New York Governor Kathy Hochul today publicly called for legislation to ban GO, a newly launched bounty platform from Pump.fun, describing the product as a “dystopian nightmare.”
Responding to Pump.fun’s announcement on X on Saturday, Hochul wrote, “Offering a bounty on the first bill introduced to ban this dystopian nightmare.”
Her comments mark one of the first high-profile political reactions to GO, a platform designed to let users create and complete paid tasks using cryptocurrency-based rewards.
Pump.fun launches bounty marketplace
Pump.fun introduced GO on June 4 as what it described as an “all-encompassing bounty platform” where users can create or complete tasks in exchange for rewards.
The platform allows users to connect an X account and crypto wallet, create a bounty with specific deliverables and a timeframe, and place funds into escrow. Other users can then complete the task and submit proof of completion for review.
According to Pump.fun, rewards begin at a minimum of $5 and can scale without an upper limit. The company promoted the service with the slogan: “Pay ANYONE to do ANYTHING,” describing it as a marketplace that combines human labor and financial incentives.
How GO operates
Under the system, bounty creators deposit funds into escrow when a task is published. Participants submit evidence that they completed the required work, after which Pump.fun reviews submissions and determines whether payouts are approved.
The company said creators cannot withdraw rewards once a bounty becomes active. If a submission is accepted, funds are released to the participant. If no valid submission is selected before expiration, the creator can reclaim the funds after a dispute period.
Pump.fun also stated that it moderates submissions and reserves the right to approve or reject completed tasks. In its terms, the company noted that bounties violating X’s policies or considered spam are prohibited.
Political scrutiny arrives quickly
Hochul’s response suggests the platform could attract regulatory and political attention beyond the crypto industry.
While the governor did not identify specific legal concerns, her criticism focused on the broader concept of a marketplace where individuals can pay others to perform tasks through a public bounty system. The remark was framed as a direct response to Pump.fun’s marketing language, which emphasized the ability to pay anyone for virtually any activity.
At the time of her post, no legislation targeting the platform had been introduced.
Pump.fun expands beyond Solana with multichain trading
The launch of GO follows a broader effort by Pump.fun to expand beyond its original Solana-focused memecoin ecosystem. In late May, the platform introduced multichain trading support, allowing users to trade assets across networks, including Ethereum, Base, and BNB Chain, directly through the Pump.fun app.
The company said the feature removes two common barriers to cross-chain trading: bridging assets between networks and maintaining separate gas tokens. Under the new system, users can execute trades across supported EVM chains using a single wallet while continuing to transact with SOL.
Pump.fun also said it will sponsor gas fees for supported transactions and automatically generate multichain wallets for users, eliminating the need to manually manage separate wallets on different networks.
Latest expansion beyond memecoins
The launch of GO represents another attempt by Pump.fun to expand beyond its core memecoin issuance business on the Solana ecosystem. Rather than functioning as a token launchpad, GO operates as a task marketplace where payments remain locked in escrow until completion requirements are verified.
The platform launched amid continued debate over how decentralized and crypto-native applications should be regulated, particularly when they begin resembling traditional online labor marketplaces or gig-economy services.
For now, GO remains operational, but Hochul’s comments highlight how quickly novel crypto products can attract scrutiny from policymakers once they move beyond trading and speculation into broader economic activity.
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