Pump.fun Graduation to PumpSwap

What Is Token Graduation?

Every token launched on pump.fun starts its life on a bonding curve — an automated pricing mechanism that lets anyone buy or sell instantly without traditional liquidity providers. But this bonding curve is not meant to last forever. It has a built-in completion point called graduation.

Graduation occurs when the real SOL deposited into the bonding curve reaches approximately 85 SOL. At that point, the token has proven enough market demand to transition to a full decentralized exchange. The bonding curve locks, trading on it stops, and the accumulated liquidity migrates to a proper AMM pool on PumpSwap.

Think of the bonding curve as the launch pad and graduation as the moment your token enters the real market. Before graduation, trading happens exclusively through pump.fun's bonding curve contract. After graduation, the token trades on PumpSwap like any other Solana DEX token, with deeper liquidity and access to aggregators like Jupiter.

The 85 SOL Threshold in Detail

The graduation threshold is measured in real SOL reserves, not virtual reserves. When a token is created, the bonding curve initializes with virtual reserves (approximately 30 virtual SOL) that simulate pool depth. These virtual reserves do not count toward graduation. Only actual SOL deposited by traders through buy transactions counts.

What Counts Toward the Threshold

• Buy transactions: Every buy adds real SOL to the curve. A 1 SOL buy adds approximately 0.99 SOL to real reserves (after the 1% platform fee).
• Net buying pressure: Sells remove SOL from real reserves. If someone buys 10 SOL and another sells 5 SOL, the net real reserves increase by approximately 5 SOL.
• Initial dev buy: If the creator makes an initial buy during token creation, that SOL counts toward real reserves from the start.

How Long Does It Take?

There is no fixed timeline. Some viral tokens graduate within minutes of launch when a wave of buyers floods in. Other tokens may take days, weeks, or never graduate at all. The vast majority of pump.fun tokens never reach the 85 SOL threshold because they lack enough sustained demand. Graduation is a genuine signal that a token has attracted meaningful capital.

The PumpSwap Migration Process

When the 85 SOL threshold is hit, pump.fun's smart contract automatically triggers the migration sequence. This is an on-chain process that happens without any action required from the token creator or holders. Here is the step-by-step flow:

PumpSwap vs. the Old Raydium Migration

Before PumpSwap launched, pump.fun tokens that graduated migrated to Raydium, the leading Solana AMM. Pump.fun has since replaced this with PumpSwap, its own native DEX. This change has several important implications:

The most notable change for creators is revenue sharing. On PumpSwap, the original token creator earns a share of all swap fees generated on the graduated pool. This creates a long-term revenue stream for creators whose tokens generate ongoing trading activity — a strong incentive to build tokens with lasting appeal rather than quick pump-and-dump schemes.

For traders, the experience is largely the same. Graduated tokens are tradeable on PumpSwap, accessible through Jupiter aggregation, and visible on DEX Screener, BirdEye, and other popular tools. For a deeper comparison of DEX options, see our PumpSwap vs Raydium vs Jupiter comparison guide.

Trading After Graduation

Once a token graduates and its liquidity pool is live on PumpSwap, trading works differently from the bonding curve phase. Understanding these differences is important for both manual traders and volume bot operators.

What Changes

• Pool type changes. Instead of trading against a bonding curve with virtual reserves, you are trading against a standard AMM pool (constant product formula, same math, but with only real reserves).
• Deeper liquidity. The graduated pool starts with approximately 85 SOL and the remaining token supply. As additional liquidity providers can add to PumpSwap pools, liquidity can grow over time.
• Jupiter routing. The token becomes tradeable through Jupiter, Solana's primary swap aggregator. This means it can be found by any trader using Jupiter, Phantom's built-in swap, or any dApp that uses Jupiter's API.
• Standard DEX fees. Instead of the 1% pump.fun bonding curve fee, you pay the PumpSwap pool swap fee (typically 0.25%, split between LP and creator).
• Price impact changes. With deeper liquidity and no virtual reserves, price impact for moderate-sized trades is usually lower than on the bonding curve.

What Stays the Same

• The token contract address does not change.
• All existing holders keep their tokens.
• Token metadata (name, ticker, image) remains the same.
• The token is still visible on pump.fun's interface, now marked as "graduated."

How Graduation Affects Volume Bots

If you are using a volume bot to generate trading activity on a pump.fun token, graduation is a significant event that requires you to adapt your strategy.

Before Graduation

Volume bots interact directly with the pump.fun bonding curve program (program ID: 6EF8rrecthR5Dkzon8Nwu78hRvfCKubJ14M5uBEwF6P). Buy and sell instructions are sent to this on-chain program, which handles the constant product math, deducts the 1% fee, and executes the swap.

After Graduation

The bonding curve program no longer accepts trades for graduated tokens. Volume bots must switch to interacting with the PumpSwap AMM pool instead. This means:

• Different program instructions and accounts are needed.
• The swap fee drops from 1% to approximately 0.25%, making volume generation cheaper per cycle.
• Micro-trade cycles become even more cost-efficient due to the lower fee.
• The token is now accessible through Jupiter, so volume can also be routed through Jupiter swaps.

Should You Push a Token to Graduate?

Micro-trade volume bots have virtually no impact on pushing a token toward graduation. A 0.001 SOL buy-sell cycle adds almost zero net SOL to the real reserves because the sell immediately removes the SOL that the buy deposited. Graduation requires real, sustained net buying pressure — not round-trip volume cycles.

If you want to deliberately push a token toward graduation, you would need to make net buys (buying without selling) totaling 85 SOL. This is a strategic decision separate from volume generation and involves actually accumulating a position in the token.

Graduation as a Trading Signal

Many traders treat graduation as a bullish signal, and there are rational reasons for this:

1. Proven demand. A token that reached 85 SOL in net buys has demonstrated real market interest, not just circular trading.
2. Locked liquidity. Burned LP tokens mean the floor liquidity can never be removed. This reduces the risk of a liquidity rug pull compared to tokens with unlocked LP.
3. Increased visibility. Graduated tokens appear on PumpSwap, Jupiter, and DEX aggregator interfaces, exposing them to a much larger audience of potential buyers.
4. Lower trading costs. The swap fee drops from 1% (bonding curve) to approximately 0.25% (PumpSwap), making it cheaper for traders to enter and exit positions.
5. Creator alignment. With revenue sharing on PumpSwap, the creator benefits from ongoing trading activity, aligning their incentives with building long-term value rather than dumping and abandoning the project.

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