Is the Crypto Bull Market Back? Meme Coin Launch Guide (2026)

The crypto bull market may be returning, but August 22 gives us a breakout signal rather than a confirmed new cycle. Bitcoin rose about 22% in one week, meme-coin volume climbed back toward $9 billion per day, and Solana DEX volume increased 33.7% week over week. For creators, the useful takeaway is not “everything will pump.” It is that more liquidity and attention are moving on-chain again. If you already have a meme, distribution, and launch budget, this guide shows how to create the Solana token, give its mint address an optional pump ending, and open public trading without waiting for a Pump.fun graduation.

Quick Facts

Signal or launch choice	August 22 reading
Bitcoin weekly gain	About 22%, biggest in two years
Bitcoin rebound range	Roughly $64.2K to $79.3K intraday
Meme category 24h volume	About $8.93B
Solana meme 24h volume	About $3.09B
Solana DEX seven-day volume	$14.19B, up 33.7%
Alchemii standard token launch	About 0.22 SOL all-in
Optional pump suffix	+0.1 SOL once
Direct trading requirement	A seeded Raydium liquidity pool
Guaranteed creator profit?	No

Is the crypto bull market actually back?

The cleanest bullish fact is the speed of the reversal. Bitcoin moved from roughly $64,200 on August 19 to almost $79,300 on August 21, a gain of about $15,000 in 48 hours. The Associated Press reported that Bitcoin held above $77,000 on Friday after the US Treasury doubled planned purchases of longer-dated government debt and the dollar sold off. The Block called the 22% weekly move Bitcoin's biggest in two years.

Volume confirmed that this was more than an illiquid weekend wick. On August 20, Bitcoin's 24-hour trading volume jumped more than 260% to $60.8B, while total crypto market capitalization rose 10.23% to $2.42T and ETH gained 18.6%. Those figures came before Bitcoin touched Friday's higher level. Anadolu Agency reported the same-day market snapshot.

Bitcoin rebound

+$15K

~$64.2K on Aug 19 to ~$79.3K intraday on Aug 21

Bitcoin weekly move

+22%

Biggest weekly gain in two years, reported Aug 21

Total crypto market

$2.71T

CoinGecko live snapshot, Aug 22

Meme sector volume

$8.93B

24-hour trading volume, Aug 22

Solana meme volume

$3.09B

24-hour trading volume on $3.50B market cap

Solana DEX growth

+33.7%

$14.19B over seven days, Aug 22 snapshot

Still, calling a new bull market today would be premature. CoinGecko's Q2 report ended June at a $2.1T total market cap, 52% below the October 2025 peak, after three consecutive down quarters. A large short squeeze can produce violent upside without creating durable spot demand. The next test is whether Bitcoin holds the breakout after forced buying cools and whether capital continues rotating into ETH, SOL, and smaller assets.

Short version: the market has changed character. Confirmation comes later.

Meme-coin trading volume is back on the screen

On August 22, CoinGecko's meme category showed roughly $32.8B in market capitalization and $8.93B in 24-hour trading volume. DOGE traded about $2.87B, TRUMP about $2.00B, PEPE $1.12B, and PUMP $669M. This is the rotation a prospective creator wants to see: not only higher prices, but enough turnover for scanners, bots, callers, and human traders to keep looking for the next pair.

The Solana slice was unusually active. CoinGecko's Solana meme board put the category near $3.50B in market cap with $3.09B traded in 24 hours. That is volume equal to almost 88% of the category's market value in one day. Meanwhile, DeFiLlama showed $3.78B of Solana DEX volume over 24 hours, $14.19B over seven days, and a 33.71% weekly increase.

TRUMP

31.7%

$2.00B 24h volume

PUMP

20.6%

$669M 24h volume

PEPE

11.4%

$1.12B 24h volume

BONK

10.0%

$150M 24h volume

DOGE

8.9%

$2.87B 24h volume

The bars above show attention rotating down the risk curve, but they do not tell you which new coin will capture it. Old names can absorb nearly all fresh liquidity. New launches still compete on the meme, timing, trust signals, and distribution.

Could creating a meme coin make money?

It can create a revenue opportunity. It cannot create demand.

Creators generally have two transparent economic paths on a direct launch. One is a disclosed allocation that becomes more valuable if the market price rises. The other is an LP position that earns a share of swap fees while it remains owned and funded. Raydium's CPMM documentation sends 84% of each trade-fee bucket to LP holders, 12% to the protocol, and 4% to a fund account.

Creator-income path	How it can pay	What can erase the upside
Disclosed token allocation	Token price rises while the creator still holds tokens	Price can fall to zero; selling can damage trust and price
Keep the Raydium LP position	LP receives 84% of the selected trade-fee bucket	Impermanent loss, low volume, price collapse, pool withdrawal risk
Burn the LP position	Stronger permanence signal can help trust and distribution	Burned LP cannot be withdrawn, so the creator gives up that capital and future LP claim
Pump.fun creator fee	0.30% of bonding-curve trades under the current schedule	Applies to the Pump.fun path, not an independent direct launch

This is the implicit economic case for creating during a volume rebound: more market activity produces more chances for a new pair to be seen, and volume is the input that can turn an LP position into fee revenue. But the base rate is brutal. CoinGecko studied 18.67M Pump.fun tokens and found 68.67% stopped trading on launch day, 80.37% were gone by the end of day one, and only 4.55% survived beyond 90 days.

How to create a Solana meme coin during the rebound

The technical part takes minutes. The launch plan should exist before the transaction.

1. Pick a meme that can travel without explanation

Write the ticker, one-sentence joke, visual format, and first 20 distribution targets before minting. Check the live Solana trending board for what traders already recognize, but do not impersonate another project or reuse protected artwork. A copied format inherits no holders, price, or history.

2. Fund a Solana wallet

Use Phantom, Solflare, Backpack, or another wallet supported by Solana Wallet Adapter. A standard Alchemii creation is about 0.22 SOL all-in. The common configuration with mint authority revoked is about 0.32 SOL; adding the pump suffix brings that setup to roughly 0.42 SOL. Liquidity is separate and usually much larger than the creation fee.

3. Open the no-code creator

Go to the Alchemii homepage token creator. Enter the name, symbol, description, website, socials, and a square PNG. Use 1,000,000,000 supply and 6 decimals as familiar memecoin defaults, unless your distribution math calls for something else. Under the hood, this creates an SPL mint and attaches a metadata account; Solana's token documentation and its metadata cookbook describe those primitives directly.

4. Decide the authority state before signing

For a fixed-supply meme coin, revoke mint authority so no wallet can expand the supply later. Alchemii creates the mint with no freeze authority set. Keep update authority only if the name, image, or links may need a correction; revoking it makes metadata permanent. When we audited the live transaction builder (yes, the code path, not only the landing-page copy), mint creation, initial supply, Metaplex metadata, the fee transfer, and optional mint-authority revocation all sit in the same transaction.

5. Add the optional pump address ending

Tick Pumpfun Token if you want the mint address to end in pump. The add-on is a flat 0.1 SOL. Alchemii claims a pre-mined vanity keypair, verifies the lowercase public key really ends with those four characters, and stops before transaction construction if verification fails.

That suffix makes the token tradeable. Actually, no: the liquidity pool makes it tradeable. The suffix is branding. It does not prove the token launched on Pump.fun, and you should never claim an affiliation that does not exist. Read the deeper technical breakdown in how to get a pump-suffix token without Pump.fun.

6. Sign the token transaction

Review the itemized total, confirm the mint address when the suffix option is active, and sign in your wallet. Alchemii is non-custodial: the wallet signs, and the creator never needs your seed phrase.

7. Open and seed a Raydium pool

Now use the Solana liquidity-pool creator. Choose the SOL amount, token amount, initial price, and fee tier. Raydium's official pool guide makes the key constraint clear: a public AMM market needs both sides of the pair. No seed liquidity means no public trading.

8. Verify the pair, then announce it

Wait for the pool transaction to confirm, verify the mint and pool addresses, test a small swap, and share the exact contract address. If permanent liquidity is part of the launch promise, use the Solana LP burn tool only after checking the pool. Burning LP is irreversible. The 11-step Solana memecoin launch checklist covers the handoff from mint to announcement.

How the pump-suffix route skips migration

Pump.fun's own bonding-curve documentation says every coin begins on its internal curve. Only after the curve reaches its graduation threshold does the protocol close that curve and migrate liquidity atomically to PumpSwap. The coin is tradeable on the curve before graduation, but it is waiting for migration before it reaches the canonical PumpSwap pool.

A direct launch uses a different sequence. You create the SPL mint first, then create the Raydium pool yourself. There is no internal curve and therefore no curve threshold to complete.

Launch path	When public DEX trading starts	Who sets the first pool	pump suffix
Pump.fun bonding curve	On the curve immediately; PumpSwap after graduation	Protocol curve	Native
Direct Raydium launch	After the creator opens and seeds the pool	Creator	Optional with Alchemii

This distinction matters because roughly 1% of Pump.fun launches graduate, according to CoinGecko's 18.67M-token study. Direct creation removes that specific gate. It does not remove the hard parts: the creator must supply seed liquidity, choose the starting price, publish the pair, and attract real buyers.

Estimate possible LP fee revenue

Use this formula before deciding to keep or burn the LP position:

Estimated LP fees = total pool trading volume × pool fee tier × 84% × your share of the LP

At a 1% Raydium CPMM tier and 100% of the LP, 1,000 SOL of total swap volume would accrue about 8.4 SOL to the LP position before impermanent loss and other costs. At 10,000 SOL, the same arithmetic produces 84 SOL. If you own 40% of the LP, multiply either result by 0.40.

Those are mechanics, not expected returns. Volume can be zero. Price movement can make the LP assets worth less than simply holding them, and burning the LP position gives up the right to withdraw its reserves. For a fuller breakdown, read how meme coin creators make money.

Launch-day checklist for a fast market

• Save the final name, ticker, image, and metadata links.
• Publish the allocation and explain any creator-held percentage.
• Fund creation fees and seed liquidity separately.
• Revoke mint authority if the supply is meant to be fixed.
• Select pump only as an address-branding choice.
• Create and verify the Raydium pool before saying the token is tradeable.
• Test one small buy and sell from a separate wallet.
• Share the exact mint address, pool address, and authority state.
• Decide between keeping LP for potential fee income and burning it for permanence.
• Treat every market number in this article as an August 22 snapshot.

Limitations

• A rebound is not a forecast. Bitcoin's 22% week included forced short covering. The move can reverse after publication.
• A pump suffix is not distribution. It can make an address more recognizable, but it does not create buyers, rankings, or Pump.fun affiliation.
• Direct launch shifts work to the creator. Skipping a bonding-curve migration means you must provide liquidity and set the opening price yourself.
• LP income is conditional. Low volume, impermanent loss, token depreciation, or an LP burn can reduce creator proceeds to zero.
• This guide is not financial or legal advice. Token issuance, promotion, allocations, and fee income may create obligations in your jurisdiction.

FAQ

Is the crypto bull market back in August 2026?

Possibly, but it is not confirmed. Bitcoin climbed about 22% in its biggest week in two years and briefly reached roughly $79,300, while total meme-coin volume reached about $8.93B over 24 hours. A lasting bull market still needs follow-through in spot demand, liquidity, and breadth after the short squeeze fades.

Is now a good time to create a meme coin?

Higher trading volume can make discovery easier, but it does not make a weak launch profitable. Create only when you have a distinct meme, a distribution plan, seed liquidity, and a budget you can lose. The same CoinGecko study found that 68.67% of 18.67M Pump.fun tokens stopped trading on launch day.

Can a meme coin creator make money?

Yes, but never automatically. Possible creator revenue can come from a disclosed token allocation or an LP position that earns a share of DEX fees. On Raydium CPMM pools, 84% of the trade-fee bucket goes to LP holders. Demand, price movement, impermanent loss, liquidity choices, and local rules can reduce or eliminate that income.

Can a Solana token end in pump without launching on Pump.fun?

Yes. Alchemii can create an ordinary SPL token at a verified vanity mint address ending in pump for a flat 0.1 SOL add-on. The suffix is a branding property of the address, not proof of Pump.fun affiliation and not a trading venue.

Does a pump suffix make a token instantly tradeable?

No. The pump suffix only changes the mint address. A direct-launch token becomes publicly tradeable after you create and seed a Raydium liquidity pool. That route skips the Pump.fun bonding-curve graduation gate, but it does not skip the need for liquidity.

How do I launch without waiting for Pump.fun migration?

Create the SPL token directly, then open and seed a public Raydium pool at your chosen initial price. Pump.fun's current fee page lists a 0.015 SOL graduation fee and a 1.25% bonding-curve trade fee; the direct path uses neither because it does not enter the curve. Raydium fees still apply to swaps in the pool you create.

References

1. Gold and bitcoin went from chumps to champs very quickly this week — Associated Press, August 22, 2026.
2. Bitcoin surges over 11%, tops $70,000 for first time in more than two months — Anadolu Agency, August 20, 2026.
3. XRP leads broad altcoin rally as bitcoin posts biggest weekly gain in two years — The Block, August 21, 2026.
4. Top Meme Coins by Market Cap — CoinGecko snapshot, August 22, 2026.
5. Top Solana Meme Coins by Market Cap — CoinGecko snapshot, August 22, 2026.
6. 2026 Q2 Crypto Industry Report — CoinGecko Research, updated July 21, 2026.
7. Solana chain dashboard — DeFiLlama snapshot, August 22, 2026.
8. Pump.fun fees, revenue, and volume — DeFiLlama snapshot, August 22, 2026.
9. The Pump.fun bonding curve — Pump.fun documentation, accessed August 22, 2026.
10. Pump.fun fees — Pump.fun documentation, updated May 20, 2026.
11. The average lifespan of Pump.fun memecoins is less than a day — CoinGecko Research, June 23, 2026.
12. Raydium CPMM fees — Raydium documentation, accessed August 22, 2026.
13. Create a CPMM pool — Raydium documentation, accessed August 22, 2026.
14. SPL Token basics — Solana documentation, accessed August 22, 2026.
15. Create a token with metadata — Solana documentation, accessed August 22, 2026.

Market windows close quickly. If your meme, allocation, liquidity, and launch plan are already prepared, go to the Alchemii homepage and create the token now →. Choose the pump ending if it fits the brand, open the Raydium pool when the mint confirms, and let real trading demand decide what happens next.