The former developer of Pump.fun was sentenced to six years in prison for a $2 million fraud case

Canadian citizen Jarett Dunn has been sentenced to six years in prison by a London judge for a $2 million Solana fraud case. He had previously pleaded guilty to charges of abuse of power and transferring criminal property. The court stated that the former Pump.fun employee had been monitored by an electronic tag for 308 days, of which 154 days will count towards his sentence. He was also held in custody for about five months, which typically counts towards the sentence automatically.

This ruling comes more than a year after Dunn stole approximately $2 million worth of Solana (SOL) from Pump.fun, where he was employed at the time (a now very popular meme coin platform). Dunn did not keep the money for himself but distributed the funds to thousands of random addresses. He then immediately confessed to the crime on social media. As a result, the Canadian gained a following of enthusiastic supporters who referred to him as the "Crypto Robin Hood." Dunn's path to sentencing was not smooth, with multiple settings, delays, and adjournments.

This included Dunn attempting to characterize the attack as whistleblowing, claiming that Pump.fun was a malicious site and that he was trying to warn people about it. However, with the ruling delivered, the judge seemed to disagree with this argument. Pump.fun is a platform that allows anyone to create a cryptocurrency token in seconds after filling out a short form. Prior to the incident, Dunn had been a senior developer at Pump.fun for six weeks, during which the platform, although popular, was still in its early stages.

According to Dune data, Pump.fun's cumulative revenue at the time was $43.9 million, which has since skyrocketed to $927.2 million. Dunn's friend Mark Kelly attended the hearing and described the ruling as "frustrating." Kelly informed Decrypt that the prosecutors dismissed the whistleblower's claims, calling them "a post-arrest excuse." He added that while he thought Dunn's lawyer was "terrible," Dunn ultimately made it "easy for the prosecution" due to his confession on social media.

"Everyone calm down, this is a robbery… I'm about to change the course of history. Then go to prison and rot," Dunn wrote on the X platform minutes after the attack occurred. "Am I rational? No. Am I okay? Very not okay." He then joined an X Spaces, stating he wanted to "kill" Pump.fun, "because it's something to do." He further claimed, "It has inadvertently harmed people for a long time." Kelly added that the judge "fully considered" this when making the ruling.

Four days after the attack, Dunn was arrested at a hotel in London, not far from the WeWork where Pump.fun operated, where Dunn was located during the attack. Dunn was immediately deemed unfit to be questioned by police and spent two weeks in the hospital to improve his mental health, having been off medication for months. Dunn then pleaded guilty in August 2024 but attempted to withdraw his plea at a sentencing hearing two months later. This sudden