Jarett Dunn, a former developer at the Solana-based memecoin platform Pump.fun, has pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position and transfer of criminal property. He admitted to stealing nearly $2 million in SOL from the project shortly after joining the team. Dunn is currently being held in a London prison after breaching bail conditions.
Although Dunn initially pleaded guilty in 2023, he later tried to withdraw that plea in court. That effort didn’t work. His legal team stepped away, and the case stalled for months. Things got worse when Dunn moved to Liverpool while still under bail restrictions. Authorities tracked him down and arrested him again, transferring him to HMP Pentonville, where he remains as he awaits sentencing.
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Dunn is expected to be sentenced within two weeks. The charges he faces are serious enough to land him behind bars for seven years or more if classified as a top-tier offense. The broader impact on Pump.fun has been significant. The team estimates it lost as much as $12.8 million in damages, not just from the stolen funds but also from trading downtime, reputation damage, and reduced platform activity.
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Court documents show Dunn has a long history of mental health challenges, including diagnoses of schizoaffective bipolar disorder, panic disorder, and ADHD. He also struggled with substance use and had been off medication at the time of the theft. When police first arrested him, he was reportedly unfit for questioning. He later spent two weeks under hospital care, which may be considered during sentencing.
Dunn had been at Pump.fun for just six weeks before he used his developer access to quietly extract SOL from bonding curve contracts. After moving the funds, he scattered them across multiple wallets, which made recovery nearly impossible. His actions suggested he may have viewed it as some vigilante stunt, but that didn’t shield him from criminal charges. The breach highlighted the risks crypto startups face when internal controls are loose or rushed.
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Surprisingly, the platform has only grown since the incident. Pump.fun bounced back with a $600 million token launch, rolled out its own PUMP token, and has crossed $770 million in all-time revenue. It now holds a leading spot in Solana’s growing memecoin ecosystem. While the scandal could have derailed the project, it seems to have accelerated its rise in some ways.
Dunn’s case is a reminder of how fast things can spiral in crypto. One person with access and a troubled past managed to shake up a multi-million dollar platform. Now, the court will decide whether mental health, remorse, and cooperation will weigh heavily enough to impact his sentence, or whether the industry uses this as a cautionary tale about what can go wrong when trust is misplaced.
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The post Former Pump.fun Developer Pleads Guilty to $2 Million Solana Heist appeared first on 99Bitcoins.
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