$70 Million Buybacks Failed to Save Jupiter: Solana Co-Founder Explains Why The Token Strategy Broke
Jupiter Exchange’s $70 million buyback marketing campaign in 2025 failed to cease the relentless downward stress on its JUP token, which continues to face $1.2 billion in upcoming unlocks.
The token has fallen 89% from its peak, highlighting the constraints of typical buyback methods in a market characterised by important emissions, ongoing unlocks, and structural promoting stress.
Jupiter Faces Backlash as $70 Million Buybacks Fail Against $1.2 Billion Token Unlocks
Founder Siong sparked neighborhood debate when he urged pausing the JUP buybacks to redirect funds towards progress incentives.
“We spent greater than $70 million on buybacks final yr, and the value clearly didn’t transfer a lot,” he wrote on X. “We can use the $70 million to give out for progress incentives for present and new customers. Should we do it?”
His proposal aimed to fund rewards for lively customers and subsidies for newcomers, shifting the main target from defensive market assist to ecosystem growth.
Community reactions had been divided. Some argued that buybacks are ineffective underneath heavy unlock pressure, whereas others warned that halting them might exacerbate worth declines.
The restricted affect of Jupiter’s buybacks, overlaying solely about 6% of unlocked tokens, highlights the problem. With month-to-month unlocks of 53 million JUP scheduled by means of June 2026, the token’s circulating provide has elevated by roughly 150% since launch. This is regardless of three-year lockups of 100 million tokens.
Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko provided a possible path ahead. He urged storing earnings as future claimable belongings and providing one-year staking rewards to long-term holders
According to the Solana government, this method would align token costs throughout unlocks with the anticipated post-buyback worth.
“Let folks lockup and stake for a yr to get a token yield. So because the stability sheet grows those that stake internet a much bigger declare,” he added.
His mannequin emphasizes capital formation over short-term buybacks, aiming to lengthen the utility cycle of funds and strengthen token worth anchoring.
Helium and Jupiter Highlight the Limits of Conventional Buybacks
The debate over buybacks extends past Jupiter DEX. Helium lately suspended its HNT repurchase program after the market confirmed minimal response. Instead, the community selected to allocate sources towards person progress, together with increasing Helium Mobile subscribers and community hotspots.
Critics of buybacks argue that in ecosystems the place tokens are seen as utility vouchers moderately than fairness, repurchases create solely short-term optical results and fail when structural promoting stress dominates.
Solana’s internalized ecosystem additional complicates issues. Frequent crew unlocks, insider prioritization, and high emissions regularly offset repurchase efforts.
Community members have identified that these structural points, moderately than the mechanism of buybacks itself, are the principle cause defensive methods usually fail. Others argue that dynamic approaches, together with staking-based rewards or valuation-driven buybacks, might provide a more practical resolution.
The problem for Jupiter stays balancing short-term worth assist with long-term ecosystem progress. While $70 million in buybacks was inadequate to stabilize the token, Yakovenko’s proposals level to a future the place long-term capital formation and staking incentives might higher align person incentives with sustainable token worth.
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