Pump.fun introduced ‘GO’ last week as a bounty marketplace where users can pay strangers in crypto to do almost anything. Within days, one of those bounties turned into a bizarre dispute over a forehead tattoo, a misspelled meme coin ticker, and a blocked 40 SOL payout.
Arivu, a man from Tamil Nadu, India, permanently tattooed the ticker exactly as written in the bounty prompt. Only afterward did he learn the post contained a typo.
The mistake could have cost him the reward. Instead, Solana traders launched a token in his name and turned the failed payout into a five-figure payday.
Forehead Tattoo Bounty Sparks Spelling Fight
Pump.fun opened its GO marketplace on June 4, and the platform immediately drew backlash over extreme listings.
One bounty offered 40 SOL to anyone willing to tattoo “$boutywork” on their forehead.
Arivu accepted the challenge. He filmed the full process at a local tattoo shop, including visible bleeding, and submitted the video as proof on June 6.
However, the payout stalled at one point. Critics argued the listing contained a typo and that the intended ticker was “$Bountywork” with an “n”.
Arivu countered that he had inked the exact text in the prompt.
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Traders Turn the Typo Into a Token
Rather than wait for a ruling, Solana traders launched BOUTYWORK on Pump.fun with Arivu’s selfie as its logo. The coin reached a market cap of $373,000 within hours.
Creator fees routed to Arivu totaled roughly $15,000, with estimated hauls around $17,500, while the unpaid bounty is worth about $2,585, with SOL at $64.62.
The incident deepens the questions about moderation raised during Pump.fun’s pivot toward utility tokens. It also lands as the platform faces scrutiny over PUMP’s valuation and runs a $350 million buyback campaign.
Whether the original 40 SOL bounty ever pays out now sits with Pump.fun’s moderators. Their decision on the typo may set the template for every subsequent disputed GO submission.