Solana DeFi Exchange Jupiter Gets OK for Airdrops After First $1.7 Billion Vote Failed

Solana decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator Jupiter is set to airdrop JUP tokens to its community over the next two Januaries after the Jupiter DAO—the collective of JUP token holders—approved a revised airdrop proposal following a failed first try to hand out $1.7 billion worth of tokens.

More than 87% of votes were in favor of the second proposal, which made a few key changes from the first that only received 58% votes in support late last month, below the required 70% to pass the proposal. 

Incorporating feedback from thousands of previous voters, the second proposal included key changes from the first, like providing an allocation for JUP stakers and increasing the focus on including real users, instead of airdrop-farming bots, via criteria like “actual holdings” and “participation in the ecosystem.”

“Maximum effort has to be made to ensure that JUP goes to the right people who have a good chance to become long-term members—not farmers or overly focused on [a] minority set of users,” wrote Meow, Jupiter’s pseudonymous co-founder, in the second proposal.

The official time and date for the airdrop has not yet been announced, but the revised proposal indicates a need to have the “Jupuary” token drop “completely wrap up by Catstanbul,” a two-day Jupiter ecosystem event being held in Istanbul, Turkey on January 25-26, 2025. 

Jupiter concluded its first airdrop to ecosystem participants in January 2024, airdropping 1.35 billion JUP, or 13.5% of the total 10 billion token supply to almost 1 million eligible wallets.

Final JUP token amounts were not included in the second proposal, with Meow citing that debating the exact number “will be the team’s burden to bear.” The first airdrop proposal asked for 700 million JUP tokens to be set aside for each of the next two Januaries, a total of $1.7 billion at current JUP prices. 

“We all want the same thing—to grow the Jupiverse in the most best way possible,” said Meow. 

JUP, the Jupiter ecosystem’s native token, is currently trading at $1.22, down 7.5% in the last 24 hours. 

Edited by Andrew Hayward