Jupiter Launching Solana Meme Coin With An Airdrop Even Bigger Than JUP

Solana decentralized finance (DeFi) aggregator Jupiter is set to airdrop its own JUP token on January 31 for nearly one million eligible wallets. But the platform will test out its launchpad before then with an airdrop for a meme coin—and the aggregator’s founder says it’ll be an even larger drop than for JUP.

Jupiter’s launchpad will debut a token this week from Ovols, a “DeFi meets NFTs” protocol on Solana. The coin wasn’t created by Jupiter itself, but the protocol will use its technology to debut the meme coin before attempting to launch JUP to the masses.

We knew that Jupiter planned to help launch a meme coin before the JUP airdrop, but otherwise the details were unclear. We didn’t know whose coin it would be, or who would be eligible for the drop. But now we know that the airdrop is planned to be even larger than that of JUP itself.

“With even more airdrop recipients than JUP, it will be a much lower stakes, fun, but similarly extremely technically challenging test for the launchpad,” wrote pseudonymous Jupiter founder Meow on Twitter.

Ovols will provide 1% of its meme coin supply to Jupiter for the service, Meow wrote, with 75% of that set to go to the upcoming JUP DAO—a community organization that oversees the Jupiter (JUP) token—with the 25% share going to Jupiter’s team.

Jupiter has yet to announce a date for the Ovols meme coin airdrop, but with a stated target of this week, it’s sure to be in the next few days. According to Meow, Jupiter’s launchpad will take on further projects starting in February, following the planned January 31 airdrop for JUP.

Jupiter Finally Sets a Date for JUP Airdrop, Teases Meme Coin Drop on Solana

Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) aggregator Jupiter has officially penciled in a launch date and time for its hotly anticipated token airdrop—and will also use its platform to launch a new meme coin before then. The drop—which is set to deliver one billion freshly minted JUP tokens into the wallets of Solana DeFi users—will commence on January 31 at 10:00 am EST, according to an announcement made Monday by Jupiter’s pseudonymous founder, Meow.  Almost a million crypto wallets are eligib...

Meme coins have seen surging popularity on Solana in recent weeks, although they’re famously volatile and can spike or plunge sharply with little obvious reason.

BONK, a meme coin handed out to the Solana community in December 2022, saw a dramatic spike in value late last year—so much so that a token airdrop valued at $300 in 2022 was valued above $500,000 a year later. But BONK’s price has fallen 69% over the last month since peaking on December 15.

Meme Coin Mania Helps Push Solana DeFi Volume Over Ethereum for First Time

After accelerating for weeks, momentum in the Solana ecosystem has finally accomplished the improbable: Transaction volume for decentralized exchanges (DEXs) on the blockchain has finally eclipsed that of exchanges on rival Ethereum, at least in the last week. DEX volume on Solana has soared to $9.03 billion over the last seven days, according to data from Defi Llama. In that same period, decentralized exchanges on Ethereum have seen $8.836 billion worth of transactions.  That victory may end up...

Another Solana meme coin, Dogwifhat (WIF), has surged in recent weeks… yet it’s already down 47% after setting a new all-time high price less than a week ago.

Meme coins aren’t known to be the most stable crypto assets, but airdrops bring plenty of short-term excitement—and can pump hundreds of millions of dollars worth of value into crypto communities. Jupiter has two such airdrops planned in the next several days.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.