Pump.fun Streamers Earned $83,000 from Leaking Drake and Future Songs

A crypto livestreamer duo claims to have played unreleased songs from rap icons Drake and Future on Pump.fun over the weekend. In turn, their Solana meme coin skyrocketed to a $53 million market cap, while the pair earned $83,410 from creator fees over just two days.

Aubrey “Drake” Graham called streaming giant Adin Ross while he was live to investigate who the emerging content creators are.

“I don’t even know who the fuck those kids are,” Drake said to Ross. “What, you actually don’t know who those kids are?” the streamer responded. “I just asked you who they are. What the fuck?” Drake clapped back.

The crypto streamers later claimed that Ross messaged them, asking where they found the leaked track. “We told him come on our stream [and] we’ll let you know,” one of the duo said. “He still hasn’t responded yet,” he added.

Bagwork, the rap track leakers, are a pair of unnamed content creators who are believed to be 19 years old. They have been at the forefront of an explosion in crypto livestreams over the past week, as they have performed a spree of viral stunts.

On Wednesday, one of the devs invaded the field during a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game. The next day, the other dev was slapped by gym influencer Bradley Martyn after attempting to steal his hat.

Clips of the pair broke into the mainstream. As a result, their token had jumped to a $2 million market cap by Friday morning. The token then spiked 2,965% to a peak of $53 million on Sunday, per DEX Screener, following news of their having allegedly leaked unreleased rap songs. It has since retraced 41% to $30.89 million.

Bagwork are streaming on meme coin launchpad Pump.fun, which rewards coin creators with a percentage of all the trades placed on their token. These creator fees mean that the streaming duo does not have to sell any tokens to make a profit.

In fact, according to Pump.fun, they’ve made $168,000 in creator rewards over the four days since they launched. On Saturday and Sunday, the duo pocketed $83,410 in rewards as they claim to leak songs from Drake, Future, and other artists like Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti.

Creator capital markets explode

The pair’s virality coincides with the explosive growth of what’s termed “creator capital markets.” It’s a term to refer to livestreaming with a crypto token attached. It follows Pump.fun’s implementation of a new fee model at the start of the month, which has seen token deployer rewards skyrocket. Over the past week, some $20 million worth of creator rewards have been claimed, according to a Dune dashboard.

On Sunday, former League of Legends esports player Michael “BunnyFuFuu” Kurylo started streaming on Pump.fun, earning $217,000 in creator fees in just two days. BunnyFuFuu’s move to Pump.fun marks the first mainstream content creator to adopt the platform.

That said, Pump.fun’s underbelly of degeneracy remains.

A user put their cat Elizabeth on a stream on Thursday and has earned $97,660 since then. Another streamer painted his face as a clown and has been running around the streets like a madman under the ticker Dare, earning $45,000 in the process. A third streamer claims he will run on a treadmill until he hits a $100 million market cap, he’s currently at $1 million and has earned $28,940 in rewards.

“I think the big thing is that Pump.fun is changing the way creators have always made money from streaming,” pseudonymous Twitch and Pump.fun livestreamer Lucky told Decrypt. “Instead of a one-way transaction [such as a donation], now the creators community can win WITH them as the channel grows.”

Pump.fun’s recent growth and inroads into the mainstream have come after it faced early controversy in the wake of its launch.

Last year, Pump.fun experienced an influx of contentious streams, including animal abuse, self-harm and a faked suicide, that forced the platform to shut down its livestreaming feature. Since its return at the start of the year with new content moderation systems, the platform has yet to experience another period of controversial streams.