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Messari's protocol reports give you a deep dive on the foundation and state of top crypto protocols, including key metrics and notable events. See the complete list of protocol reports here and get a preview of our latest report below.
Decentralized Wireless (DeWi) / DePIN
Roam’s node count surged 427.5% YTD, reaching 6 million nodes across 3M+ users and 578M+ total check-ins
Over 14.98B points issued and 10.08B burned show a highly active, utility-driven ecosystem with strong conversion into ROAM tokens
Competes with Helium and other DeWi protocols but differentiates through focus on WiFi + eSIM, decentralized identity, and active user participation
DePIN / Decentralized Cloud
Integrations with Saga, Gensyn, Morpheus, and VPS AI deepened role in powering decentralized AI compute and agentic workloads
CPU usage rose 14% QoQ, while storage usage surged 41%, signaling broader adoption across smaller, non-AI workloads
Eight proposals funded $1.33M in core infrastructure, new provider tooling, and global events
Autonomys integrates:
(1) Storage: distributed blockchain & AI agent data storage network (Archive size up 16% QoQ (143 GB))
(2) Consensus: Proof-of-Archival-Storage + Proof-of-Time
(3) Decoupled Execution: modular domains for transactionsCumulative events up 67% QoQ to 172.1M,
July 2025 saw AI3 token transferability go live; Auto EVM (smart contracts) and Auto ID (identity/agent verification) expected in Q3
Pump.fun has been a focal point of my research for months now, from the early valuation breakdown at 0.0025 to the more recent deep dives into streaming, creator incentives, and Solana market share. This Wednesday, I’m publishing one of my final reports at Messari: “Pump.fun Return of the King,” a comprehensive look at why the platform remains structurally strong despite the broader memecoin cycle cooling.
The Thesis: “We live in a high-attention society where participants crave the next surge of dopamine by any means available. Immediate gratification has created an unquenchable desire for rapid success, and pump.fun is built around that reality. The idea that one can profit by launching or participating in their favorite meme is the underlying force driving Pump.fun, and it is a model that could sustain the platform’s relevance over time.”
The platform has achieved what few others could: merging trading, entertainment, and community into a single feedback loop. Every trade, stream, and meme is an entry point for engagement. It is this fusion, speculation as culture, that keeps pump.fun relevant even after the hype phases fade.
The report breaks down how Pump.fun became the center of Solana’s token economy, with 12–13 million tokens launched and a small fraction that “graduate” to meaningful market caps. It also explores the psychology behind the platform’s appeal: how dopamine loops, social validation, and fast feedback have made pump.fun a digital dopamine machine built for the attention economy.
The report revisits the Bonk.fun war of mid-2025, when Bonk briefly overtook Pump by volume before collapsing weeks later, and details how pump.fun reclaimed over 73% of market share through major buybacks and new incentive programs. It then delves into the streaming and creator incentive model, illustrating how the April 2025 relaunch transformed trading into performance, with creators like Bagwork earning over $300,000 and achieving a $53 million market cap through its token launch.
Finally, it examines pump.fun’s reflexive economics with more than $866 million in lifetime revenue, $1–2 million in daily fees, and over 654,000 SOL (~$130 million) in buybacks that have already removed approximately 8% of the supply. Each trade feeds the next, reinforcing scarcity and price momentum. Even with 98% of tokens abandoned, the few breakout winners keep the cycle alive.
Pump.fun’s strength ultimately rests on three pillars:
Network Effects: Brand, liquidity, and creator flywheel make it almost impossible to replicate.
Reflexive Economics: Every trade compounds the buyback loop, linking activity directly to value.
Cultural Fit: Built around immediacy, performance, and participation: the defining traits of Gen Z engagement.
While regulation and market cycles will test its durability, pump.fun remains both the gateway and the heartbeat of Solana’s onchain economy.
This will be my last newsletter with Messari; it’s been a great run. I’ll continue to share crypto, AI, and macro insights on X (@plagueobserver) and LinkedIn, so feel free to connect.
The full Enterprise Report drops Wednesday. Until next time…
