Jupiter, the largest DeFi platform within the Solana ecosystem, has experienced an unprecedented trading volume of $1.38 billion in the past 24 hours. This surge is attributed to the successful launch of its token and an airdrop event, which has resulted in trading volumes more than doubling compared to recent days, positioning Jupiter as the leading DEX platform in that timeframe.
Surge in Trading and Token Launch
The launch of the Jupiter token and the associated airdrop event on January 31st has significantly increased activity on the Solana network. Phantom, a Web3 wallet, reported an all-time high in traffic, with volumes tripling compared to those seen during the last WEN meme token launch.
Jupiter’s governance token commenced trading at an initial price of $0.40 in its native liquidity pool. Shortly after, major exchanges including Bybit, Binance, Bitfinex, and OKX began listing the token for trading. At the time of writing, the token’s price had risen by 50% to $0.61, achieving a market cap of $808 million and a fully diluted valuation of $6 billion, with 1.35 billion tokens in circulation.
The platform also initiated its first token airdrop event, targeting 955,000 wallet addresses and rewarding early users who had transacted a minimum of $1,000 before November 2nd. Dune Analytics reported that 62.9% of JUP tokens have been claimed across over 450,000 addresses, with plans to distribute 40% of the total supply in four stages, including future rounds for new users.
However, the token launch faced some criticism, with complaints about the team selling tokens to the public using the launch pool. The project’s founder, Meow, defended the transparency of the launch mechanics, stating that the team’s sale rate was reduced significantly. Additionally, an unidentified user claimed 1.85 million JUP tokens worth $1.17 million across numerous wallets, raising concerns about the airdrop distribution process.