet, and being misled is what makes them leave.
Is a dev buy different on pons?
On pons, Robinhood Chain's launchpad, the dev buy is made in ETH and rides in the launch transaction, so it isn't charged the anti-snipe tax that hits other buyers in a launch's first five seconds.
Through memetools it pays our usual 1% (0.25% with Pro), and pons charges its 0.0005 ETH launch fee whether or not you buy. See pons fees, explained and Launch a memecoin on Robinhood Chain.
Risks
A dev buy is money spent on a coin that may go to zero, and most do. Memecoins are highly speculative, and nothing here is financial advice.
- A coin's price can fall below the dev buy's price within seconds of launch.
- Rules on launching tokens and promoting them differ by country. Following them is up to you.