Jarett Dunn, the Pump.fun developer who stole an estimated $2 million worth of Solana from his then employee, which is later donated to thousands of random addresses, was sentenced to six years in prison by a London judge.

For a brief moment, Jarett Dunn was hailed online as a kind of crypto Robin Hood—a developer who claimed to steal millions in Solana not for personal gain, but to expose wrongdoing and redistribute funds to the public.

UK prosecutors were unmoved by the narrative. In court, they argued that Dunn’s framing amounted to “post-arrest spin,” noting that genuine whistleblowing follows legal disclosure channels—not the unilateral theft and redistribution of assets.

The judge appeared to agree. While acknowledging Dunn’s mental health struggles, the court emphasized that the act itself introduced chaos, undermined trust, and risked real financial harm—regardless of whether Dunn personally profited.

Dunn had been working at Pump.fun for just six weeks when he exploited his internal access to drain company-controlled Solana funds. On-chain data later showed the stolen crypto being fragmented and distributed across thousands of unrelated wallets, an unusual move that immediately set the incident apart from typical insider thefts.

Within minutes of the exploit, Dunn confessed publicly on social media, posting on X:

“Everybody be cool, this is a robbery… I’m about to change the course of history.”

He later doubled down during an X Spaces appearance, claiming he wanted to “kill” Pump.fun because he believed the platform had harmed users. Supporters quickly rallied around the spectacle, portraying Dunn as a renegade developer striking back at exploitative crypto systems. The “crypto Robin Hood” label stuck—at least temporarily.

Dunn was arrested four days after the attack at a London hotel near the WeWork office where Pump.fun was operating. He was initially deemed unfit for police questioning and hospitalized for two weeks, having reportedly been off his medication for months.

Guilty Plea, Reversal, and Legal Fallout

In August 2024, Dunn pleaded guilty to the charges. Months later, he attempted to withdraw the plea during sentencing, a move that backfired. His legal team subsequently withdrew from the case, leaving Dunn to seek new representation while under police surveillance.

After breaching bail conditions in July 2025, Dunn was remanded to HMP Pentonville, where he awaited sentencing while communicating online through an “intern” who ran his X account.

On Thursday, the court handed down two six-year prison sentences to be served concurrently, with credit given for time already spent under electronic tagging and five months on remand.

Ironically, the platform Dunn's plans of exposing Pump.fun have just backfired. At the time of the theft, Pump.fun generated around $43.9 million in lifetime revenue. Today, that figure has ballooned to over $927 million, making it one of the most successful crypto-native platforms of the cycle.

From the court’s perspective, Dunn’s actions did not weaken Pump.fun—but they did reinforce the legal principle that redistribution does not sanitize theft, even in crypto.

Robin Hood—or Rationalization?

The case raises uncomfortable questions for the crypto industry. Dunn’s decision to scatter funds rather than keep them suggests something more complex than greed. But prosecutors and the court ultimately treated the Robin Hood narrative as a story constructed after the fact, amplified by social media spectacle rather than substantiated intent.

From a legal standpoint, the ruling draws a clear line: motive does not excuse method. In an industry already grappling with hacks, insider abuse, and collapsing trust, the court’s message was blunt—vigilante justice, however theatrically framed, is still a crime.

Dunn reportedly hoped for immediate deportation to Canada, but for now, he remains in custody in the UK—his attempt at crypto folklore ending not in legend, but in a prison sentence.