Solana-based Jupiter (JUP) token falls 70% since debut following $700 million airdrop

Jupiter (JUP) fell nearly 70% since its debut after performing one of the largest airdrops on the Solana blockchain, with approximately $700 million worth of JUP tokens distributed to nearly 1 million wallets.

The token began trading at around $0.41 yesterday, then surged to $2 before plummeting within a few hours. Losses have since narrowed and the stock is down 14% at $0.5877 as of 1pm ET. The market capitalization is $793 million.

Trading volume was an astronomical $1.37 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

An Ethereum-based token with the same ticker also briefly soared more than 400% yesterday, with investors seemingly mistaking it for SOL’s JUP.

JUP token airdrop

JUP has allocated 1 billion tokens for the initial airdrop. Data from Dune shows that 625 million JUP tokens have been claimed so far, with 47% of eligible wallet addresses claiming their airdrop stake. Approximately 20% of airdrop tokens were claimed within the first hour.

Tokens will be delivered to early users of the Jupiter protocol.

This airdrop is not the last airdrop for the Jupiter protocol. An additional 3 billion JUP tokens have been allocated for future airdrops targeting new users. The protocol has not yet announced the timing of future drops.

The system endures

Given the scale of the airdrop, there were initial concerns that it would cause significant damage to the Jupiter system and cause downtime on the Solana blockchain. However, the network has been praised for maintaining 100% uptime.

🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Solana maintains 100% uptime during peak traffic hours. $JUP Jupiter Airdrop Claims and Transactions. pic.twitter.com/3tWaOX9yqU

— Solana Floor | Provided by Step Finance (@SolanaFloor) January 31, 2024

The cryptocurrency community also praised the Solana blockchain’s fee mechanism. Despite the increase in user numbers and demand, gas rates remained low.

Here are the fees I just paid for Solana network transactions: Even with a huge influx of users requesting JUP token airdrops, there is no gas surge. It really feels like the future. pic.twitter.com/sRFVV0g3pu

— SmartecVitalik (@Smartecio) January 31, 2024

However, there were a few minor issues with the launch. Users using third-party apps like Solflare and Phantom reported issue Tokens are charged for the first 30 minutes.

The problem originated from the RPC node that connects the user’s wallet to the blockchain. This issue did not exist in the Solana base layer.

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