Jupiter Airdrop Begins: Solana DEX Ready to Distribute US$630M Worth of JUP Tokens to 2M Eligible Users

One of the largest decentralised exchanges (DEX) on the Solana network, Jupiter, is ready to airdrop US$630M (AU$1B) worth of its native token

One of the largest decentralised exchanges (DEX) on the Solana network, Jupiter, is preparing to airdrop US$630M (AU$1B) worth of its native token JUP to eligible users.

The protocol will open claims for its latest airdrop on Thursday, January 23, 2:30 AM AEDT, and around 2 million eligible wallets will split a total of 700M JUP tokens.

Users must create a Jupiter profile using an email address, and those owning multiple wallets can receive the tokens individually for each wallet. Jupiter has assured users they have a three-month window to complete the process, cautioning about potential network congestion on Solana and high gas fees during the claim period.

The “Jupuary”, as the Jupiter community has called the airdrop, came as a result of a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) proposal that passed with overwhelming support — 87% approval. This marks Jupiter’s second major token distribution effort after its inaugural airdrop in January 2024, which allocated 1 billion tokens to wallets interacting with its platform.

The proposal outlines two airdrops of 700 million JUP tokens each, planned for 2025 and 2026. Like most airdrops, Jupiter’s has a tiered design with expert traders, the top tier, receiving 300,000 JUP, equivalent to US$246K (AU$392K), while the lowest tier barely receives 25 JUP, or US$20 (AU$31).

Similarly, the most active swap users will receive 20,000 JUP, around US$16.4K (AU$26K), and the lowest swappers will receive a similar portion, around 20 JUP.

A few months after its initial launch in January 2023, JUP reached an all-time high of US$2 (AU$3.19) but has since retraced 56% to its current price.

As per data from CoinMarketCap, the token is now valued at US$0.88 (AU$1.40), an 8% decrease from yesterday.

The price drop could be attributed to rising competition in the Solana network, as the Raydium and Drift protocols have surged in trading volume by double-digits thanks to the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin frenzy.