12 minutes.

That’s how long it took for Pump.fun’s token offering to raise roughly $500 million from retail investors across various exchanges, including Bybit, Kraken, and KuCoin.

The sale priced 125 billion tokens at $0.004 apiece, implying a $4 billion fully diluted valuation for the Solana-based memecoin launcher’s new utility token.

For now, holders must wait to get their hands on the token they bought.

Pump.fun said the purchased tokens will land in wallets over the next 48–72 hours and will stay locked until distribution ends, blocking trades or transfers.

The team shared the official Solana contract address— pumpCmXqMfrsAkQ5r49WcJnRayYRqmXz6ae8H7H9Dfn— and warned users to shun look-alike assets.

Read more: PUMP Lingers at 40% Premium Over ICO Price on Hyperliquid Ahead of Pump.fun Token Sale

Tether has announced it will wind down USDT on five lesser-used blockchains after usage on those networks wanes.

Redemptions and token minting on Omni Layer, Bitcoin Cash’s Simple Ledger Protocol, Kusama, EOS, and Algorand are set to stop on Sept. 1, 2025. Remaining tokens are to be frozen on the same day, according to a statement.

Together, the five networks carry only a sliver of USDT’s roughly $156 billion float. Tether says the usage of USDT on these networks, which it touts as playing a role in the firm’s early growth, has declined “significantly” over the past two years.

“Sunsetting support for these legacy chains allows us to focus on platforms that offer greater scalability, developer activity, and community engagement — all key components for driving the next wave of stablecoin adoption,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in the statement.

The firm will redirect its focus to Layer 2 networks such as the Lightning Network and to newer blockchains that promise faster settlement and richer developer tooling.

Tether has asked its customers holding USDT on the five networks to redeem their holdings as soon as possible or request issuance of their tokens on a supported blockchain. Token holders can migrate their tokens through blockchain bridges or exchanges.

The lion’s share of Tether’s $156 billion fiat is currently circulating on Tron and Ethereum, which together make up over 95% of the total. Solana is the only other network with more than 1% of USDT’s supply in circulation, according to RWA.xyz data.

Coinbase broke with its usual blue logo on X, posting a Pudgy Penguins non-fungible token as its profile picture alongside the quip “new pfp, who dis.”

Minutes later, PENGU, the native token of the penguin-themed ecosystem, started surging. The token rose more than 60% in the rally before enduring a correction, but it’s still up more than 35% for the week.

The official Pudgy Penguins account mirrored the move, sending matching ice-blue avatars gliding across feeds and leading to talk of a partnership between Coinbase and Igloo Inc., the startup that steers the collection. Various crypto-related firms, including VanEck, MoonPay, and AwakenTax, have since changed their profile pictures to pudgy penguins.

The stunt has also lifted the floor price of Pudgy Penguin NFTs, which was earlier this week around 9 ETH, and quickly jumped to 11.58 ETH according to NFTPriceFloor data. The volume for the project’s NFTs grew nearly 690% in the last 24 hours.

Coinbase changed its profile picture during a short account takeover from pseudonymous Crypto Twitter personality AlexOnChain, who previously led the social media account of leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance for four years.

After the takeover, Coinbase revealed they’re hiring AlexOnChain as their first full-time “CT Lead.”

“The new focus is making comms more social native — direct, transparent, and engaging. That’s the path to building a bigger appreciation for everything they’ve contributed to this space (which is a lot), and to help reconnect with ct,” Alex said in a post. “It’s a big job, it won’t be easy, and that’s why I took it.”

PENGU’s price rise also comes as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) acknowledged Canary Capital’s filing for a spot PENGU ETF.