That’s big money, and arguably the largest crypto fundraise of 2025. But how Pump.fun raised money was also extraordinary. Any small-time trader—though not those in the U.S., U.K, and countries like Iran—could get in on the action through the public sale after verifying their identity. That’s a far cry from the last five years of crypto, when a harsher regulatory climate restricted the first-time sale of tokens almost exclusively to wealthy investors.

Pump.fun’s token offering is a novel development in the current crypto environment. But it was also a throwback to a more free-wheeling era nearly ten years ago when everyone and their mother (quite literally) were launching their own cryptocurrencies to the public to raise millions. Those offerings, known as initial coin offerings or ICOs, gave rise to some of the most famous projects in crypto—but also a torrent of fly-by-night offerings and outright scams. Does the Pump.fun sale mean ICOs are back? 

IPOs, ICOs, and securities

For traditional startups, there’s a well-trodden path to the public markets. Raise money from private investors, grow your business, and, if you’re lucky, file for an IPO, or initial public offering. This is usually a yearslong process, involves high-priced investment bankers, and requires scrutiny from financial regulators.

Initial coin offerings, by contrast, offer a shortcut that involves minting millions of tokens and then distributing them to those who contribute capital to the effort. That’s what crypto companies—both legitimate and illegitimate—did in the 2010s. In 2014, the founders of the blockchain Ethereum raised over $18 million after they let the public buy up its cryptocurrency, which has since become the second most valuable token, only below Bitcoin. 

Soon, others were raking in millions, even billions, for blockchain companies through token launches. Those included boondoggles like Shopin, a blockchain shopping scheme that somehow raised over $42 million in an ICO, and whose tokens are today worth basically nothing.

Unsurprisingly, the Securities and Exchange Commission began cracking down, alleging that many tokens were akin to securities, or financial assets like stocks or bonds that must adhere to decades-old disclosure and registration requirements. 

The agency soon forced companies to return billions raised through ICOs. In addition to Shopin, it targeted the popular messaging app Telegram. After Telegram founder Pavel Durov drummed up $1.7 billion in an offering in 2018, the SEC sued Durov’s company to force it to return the cash to investors.

As financial regulators cracked down, companies looked for other ways to legally launch cryptocurrencies, which they claimed were more akin to commodities, or financial assets like gold or oil. They engaged in free “airdrops” to loyal users or sold them to wealthy investors who agreed to lengthy lock-up periods before reselling them. 

But, now, the legal winds have shifted again. Under former President Joe Biden, the SEC regulated crypto with a heavy hand, suing even the most prominent companies like Coinbase and Binance for alleged securities violations. Under President Donald Trump, the federal government has pulled back. “The fear of getting smacked down by law enforcement or the regulators, at least right now, isn’t there in the market,” Scott Armstrong, a white-collar defense attorney at McGovern Weems and former Justice Department prosecutor, told Fortune.

Déjà vu

Over the past year, crypto outfits have launched portals where qualified investors, not just well-known VCs, can access early funding rounds for startups. And Cobie, a longtime, pseudonymous crypto investor, is even developing what he’s dubbed an ICO platform. In July, the crypto startup Plasma said it planned to raise $50 million through Cobie’s project. Add in Pump.fun’s mammoth raise, and it seems like it’s déjà vu all over again. “We absolutely believe this sets the stage for a new era of ICOs,” Alon Cohen, cofounder of Pump.fun, said in a statement. 

While Cohen said he believes ICOs are one of the best ways to decentralize a crypto project, others are more cautious. “There’s the real prospect that history repeats itself, and there will be similar fraudulent and problematic offerings this time around,” Armstrong told Fortune.

Scams were rampant in the ICO era. Founders would release a jargon-filled academic paper, promise revolutionary technology, raise millions, and never deliver. But crypto industry adherents say this time is different. 

Pump.fun is a real project and has generated nearly $800 million in revenue since early 2024, according to Blockworks. Plus, public and private investors in the token launch were given the same financial terms, a company spokesperson told Fortune. “It is a much fairer situation now as compared to that moment in time,” said Omar Shakeeb, cofounder of SecondLane, a newer investment bank that caters towards crypto and private markets.

Austin Federa, cofounder of the crypto startup DoubleZero, echoed Shakeeb. “I don’t see today a bunch of projects that are vaporware or have no revenue or have no sort of substance behind them raising crazy numbers,” he told Fortune.

In fact, Federa and his startup have creeped back into the U.S. In April, he and his team conducted a limited token offering to select buyers beyond just venture capitalists. He is cautiously optimistic that the return to more public cryptocurrency offerings is a boon for the industry. Still, he was careful not to be too bullish. 

“A universal truth of crypto,” he said, “is that everything good can turn bad given enough forces.”