Solana DeFi Exchange Jupiter Puts $1.5 Billion Worth of JUP Airdrops Up to Vote

A new Jupiter DAO governance proposal created by Meow, the pseudonymous co-founder of the Solana decentralized exchange (DEX) and token launchpad, seeks a 70% “yes” vote to airdrop 700 million JUP tokens to the community in January—as well as another 700 million JUP tokens sometime after that. All told, that’s nearly $1.5 billion worth of JUP at the current price.

Those who stake the JUP token via Jupiter are eligible to vote on the proposal, earning voting power in a 1:1 ratio with the amount of JUP staked. Voting on the proposal, which is designed to reward “real humans and active users,” is open until November 29 at 10:59am ET.

“It is my sincere belief that if we are able to complete this in a united way, we can make JUP, Jupiverse, and Jupiter far bigger, [more] comprehensive, and [more] valuable than before,” said Meow on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Formal eligibility details are not outlined in the proposal, which indicates a potential “Jupuary 2025” event would hold a key consideration to be “as inclusive as possible.” The proposal also makes note that volume traded on Jupiter’s platforms would be a consideration, but not the sole focus in determining eligible parties and their respective allocations. 

If the vote does not get the required 70% approval in order to move forward, then an amendment will be made based on community feedback, and a new vote will be opened.

The proposal, as it currently stands, calls for two separate airdrops of 700 million JUP each.

Nearly one million wallets were eligible for Jupiter’s first JUP airdrop in January of this year, setting 1.35 billion JUP tokens into circulation. This time, though, the team is expected to increase minimum eligibility thresholds and invest more heavily in sybil detection, or determining multiple wallets controlled by one party.

“We look back at the first Jupuary as one of the best executed and widely distributed airdrops in crypto,” said Meow in a blog post attached to the proposal. “If done in a strategic way, Jupuary has tremendous potential to onboard the right people into the ecosystem and accelerate community growth.”

JUP traded around $0.50 in the days and weeks after its first airdrop, but spiked to more than $1.75 at the end of March according to CoinGecko. Down more than 40% from its highs, JUP is up 7% this month and is now trading at $1.07. At that price, the airdrops would be collectively valued at $1.48 billion at present.

Jupiter, a Solana decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator, ranks #16 among all on-chain protocols with more than $2.6 billion in total value locked based on data from DefiLlama.

Edited by Andrew Hayward