Solana Protocol Extracts Excessive Fees from Users

Pump.fun's fee collection machine on Solana is a prime example of how some protocols extract value from users without much effort. The system operates like a toll gate, charging high fees to let tokens pass through.

The protocol uses SPL (Solana Program Library) boilerplate and is not sophisticated, simply incrementing a counter in a database until an arbitrary threshold is met. When tokens reach $69,000 in market capitalization, they 'graduate' to a DEX, where the platform takes a 1% cut of every trade.

This is where the real fee extraction occurs. The smart contract skims a flat 2.00 SOL fee just to transfer liquidity. This represents pure extraction and is risk-free profit for the developers. For a basic transfer script, this is excessive.