How to Use Pump.fun: Wallet, Deposit and Your First Trade

How do you use Pump.fun?

Using Pump.fun comes down to four actions: get in with a wallet, apply your referral code, fund the wallet, and trade from a coin page. The interface is deliberately simple, which is why it is easy to move faster than you should. This guide slows each step down and explains what you are looking at.

If you have not prepared yet, the getting started checklist covers eligibility and budgeting first. If you plan to use an external wallet, the Phantom guide covers wallet setup in depth.

Getting in: app or web

Pump.fun runs as a website and as a mobile app. Both let you browse coins, trade and launch. The main practical differences:

	Mobile app	Web app
Wallet	Sign in through the app	Connect an external Solana wallet
Funding	In-app purchase through integrated providers, or transfer	Transfer or buy in your wallet
Referral deposit reward	Yes, if the code is applied in the app and you qualify	Not on its own
Platform fee	0.45%, or 0.40% with a referral code	Same

The platform fee figures come from Pump.fun’s official fees page, updated 17 October 2026.

Applying the referral code

Do this before you buy anything. Open pump.fun/join/NEWUSER50, sign in, and enter or confirm NEWUSER50 when asked. According to Pump.fun’s Deposit Match Program Terms, the code must be applied in the mobile app within 24 hours of first using it with your wallet and before your first purchase through an integrated provider.

What you get with NEWUSER50: 10% off trading fees, and up to $50 free on your first deposit if an offer is displayed and you pass review. The full explanation is on our Pump.fun referral code page.

Making your first deposit

In the app, choose the option to add funds or buy crypto. You will be passed to an integrated payment provider, which may ask you to verify your identity. The offer screen should show your maximum deposit match before you pay. Your first purchase through such a provider is your qualifying deposit; later purchases and transfers do not count. The minimum is $1, and the match is capped at the maximum shown for your country.

With an external wallet, send SOL to your wallet’s Solana address, or buy it inside the wallet. Always keep a little SOL unspent for network fees.

Reading a coin page

A coin page is busy, but a handful of elements matter most:

• Price chart. Shows how the price has moved. On new coins it can be extremely jagged.
• Market cap and curve progress. Shows where the coin sits on its bonding curve and how close it is to graduating to PumpSwap.
• Holders. Lists the biggest wallets. If a few hold a large share, they can crash the price by selling.
• Trades. A live feed of buys and sells. Watch for large sells from early wallets.
• Contract address. The coin’s unique identifier. Copycat coins often reuse popular names, so the address is what you should check.
• Comments and links. Useful context, but treat links with suspicion.

Watch before you trade

Before your first buy, spend ten minutes simply watching. Open a few coin pages, including one that has just launched and one that has already graduated to PumpSwap. Notice how quickly prices move, how often large sells appear, and how the holder list changes. Look at a coin that was popular yesterday and see where its price is now.

This habit costs nothing and teaches two things quickly. First, momentum on Pump.fun fades much faster than it looks in the moment. Second, the trades that feel most urgent are usually the ones you would least want to have made. Traders who keep watching before acting tend to make fewer, smaller and better trades.

Placing a buy

1. Choose buy and enter how much SOL (or USDC) to spend.
2. Check the slippage setting. It controls how far the price can move before your trade fails rather than fills.
3. Review the fee lines. Pump.fun shows the platform fee separately; the bonding-curve fee of 1.25% and the network fee apply too.
4. Confirm. In the web app, read and sign the request in your wallet.

On a bonding curve, larger buys move the price more, so your average price is worse than the price you saw. Split large amounts or, better, keep trades small.

Selling

Selling is the mirror image. Choose sell, select an amount or percentage, review the fees and confirm. Fees are collected in the quote asset, so you receive slightly less SOL than the headline value. If the price is falling fast, a sell can fail because of slippage. Check your SOL balance and slippage before retrying, and see the troubleshooting guide if it keeps failing.

Slippage in practice

Slippage is the most misunderstood setting. Too low, and trades fail repeatedly in fast markets, each attempt possibly costing a network fee. Too high, and you may get filled at a far worse price than expected. A sensible approach is to start with the app’s default, raise it only a little if trades keep failing, and never set it very high on a coin that is moving violently.

After your first trades

Look back at your first buy and sell and add up what you paid in fees. Compare the SOL you started with to the SOL you ended with. That number teaches more than any chart. Then read is Pump.fun safe? and the fee schedule before you scale up. Most people who keep their losses small do so by trading less, not more.