3 min read
South Korean prosecutors have charged five people over allegedly orchestrating a "meme coin rug pull" on Pump.fun, causing 900 million WON ($600,000) in damage. In response to the news, the meme coin has pumped almost 6,000%, with a group of traders attempting to "unrug" the token.
According to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, the five defendants created a token called CatFi on the Solana launchpad Pump.fun in February 2025. The meme coin quickly pumped to a market cap of $8.37 million, per DEX Screener, before crashing down to a measly $12,170—all within a matter of hours. This was the result of the defendant's "mass selling," the prosecutors say, which has been defined as a "rug pull."
The Prosecutors' Office calculated that 256 investors suffered damages worth 900 million WON ($600,000), with the defendants pocketing over 400 million WON ($267,000). The two individuals responsible for the social media promotion of the token have been arrested, while the remaining three, who controlled the technical side of the scheme and aided the other defendants' escape, have been charged but not arrested.
The landmark case marks the first time South Korea's new Virtual Asset User Protection Act has been applied to penalize an alleged rug pull, the translated press release states. It’s also the nation's first prosecution of a crypto crime executed on a decentralized exchange.
Speaking to Decrypt, Nick Vaiman, co-founder of blockchain data analytics firm Bubblemaps, called the charges a “good move by the Korean government.”
“There have always been community investigations on rug pulls, but they led nowhere because there were no real legal consequences," Vaiman said, adding that, "Now, with the law and real precedent, we hope to see more justice and fewer retail investors getting burned."
Ironically, meme coin traders loved hearing the news so much that they pumped the dead CatFi token from a market cap of $2,350 to its current value of around $167,000—a surge of almost 6,000% in less than a day. Before this surge, the token hadn't attracted a single buy since August 2025, per block explorer SolScan.
A new X account has been created for the token, with its creators claiming that they want to "unrug" the token. Any investors still holding from the all-time high set in February 2025 will be praying they succeed—despite its recent surge, CatFi remains down 96% from its peak.
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