Jupiter to award 200M JUP as variable rewards and incentives during Jupuary airdrop

The long-awaited Jupuary airdrop by Jupiter DEX aggregator revealed its incentive structure. A total of 700M JUP will go toward both old and new ecosystem participants. 

Jupiter, the leading DEX aggregator on Solana, announced the structure of its Jupuary reward and incentive system. The event will distribute 700M JUP in early January, after a discussion about incentivizing older holders versus new users. 

The latest distribution schedule will grant 500M JUP on a fixed basis per wallet. The remaining 200M will go toward new users, in a double system of ‘carrot’ and ‘good cat’ incentives. This schedule is still a draft and may change before the actual airdrop. 

Jupuary 2025 🪐

Here is the first Overview of the upcoming Jupuary distribution.

Team decided to go with a split between Users & Stakers and Carrots & Good Cats.

This way we are trying to appreciate everyone in the Jupiverse!

Note: This is a Draft, Subject to change 💡 pic.twitter.com/mbGNy3QxSe

— Jupiter Uplink (@jup_uplink) December 26, 2024

The wallet allocation will favor older users and stakers, as requested by the community. The Jupuary event will have a detailed look at swap wallets, spreading rewards into five tiers. Regular swap users need proof they are human, plus a minimum of $1,000 in swaps. Around 2M wallets are eligible for this airdrop. 

Around 320K expert trader wallets will also be eligible, requiring more complex trading actions, liquidity injections perpetual futures, DCA operations, and ‘ape’ investments. 

Jupuary will have five regular trader tiers, depending on JUP held and trading activity, and five corresponding tiers for expert traders. The tiers may see some changes, as the Jupiter community noticed a significant disparity in rewards. 

Based on the draft plan, wallets with 50 JUP balance will be eligible for an airdrop if they also show trades valued at $800, but the next tier, those with 250 JUP, may receive an airdrop only after achieving $29,000 in trading activity. 

Overall, the airdrop will favor trading activity ahead of stakers, to avoid passive JUP holders and older whales. Still, the event will distribute 75M JUP to stakers, while setting aside 425M JUP for active users. 

For those that still prefer the staking and governance route, the Jupuary event will offer rewards for simple staking in a separate group. For those who also use active staking with the right to vote, governance will bring extra rewards. 

All intended allocations will be subject to change, as the community discussion continues. Jupuary itself was decided after two votes and community discussion. The end goal was to establish the parameters of the event, and then repeat a similar airdrop in early 2026. The current airdrop plan will still go through a community discussion to discover the preferred mode of distribution. 

JUP slides despite Jupuary and heightened activity

JUP is one of the tokens that moved against the trend, sliding from its yearly peak at $1.40. Despite the success of Solana DEX trading, JUP has been sliding for the second half of the year. 

The token now trades at $0.82, with an accelerated downward trend in the past few days. JUP trading volumes have also slowed down to $81M in 24 hours. JUP open interest has also fallen toward $66M, near a three-month low. 

Previously, the Jupuary hype has helped boost JUP market prices. The token is also volatile and has gone through multiple cycles of sliding under $1, then recovering to its higher range. 

The price action does not reflect the usage of the aggregator. Jupiter increased its activity in the last quarter of 2024, reflecting the growing interest in Solana meem token swaps. Jupiter also added personalized tools for token activities, including DCA buying or finding the optimal route for trading tokens. Jupiter is the second most widely used app on Solana after Raydium, either for routing or direct swaps. 

Aggregated volume on Jupiter peaked in the week ended November 17, when the aggregator handled $39B in trading volumes. Since then, weekly aggregated activity shifted to a lower baseline of $24B. 

JUP is one of the tokens where activity and value locked remain much lower than the total market capitalization. However, the main fear is that the new Jupuary event will flood the market with more tokens, leading to a lower market price. 

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