Key Highlights
- Co-founder Siong Ong is considering stopping buybacks and using funds to reward users and attract new ones.
- Jupiter spent over $70 million on $JUP token buybacks in 2025, but the price stayed around $0.21.
- Community opinions are split, with some supporting buybacks for long-term growth and others warning that ending them could hurt investor trust.
Jupiter, a decentralized exchange on the Solana network, is thinking about ending its $JUP token buyback program after spending over $70 million on repurchases in 2025.
In a post on X on Saturday, Jupiter co-founder Siong Ong asked the community if the money could be used in a better way, like rewarding users or attracting new people, since the token price stayed almost the same.
Last year, Jupiter committed to using half of its protocol revenue to buy back $JUP tokens, locking the purchases for three years. But even with all that spending, the token price stayed around $0.21 because many new tokens were being released at the same time. Ong suggested redirecting the funds toward user growth and platform incentives and noted that buybacks did not significantly affect the token’s market price.
“We spent more than 70m on buyback last year and the price obviously didn’t move much. We can use the 70m to give out growth incentives for existing and new users. Should we do it?” he wrote.
Ong also referenced Helium, another blockchain project, as an example. Helium’s CEO, Amir Haleem, recently paused his company’s buybacks because the market was not responding to them. Helium’s network generated $3.4 million in revenue in October alone, but the team chose to redirect funds to increase subscribers and improve network usage.
Ong praised the move, describing it as “taking the first step,” and suggested Jupiter could follow a similar path.
Community reactions and next steps
The discussion split the community. Some users think buybacks are good in the long term if the platform keeps growing, while others warn that ending them could reduce investor confidence.
One user wrote, “People bought JUP because buybacks aligned with the protocol’s success. Without buybacks, it becomes a memecoin with JUP logo that can cost 0 even if Jupiter rakes in billions.”
Ong replied that ending buybacks does not mean he wants to hurt the project. He said selling his own tokens would be the easiest way to make money, but $JUP is 99% of his net worth. Other ideas were shared, like giving rewards to stakers in SOL or USDC, but Ong said the move would not help Jupiter grow or compete with other Solana exchanges.
Jupiter is one of the top five Solana exchanges by number of active wallets. In the past month, it had around 1.48 million users and $169.8 million in trading volume. The exchange is also preparing Q4 staking rewards and a January 2026 airdrop of up to 700 million tokens.
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