pump.fun basics6 of 9
What is a trading pair?
A trading pair is the two assets in a trade: the one you're buying and the one you pay with. It's written BASE/QUOTE, like NTRNDM/SOL, and its price is how much of the second it takes to buy one of the first.
NTRNDM/SOL × SOL/USDC = NTRNDM/USDC
You've used pairs already
Every stock on Robinhood is quietly paired with US dollars. The price next to an Apple share is the AAPL/USD pair: one share, counted in dollars. The board at an airport money exchange is all pairs: EUR/USD at 1.10 means one euro costs $1.10.
Crypto spells the pair out because you can pay with many things. The same coin can trade against SOL in one place and USDC in another, at two prices that mean the same thing.
Base and quote
In NTRNDM/SOL, NTRNDM is the base: what you're buying. SOL is the quote: what you pay with, and what the price is counted in. A price of 0.000002 means one NTRNDM costs 0.000002 SOL.
That price looks tiny because every pump.fun coin has a billion tokens, so one token costs a sliver of a SOL: 0.000000028 SOL the moment a SOL-paired coin launches. That's why traders talk in market cap instead: the price times a billion tokens, about 28 SOL at launch. The bonding curve sets the price from there.
Same coin, different pair
Here are three coins, each worth $10,000 today. One is paired with SOL, one with USDC and one with another pump.fun coin. Move the sliders and watch what each is worth in dollars. The first slider is the only one where anybody trades the coins themselves.
Slide SOL's price and see which coins follow, with nobody trading them.
Every pair follows the same math: a coin's dollar price is its price in its pair, times the pair's price in dollars. When the pair is itself paired with SOL, SOL's price comes along too.
Pairs on pump.fun
Every coin on pump.fun is paired at launch, and the pair never changes. Most are paired with SOL, the default. pump.fun also lets creators pick:
- USDC, a coin that tracks the US dollar.
- An asset on pump.fun's supported list, which includes tokenized stocks like TSLAX and NVDAX, wrapped BTC, ETH and XRP, and pump.fun's own PUMP.
- Another pump.fun coin, like $NTRNDM.
The pair decides four things:
- What buyers pay with. A coin paired with USDC sells for USDC on its curve.
- What the curve collects. A coin paired with $NTRNDM fills its curve with $NTRNDM instead of SOL, sized to raise about what a SOL launch does.
- What fees and creator rewards are paid in. pump.fun collects every fee in the pair, never in the coin being traded. A creator on a coin paired with $NTRNDM earns $NTRNDM.
- What moves its price in dollars. That's the simulator above.
Which pair should a coin use?
| Pair | Good for | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| SOL | The default. Most pump.fun buyers hold SOL. | The coin's dollar value rides SOL's price, up and down. |
| USDC | A coin counted in dollars, apart from SOL's swings. | No lift when SOL rallies. It moves only with its own trades. |
| A pump.fun coin | Tying your coin to a community, and fees paid in its coin. Launch with us and you can set your own creator fee, up to 3%. | Its dollar value rides that coin and SOL together. |
| A listed asset | A coin themed on a stock or a major coin, priced in it. | Its dollar value rides that asset's price. |
Pairing after graduation
When a coin graduates, pump.fun puts it in a PumpSwap pool with its pair: your coin on one side, its SOL, USDC or token on the other. Traders call that pool the coin's pair, too. Every trade swaps one side for the other, and the price is the ratio between them: the bonding curve's idea, with real money on both sides.
Big trades move that ratio more than small ones, and other people's trades can land before yours. Both show up as slippage.
You pick your coin's pair when you launch: SOL, USDC or a token like $NTRNDM. On a token pair, you can also set your own creator fee. Get a CA that starts with your word and set up your coin while we grind. Your pair is part of the launch, alongside your CA, on pump.fun, the launchpad.
Questions
What is a trading pair in crypto?
The two assets in a trade, written BASE/QUOTE. The price is how much of the quote asset buys one of the base: NTRNDM/SOL is NTRNDM's price in SOL.
What are the base and quote currency?
The base is what you're buying. The quote is what you pay with, and what the price is counted in. In NTRNDM/SOL, NTRNDM is the base and SOL is the quote.
What can a pump.fun coin be paired with?
SOL by default, or USDC, an asset on pump.fun's supported list, such as tokenized stocks and wrapped BTC, or another pump.fun coin. The pair is set at launch and can't change.
Why did my coin's price change when nobody traded it?
Its dollar price is its price in its pair times the pair's dollar price. A coin paired with SOL moves in dollars whenever SOL does.
Are creator rewards paid in the pair?
Yes. pump.fun collects every fee in the coin's pair, never in the coin itself, so a coin paired with SOL pays its creator in SOL.
