Pump.funLaunchpad
How are Pump.fun memecoins taxed in Germany?
In short
Buying a memecoin on Pump.fun with SOL is a swap for tax purposes: you dispose of the SOL and acquire the token. So the buy itself can trigger a gain or loss on your SOL. Selling the token later is the second swap.
If no more than a year passes between acquiring something and swapping it, the gain or loss counts under § 23 of the Income Tax Act (EStG). Your gains stay tax-free if their total for the year is under €1,000. Losses are offset against gains from private sales.
- As of:
- 15 October 2026
- Based on:
- § 23 EStG, BMF letter of 6 March 2025
What is Pump.fun?
Pump.fun lets anyone launch their own token in a few seconds. At first the token trades on a bonding curve instead of an exchange. That's a program that works out the price from how many tokens have been sold, so the more people buy, the more the next token costs.
Once there's enough SOL in the curve, the token moves to an exchange. Since March 2025 that has been PumpSwap, Pump.fun's own exchange program. Before that it was Raydium. All that changes for you is where you trade.
- The app pump.fun You pick a token, enter how much SOL you want to spend, and confirm in your wallet.
- The bonding curve 6EF8rr…wF6P The Pump.fun program sells you the token at the curve's current price.
- The exchange PumpSwap Once the token has moved to the exchange, it's swapped for SOL here, as in any other pool.
For tax it makes no difference whether you trade on the curve or in PumpSwap, or whether you buy through pump.fun, a wallet app or a trading bot. What counts is what your wallet gives up and what it receives.
Pump.fun at a glance
- Type
- Launchpad on Solana
- App
- pump.fun
A Pump.fun buy on the blockchain
Here's a real buy on the bonding curve from a public wallet, as TaxMaxi reads it. Next to each item the wallet gives up or receives, you can see what it means for tax.
- −4.269504831 SOL Disposalat the euro value of what was received
- +81,497,770.616308 FFDC…pump Acquisitionstarts the one-year period
- −0.00151384 SOL Rent depositedfor a new token account of your wallet, not a swap
- −0.000465549 SOL Network feedeductible expenses (Werbungskosten) of the swap
Programs called
- Pump.fun6EF8rr…wF6Pthe bonding curve the purchase went against
- Pump.fun FeespfeeUx…ojVZcollects the trading fee
The SOL the wallet gives up includes Pump.fun's trading fee. The fee is part of what you pay for the token, so it goes into the token's cost basis.
You can spot the token by its address: tokens launched on Pump.fun have an address ending in "pump".
An example in euros
You buy SOL and swap part of it for a memecoin on Pump.fun. Three days later you sell the memecoin again, for less. Here's how TaxMaxi works out the two swaps:
- 10 January 2025Bought 2 SOL for €400.00
- 1 March 2025Swap: 1 SOL given up
- 1 March 2025Received: 1,000,000 MEME, worth €180.00
- 4 March 2025Swap: 1,000,000 MEME given up
- 4 March 2025Received: 0.4 SOL, worth €60.00
- Proceeds value of the MEME received
- €180.00
- Cost basis 1 SOL from 10 January 2025
- − €200.00
- Loss after 50 days, counts for tax
- −€20.00
Swap on 1 March 2025: SOL given up
- Proceeds value of the SOL received
- €60.00
- Cost basis 1,000,000 MEME from 1 March 2025
- − €180.00
- Loss after 3 days, counts for tax
- −€120.00
Swap on 4 March 2025: MEME given up
The year 2025 comes to −€140.00. The loss is set against gains from private sales in the same year, even gains under the exemption limit of €1,000. What is left can be carried forward or back to other years.
Worked out by TaxMaxi's tax engine, on the same principles as for your wallet.
The legal basis
Whether a swap costs tax is set by the Income Tax Act (EStG), above all § 23 EStG on private sales. How tax offices apply this to crypto is set out in the finance ministry's letter of 6 March 2025, which binds them.
The letter is divided into numbered paragraphs (Randnummern). Each principle below says where to find it; a click opens the letter at that spot.
- 1
- 2
- 3
-
4
One-year holding period
The year runs from the day of acquisition to the swap, and each swap starts it again for the token you receive. There's no extension to ten years. For tokens you acquire from 2027, a finance ministry draft would drop the holding period: What is set to change from 2027.
- 5
-
6
The exemption limit (Freigrenze)
If the sum of all your gains from private sales in the year stays under €1,000 (up to 2023: €600), it's tax-free. Above that, all of it is taxable, not only the part over the limit.
See the BMF letter, paragraph 53
Common questions
Is buying a memecoin already taxable?
Yes, if you pay with SOL or another crypto asset. The buy is a swap: the SOL counts as disposed of, at the euro value of the token you receive. If you held that SOL for less than a year, the gain or loss on it counts.
What if the token is worth almost nothing?
As long as you hold it, the loss hasn't happened yet. It only counts once you swap or sell the token, even for a very small amount.
What changes when the token moves to PumpSwap or Raydium?
For tax, nothing. Your token stays the same and keeps its acquisition date and its cost basis. Only the place where you trade it changes.
Do I really have to report every single trade?
Each swap is a disposal of its own, with a date, proceeds and a cost basis. With hundreds of trades, that's barely doable by hand. TaxMaxi reads each one from your wallet and sums them up in the report for the year.
Do memecoin losses count?
Yes. Losses from swaps within the one-year holding period are offset against gains from private sales in the same year. Whatever is left can be carried forward or back to other years.
More Solana protocols
This page explains how TaxMaxi calculates. It is not tax advice and does not replace a tax advisor.