Key Insights

• Metaplex is a digital asset protocol for Solana and the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM). It offers tools and standards for creating, managing, and scaling digital assets, including NFTs, fungible tokens, RWAs, gaming assets, DePIN assets, and more. More than 800 million assets have been minted across 9 million unique wallets using Metaplex.
• Metaplex’s Digital Asset Standard has become the foundation of Solana’s ecosystem, providing standardized schemas and behaviors that ensure interoperability and liquidity across applications.
• In December, Metaplex launched public beta access for the Metaplex Aura Network, a data network for Solana and the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM).
• Metaplex has developed nearly every major innovation for digital assets on Solana, including compressed NFTs, onchain royalties enforcement, Core plugins (programmable assets), and Aura, the first data network optimized for digital assets. Metaplex’s integration with major Solana-based applications, such as Phantom, Magic Eden, Tensor, and Pump.fun, as well as newer applications, has expanded the adoption and functionality of digital assets across the network’s ecosystem.

Introduction

The rapid rise in popularity of digital assets has driven the need for more efficient and scalable solutions. This demand has posed significant challenges, particularly concerning the high costs associated with onchain storage and transaction processing on various networks. Enter Metaplex, which is powering assets of all types on Solana and the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM). Its suite of innovative solutions and developer experience have made it the de facto digital asset protocol and key infrastructure on Solana and the SVM. Known for providing the standard for tokens and NFTs on Solana, similar to ERC-20 or ERC-721, Metaplex accounts for over 99% of NFT issuance on Solana and the vast majority of fungible token issuance on the network.

A fully verticalized digital asset protocol, Metaplex is one of the most used protocols on Solana. Its library of onchain programs drives significant onchain activity and its developer tools enable developers and applications to read data related to digital assets. Moreover, Aura, Metaplex’s data network for Solana and the SVM, is the first optimized for digital assets on these networks, enabling new functionality for Metaplex’s onchain programs such as allowing asset data to flow in and out of Solana account space as needed for composability or security.

Together, these solutions offer an end-to-end developer experience that does not exist on Solana competitors like Ethereum, where different projects lead in NFT issuance and management, blockchain indexing, and data availability, rather than a comprehensive suite of all these like Metaplex.

Aura also brings new functionality to MPLX, the project’s token, as it is required to run an Aura node and pay for data access. New functionality and innovations like Aura will continue to be added as the protocol seeks to maintain and even grow its dominance in digital asset issuance and management on Solana and the SVM, alongside new offerings like indexing and data availability.

The Metaplex protocol is governed by the Metaplex DAO, which is made up of MPLX tokenholders, and administered by the Metaplex Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and growing the Metaplex ecosystem.

Background

Metaplex was founded within Solana Labs and co-founded by Stephen Hess, the former Head of Product at Solana Labs, in June 2021. Shortly thereafter in August 2021, it was contributed to the Metaplex Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the long-term development of the Metaplex ecosystem. Other key events in the protocol’s history include:

• January 2022: Metaplex secures $46M in a strategic funding round from entities including Multicoin Capital, Solana Ventures, Animoca Brands, Cultur3 Capital, and Blue Pool Capital.
• July 2022: Metaplex launches its Digital Asset Standard (DAS) and DAS API for interacting with digital assets on Solana.
• September 2022: The MPLX token launches with an airdrop claim period for qualifying community members and early protocol builders.
• November 2022: The Metaplex Foundation’s Compressed NFTs program (Bubblegum) launches.
• January 2023: Programmable NFTs with royalties enforcement launch.
• April 2024: Core, the protocol’s latest NFT standard, launches. Core uses a single-account design to reduce minting costs and improve Solana network load. Additionally, several notable crypto funds, including Pantera Capital and ParaFi Capital, acquired MPLX tokens that were originally held by the FTX estate
• September 2024: Metaplex launches Aura, a data network that extends Solana and the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM).

The Metaplex protocol is governed by the Metaplex DAO, which is made up of MPLX tokenholders, and administered by the Metaplex Foundation. Half of all protocol fees are used to buy back MPLX, which is subsequently contributed to the DAO treasury. At its discretion, the DAO may elect to distribute tokens in its treasury to incentivize the growth of the Metapex ecosystem.

Technology

The Metaplex Protocol consists of five primary components:

1. The Digital Asset Standard (DAS)
2. The Metaplex Program Library (MPL)
3. The Metaplex Developer Platform
4. The Metaplex Aura Network
5. The MPLX token

Source: Metaplex

The Digital Asset Standard

Similar to how the Ethereum ecosystem relies on the ERC-20, ERC-721, and ERC-1155 standards, the Solana ecosystem relies on the Metaplex Digital Asset Standard (DAS). Consequently, nearly all Solana digital assets are Metaplex digital assets.

DAS is a standardized framework that ensures consistency and interoperability across different digital assets and applications on Solana. DAS establishes the necessary schemas, behaviors, and system architecture for various types of digital assets. These asset types include but are not limited to NFTs, compressed NFTs, fungible tokens (including memecoins), RWAs, DePIN assets, gaming assets, digital art, and token extensions.

Metaplex’s DAS offers a significant competitive advantage over competing ecosystems by providing a dedicated protocol and community focused on continuous innovation at the standards layer. This benefits developers, creators, and collectors by ensuring ongoing enhancements and support.

Key Features of the DAS

DAS offers a structured and composable framework for defining digital asset components such as images, configurable royalty percentages, and collections, facilitating their integration and interoperability within the Solana ecosystem. DAS’s flexible digital asset behaviors, such as metadata mutability, transfer semantics, and authority management, ensure assets can be easily updated, transferred, or restructured as needed.

DAS supports both onchain and offchain storage options, offering versatility in unit economics and scalability. Onchain storage ensures immutability and security, while offchain storage provides cost-effective and scalable solutions for extensive metadata. Standards for offchain indexing and querying, established through reference implementations, enable efficient and performant data retrieval, enhancing user experience.

Additionally, DAS maintains compatibility with Ethereum standards through bidirectional bridging via the Wormhole Network, ensuring interoperability between Metaplex digital assets and Ethereum-based assets. This compatibility allows for broader reach and increased liquidity for digital assets, benefiting the entire Solana ecosystem.

Metaplex Program Library

The Metaplex Program Library (MPL) constitutes the second component of the Metaplex Protocol. It offers an onchain Solana implementation of the DAS, which enables applications to create and manage digital assets.

The MPL provides developers with onchain utilities designed to build decentralized applications that leverage digital assets, such as marketplaces and launchpads, DeFi apps, games, DePIN, RWA platforms, onchain subscriptions, ticketing solutions, and more. It includes products that cover the entire digital asset supply chain, from creation and primary sales to utility programs. All components of the MPL are open source and available on GitHub. Below are several of the key Solana programs within the MPL:

Metaplex Core

Metaplex Core is Metaplex’s latest standard for Solana NFTs. Metaplex Core introduces a cleaner and more efficient specification for digital assets than previous standards, enhancing both cost efficiency and network performance. Core operations have a minimal Compute Unit (CU) footprint, allowing more transactions to be included in each block. Specifically, Core requires 17k CU for minting, compared to 205k CU required by other standards. Core provides several key features:

Single Account Design

One of the key features of Metaplex Core is its single account design. Unlike traditional fungible token standards such as Solana Program Library (SPL) Token or Token extensions, which rely on multiple accounts, Metaplex Core focuses specifically on the needs of NFTs. This single account design not only tracks the owner but also encapsulates all the necessary data within a single Solana account without needing to rely on a token program. This architecture significantly reduces minting costs and improves the overall network load on Solana. For instance, minting an NFT with Metaplex Core is estimated to cost 0.0029 SOL, compared to 0.022 SOL with the Token Metadata standard.

Onchain and Offchain Data Integration

Metaplex Core employs a hybrid approach to data storage, integrating both onchain and offchain data. The Core Asset and Collection accounts include essential onchain data but also contain a URI attribute pointing to an offchain JSON file. This offchain file provides additional information without incurring the high costs of storing extensive data onchain.

Flexible Plugin System

Metaplex Core includes a plugin system that makes Core assets more dynamic, performant, and flexible for developers. The flexible plugin system allows developers to customize the behavior and functionality of digital assets by hooking into any asset lifecycle event, such as creation, transfer, and burn. Plugins enable a wide range of utilities, from built-in staking and asset-based point systems to advanced features like delegated permissions and onchain attributes that are automatically indexed by the Metaplex DAS API. Developers can also write their own external plugins, which extend Core by adding behavior to assets using external data or controls. Unlike standard plugins, which only use asset data, external plugins can interact with data from other accounts or programs, making Core assets even more customizable.

Enhanced Collection Management

Metaplex Core allows assets to be grouped and managed at the collection level. This feature enables collection-level operations, such as freezing all assets in a collection or changing royalty details in a single transaction. Additionally, Core collections can have unique attributes and plugins that override the default settings, providing a higher level of customization and control. For example, developers can add the Royalties Plugin to a collection, allowing all assets to share the same royalty settings, or override these settings for individual assets as needed.

Native Metaplex DAS API Support

Core assets are automatically indexed and available for application developers through the Metaplex DAS API, a common interface that is used for all Solana NFTs. Additionally, all plugins are automatically indexed, including plugins that allow for generic onchain data such as the Attribute plugin or AppData plugin. As a notable historical example, Phantom and Backpack wallet users could see their Core assets before the developers of these applications had finished fully integrating Core.

Bubblegum

Metaplex’s Bubblegum program powers compressed NFTs (cNFTs) on Solana. The scalability of NFTs has been constrained by the linear onchain cost of rent on Solana (0.012 SOL per Token Metadata NFT and 0.0014 per Core asset). Bubblegum addresses this challenge by significantly reducing the cost of onchain storage for NFTs, thus enabling more extensive use of the technology.

For instance, minting 1 billion NFTs would cost 12 million SOL, making large-scale NFT applications economically unfeasible. In contrast, minting 1 billion cNFTs through direct transactions costs as low as 5,000 SOL. This cost can be reduced even further through batch minting (currently in R&D) powered by Aura (Metaplex’s data network), which reduces the number of transactions by 99%

Bubblegum achieves scale and cost-efficiency through the use of Merkle trees. This approach ensures that the data remains verifiable without excessive storage usage, thus lowering costs. By employing these strategies, Bubblegum makes large-scale NFT applications more feasible and practical than traditional methods.

Onchain vs. Offchain Storage

The efficiency of Merkle trees in the Bubblegum program is achieved through the strategic split between onchain and offchain data storage. The core idea is to store only the essential data onchain while keeping the bulk of the data offchain, yet still verifiable through the Merkle root.

Only the Merkle root and essential metadata are stored onchain. The onchain data provides the necessary integrity checks, ensuring that any data referenced offchain can be verified against the immutable Merkle root stored onchain.

The detailed data and metadata of NFTs are stored offchain, allowing for extensive scalability. This data remains secure and verifiable because any change in the offchain data would necessitate a change in the Merkle root, which is stored onchain. This linkage between onchain and offchain data ensures that the offchain data remains tamper-proof and consistent with the onchain state.

Despite not storing NFT data directly in accounts, Bubblegum allows various cNFT operations:

• Minting: cNFTs can be minted with or without associated collections.
• Transferring: cNFTs can be transferred between accounts.
• Updating: The metadata of cNFTs can be updated.
• Burning: cNFTs can be burned, removing them from the Merkle Tree.
• Decompressing: cNFTs can be decompressed into regular NFTs, making them interoperable with existing smart contracts but subject to onchain account rent fees.
• Delegation: Ownership and management rights of cNFTs can be delegated.
• Verification: Collections and creators of cNFTs can be verified or unverified.

Practical Implementation and Efficiency

Minting cNFTs involves creating a collection and setting up the Merkle tree parameters. Metaplex’s Bubblegum SDK and Umi tools facilitate this process, making it easier for developers to mint and manage NFTs at scale. Once minted, these NFTs are stored in a compressed format, significantly reducing storage costs while retaining the same metadata schema as their uncompressed counterparts.

Bubblegum’s approach to data management through state compression and concurrent Merkle trees achieves a delicate balance between cost efficiency and security. By keeping the bulk of the data offchain and only essential proofs onchain, the system reduces storage costs significantly. At the same time, the use of cryptographic hashing ensures that the data remains secure and verifiable. This combination allows for scalable and cost-effective NFT management, making it an attractive solution for developers and creators.

Token Metadata

The Token Metadata program is a fundamental program built on top of the Solana Token program used to attach additional data to fungible and non-fungible tokens. Metaplex’s Token Metadata program does this using Program Derived Addresses (PDAs) derived from the addresses of Mint Accounts. On Solana, Mint Accounts are responsible for storing a token’s global information, while token accounts store the relationship between a wallet and a Mint Account.

While Mint Accounts on Solana contain a few data attributes, such as current supply, they do not offer the ability to inject standardized data that can be understood by applications. Hence, the Token Metadata program offers a Metadata Account that attaches itself to a Mint Account via a PDA. Each Metadata account contains a ‘URI’ attribute that points to a JSON file offchain that provides additional data that is not constrained by onchain data storage fees. Notably, this JSON file can be configured so that it is immutable after its initial configuration, a setting particularly attractive for NFT developers. Thus for NFTs, the Metadata Account exists to provide the data of that NFT that makes it a useful digital asset (i.e. describe its unique characteristics).

Another account specifically offered for NFTs is the Master Edition Account, another PDA derived from the Mint Account. When this account is created, the Token Metadata program transfers Mint Authority and Freeze Authority to it, rather than voiding it. Thus, the Master Edition account acts as proof of Non-Fungibility for that Mint Account. Notably, the Master Edition account also enables printing one or multiple copies of an NFT. A token’s fungibility is tracked in the Metadata Account in its ‘Token Standard’ attribute.

Prior to 2024, NFTs were the biggest use case of the Token Metadata (TM) program. However, since then, the majority of TM program usage has come from fungible tokens. “Semi-Fungible Tokens,” (aka “Fungible Assets”) are also available via TM. Semi-Fungible Tokens have a supply greater than one and feature typical NFT attributes such as an image and an attributes array in the JSON metadata.

Additionally, it is important to note that because the Token Metadata program is built on top of the Solana Token program, it cannot enforce any rules on the tokens it is attached to. Thus, programmable use cases such as secondary sales or transferability restrictions cannot be enforced. However, Metaplex has developed Programmable NFTs as a workaround solution to this problem. Programmable NFTS are a new opt-in token standard that keeps the underlying token accounts frozen at all times so that no one can complete an action such as transferring, locking, or burning the Programmable NFT without going through the Token Metadata program. This allows creators to define custom operation-specific authorization rules (a “RuleSet”) that enforce the Token Metadata program. Rule Sets can be created and updated using Metaplex’s Token Authorization Rules (Token Auth Rules) metaprogramming tool.

Candy Machine (V3) and Core Candy Machine

Candy Machine (V3) is Metaplex’s program for fair minting and distribution of NFT collections on Solana, while Core Candy Machine provides the same for the launch of Core assets.

Candy Machine supports the equitable distribution of NFTs by allowing creators to configure various launch parameters such as verification processes, mint limits, and start and end dates. It enables creators to handle large-scale NFT drops efficiently by supporting sequential or random minting of NFTs. Additionally, the program offers extensive customization that defines NFT attributes and metadata management, ensuring that each NFT drop can be tailored to specific requirements.

The lifecycle of a Candy Machine involves several stages. Initially, the creator configures the Candy Machine with specific settings, including seller fee basis points, the symbol for the minted NFTs, the maximum edition supply, mutability options, and a list of creators and their respective royalty shares. Items are then loaded into the Candy Machine, each defined by a name and a URI pointing to offchain JSON metadata. Once fully configured and all preconditions are met, users can start minting NFTs. Some users may need to complete additional verification steps, such as solving a Captcha or providing a Merkle Proof, before minting. After all NFTs have been minted, the Candy Machine can be deleted to free up onchain storage space and reclaim rent fees.
Since its launch, Candy Machine has been integral to Solana’s NFT ecosystem. Not only have most of the top collections been launched through Candy Machine V3 such as DeGods, Claynosaurz, SMB Gen3 and more, but most launchpads on Solana either use Candy Machine or use a fork of it Magic Eden for example uses a fork). Programs such as Candy Machine and its forks simplify the asset creation process, driving volume through Metaplex standards such as Token Metadata and Core. Moreover, Metaplex’s decision to make its utility programs such as Candy Machine free is a key value proposition for developers to choose Metaplex rather than a competitor.

Metaplex Developer Platform

The Metaplex Developer Platform is integral to the effective utilization of the DAS and MPL and is designed to facilitate the development of Solana-based applications by providing a comprehensive suite of tools, software development kits (SDKs), and reference interfaces. Metaplex’s existing programs and developer tools provide the rails for customers to easily integrate new Metaplex features. One example of this is the Aura Network, which is accessible through an SDK compatible with all of the same frameworks and tools in the Metaplex Developer Ecosystem. The Metaplex Developer Platform includes key tools such as:

Umi

Umi is a modular framework for building and using JavaScript clients for Solana programs. It features a zero-dependency library that defines a set of core interfaces as well as default implementations and bundles for developers.

Sugar

Sugar is a command-line tool for interacting with and managing a Candy Machine’s whole lifecycle. Key advantages include a single configuration file with all Candy Machine settings and the use of multithreaded systems to speed up computation for uploading media/metadata files and deploying a Candy Machine.

DAS API

The DAS API offers a unified interface for interacting with digital assets on Solana, accommodating standard (Token Metadata), compressed (Bubblegum), and Core assets. The DAS API defines methods for RPCs to implement in order to provide asset data, with the majority of data indexed using Metaplex Digital Asset RPC infrastructure. This approach aims to balance scalability and cost-efficiency, facilitating developers’ management and interaction with many digital assets. However, the reliance on offchain data storage introduces dependencies on external RPC providers, which can affect reliability and consistency.

Metaplex Aura Network

Aura is Metaplex’s data network optimized for Solana and the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) that is secured by the MPLX token. Aura provides developers with performant access to onchain data, including optimized indexing and querying for digital asset data, which is critical to building decentralized applications that can compete with centralized alternatives. With the introduction of Aura, Metaplex now provides a complete framework for developers building applications on Solana. With the Metaplex Program Library (MPL) developers can write to the chain while paying in SOL and with Metaplex Aura their applications can read this data with MPLX while maintaining decentralization and performance.

Aura first went live on Solana mainnet and devnet in September 2024, followed by beta access for developers via Google form application in November 2024, and public beta in December 2024. Aura’s beta for Eclipse, an Ethereum Layer-2, also launched in November, followed by public beta release in December 2024.

The Aura network is run by Aura nodes that index both compressed and uncompressed state, while providing key data availability for compressed state. Aura has three main features:

• Reading Solana and SVM data: Aura provides developers decentralized read access to onchain data paid for in MPLX
• Managing compressed and uncompressed state across any SVM: Aura implements the Digital Asset Standard (DAS) API, offering indexing across any digital asset on Solana and the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM). Additionally, in the future developers and applications will have the ability to transition assets between SVM account space and different levels of state compression on demand.
• Batch minting NFTs: Batch minting is generated from offchain json object/file with the transaction indexed by an Aura node. This feature is currently in R&D.

With Aura, Metaplex introduced the term Elastic State to describe the network’s ability to transition assets between SVM account space and different levels of state compression on demand. Elastic state management enables rollup mint transactions allowing for the batch creation of millions of assets into compressed state with 99% fewer transactions, with Aura Nodes providing the data availability (DA) to manage state transitions.

Aura is currently accessible through a public gateway integrated directly into Metaplex SDKs and developer tools, providing a comprehensive solution for developers to create and manage digital assets. Alternatively, projects can elect to run a node directly to access the network. Builders interested in running an Aura node can email aura@metaplex.foundation to learn more.

The Metaplex Foundation Aura repository is open-source, allowing for contributions from the global developer community. Additionally, more than 25 projects, including top NFT marketplaces, infrastructure providers, game developers, and SVM L2s contributed to Aura’s rollout and provided feedback to improve and refine the network.

Tokenomics

The MPLX token was launched in September 2022 to facilitate protocol governance, reward community members and early protocol builders via airdrop, and incentivize protocol activity. In November 2024, the beta launch of Aura brought added utility as MPLX is required both to operate an Aura node and as payment to access the network. Additionally, half of all Metaplex protocol fees are used to purchase (aka “buyback”) MPLX, which is subsequently contributed to the Metaplex DAO treasury.

Governance

MPLX tokens confer voting rights to holders, enabling them to participate in decision-making processes concerning:

• The protocol development and MPLX utility roadmaps
• The allocation of treasury funds
• Protocol ownership, upgrades, and deployment
• Addressing emergency and unforeseen issues

To facilitate governance, Metaplex DAO has two types of governance proposals: Metaplex Improvement Proposals (MIPs) for proposing protocol changes and MPLX Grant Proposals for MPLX token grants.

MPLX Grant Proposal

The Metaplex DAO treasury includes MPLX tokens that can be used to incentivize growth of the Metaplex ecosystem. Metaplex ecosystem contributors can submit grant proposals to the DAO for MPLX (or other assets available in its treasury) to promote the adoption of the Metaplex protocol and further integration of MPLX functionality within the protocol. Notably, all MPLX delivered via DAO grants to ecosystem contributors are locked for one year. The grant proposal process is as follows:

1. Proposals: Anyone holding a minimum of 200 MPLX can submit a grant proposal. Proposers are also required to complete KYC verification.
2. Initial Review: The Metaplex Foundation completes an initial review where it can ask for additional information and screen out submissions that are considered “spam, made in bad faith, fail to include necessary information, or would violate any applicable laws or regulations. that fail to include necessary information or would violate applicable laws.
3. Community Feedback & Voting Period: Proposals that pass Metaplex Foundation review are posted on the Metaplex Foundation GitHub and voting on a proposal for the grant is initiated. One MPLX token is equivalent to one vote. For a proposal to pass, a minimum of 66% of voting power must vote in favor and the number of votes cast must exceed the effective vote quorum of 1 million votes (0.10% of the total token supply).
4. Execution: If approved the DAO Council transfers the MPLX to the grant beneficiary via a direct transfer or vesting smart contract.

Metaplex Improvement Proposal (MIP)

MIPs are the proposal process by which the protocol (aka the Metaplex Program Library) can undergo changes. The MIP process is as follows:

1. Proposals: Anyone holding a minimum of 1,000 MPLX that pays a 10 USDC spam reduction fee can submit an MIP. Notably, the Metaplex Foundation refunds USDC for “submissions made in good faith.”
2. Community Feedback and Initial Review: The community provides feedback on the proposed MIP on the Metaplex Foundation discussion forum for MIPs. During this period, the Metaplex Foundation has the authority to “screen out spam, proposals that lack critical details, and those that would violate… hard requirements,” such as breaking of backward compatibility, compromises to security, and proposals that would not comply with applicable laws and regulations. A full list of hard requirement reasons that the Metaplex Foundation would reject a proposal can be seen here.
3. Implementation Designation: The Metaplex Foundation elects whether an MIP, if it passes, will be implemented by the Metaplex Foundation or the community.
4. Voting Period: If the Metaplex Foundation elects, a voting period on the MIP is initiated. One MPLX token is equivalent to one vote. For a proposal to pass, a minimum of 66% of voting power must vote in favor and the total number of votes cast must exceed the vote quorum specified by the Metaplex Foundation.
5. MIP Implementation: The Metaplex Foundation publishes a development timeline for approved proposals designated for Metaplex Foundation implementation. For community implementation of an approved, the Metaplex Foundation requests bids and selects a winning bid.

Additionally, the Metaplex Foundation may at its discretion make changes to the Metaplex Program Library without going through the MIP process so long as any changes made do not violate the hard requirements of the Metaplex Program Library. Finally, the Metaplex Foundation can elect to terminate an MIP at any point in the process if at its discretion the MIP is in conflict with applicable laws or regulations.

Aura

On Aura, MPLX has two use cases.

• Node Operation: To date, the Metaplex Foundation has released limited documentation specifying how MPLX is used to operate a node on the Aura network. Both Metaplex’s developer documentation and initial blog post announcing Aura state “Aura nodes [are] secured by the $MPLX token.”
• Payment: While a free tier is offered for API testing and early-stage project development, payment is required in MPLX to access the Aura network at a larger scale. A pay as you go option is available at a specified price per request, as are two tiers of unlimited plans which are available at 500 MPLX and 1,500 MPLX per month.

Buybacks

Half of all protocol fees are used to purchase MPLX, which is subsequently contributed to the Metaplex DAO treasury. Specifically, “50% of the Metaplex Protocol’s prior monthly fees plus historical fees are allocated” to purchase MPLX each month. For example, in December 12,000 SOL was used to buyback MPLX, 50% of which came from protocol fees generated in November (7,816 SOL), and the remainder from historical fees (4,184 SOL). The DAO can also elect to distribute tokens in its treasury to incentivize the growth of the Metaplex ecosystem. From June to October 2024, Metaplex used 10,000 SOL in fees each month to buyback MPLX, while 12,000 SOL was used in both November and December 2024, and January 2025. This has resulted in the buyback of ~44.47 million MPLX (~4.45% of the total token supply), with ~9.2 million MPLX (0.92% of the total token supply) bought back in January, the largest monthly buyback to date.

Earn

As approved by the Metaplex DAO, MPLX is used to reward community members and incentivize activity. In December, the Metaplex DAO approved Metaplex Earn Season 1, which allocates 1 million MPLX (~0.10% of the total token supply) to reward liquidity providers providing MPLX liquidity across various DEXs on Solana. The program began in January and will return any unused MPLX to the DAO treasury at completion. Since launch, onchain liquidity for MPLX has tripled to $7.7 million.

Distribution

The MPLX token has a total supply of 1.00 billion tokens that has been fully unlocked since September 19, 2024, and is distributed as follows:

Creators & Early Supporters — 219.00 million MPLX (21.90%)

• Key early supporters and contributors who purchased tokens in an initial financing round while developing the ecosystem.
• Each participant received 50% of their tokens one year from the first token airdrop (September 19, 2022), with the remaining 50% delivered on a monthly pro-rata basis over the subsequent 12 months.

Metaplex Foundation — ~203.06 million MPLX (~20.31%)

• The Metaplex Foundation is a non-profit organization established to foster the research, development, and adoption of the Metaplex ecosystem. These tokens were allocated to the Metaplex Foundation to provide incentives and assistance to the Metaplex community for the continued development, security, governance, and administration of the Metaplex Protocol and Metaplex DAO.
• These tokens were not subject to vesting and are immediately usable.

Metaplex DAO — 160.00 million MPLX (16.00%)

• The Metaplex DAO uses these tokens for protocol changes, ecosystem grants, and strategic initiatives. Tokens held by the DAO are governed by Metaplex governance and may be distributed over time through community proposals.
• These tokens are not subject to vesting and are immediately usable.

Strategic Round — ~102.04 million MPLX (~10.20%)

• This allocation, announced in January 2022, was made to strategic capital providers and figures in pop culture, entertainment, sports, and other sectors to advocate for Metaplex and the role of NFTs.
• The unlock schedule mirrors that of the Creators & Early Supporters allocation, with a one-year cliff and subsequent monthly distribution over the following year.

Everstake — 100.00 million MPLX (10.00%)

• Everstake, a development shop, and Solana staking service, was part of the founding development team for Metaplex in coordination with the Metaplex Foundation.
• These tokens were subject to a two-year cliff prior to any vesting, followed by a one-year linear vesting schedule.

Metaplex Studios — 97.50 million MPLX (9.75%)

• Metaplex Studios, a core developer team providing services to the Metaplex Foundation, focused on the development of the MPL and DAS, including protocol development, developer tools, commercial partnerships, community support, and application development.
• These tokens were subject to a one-year cliff prior to any vesting, followed by a two-year linear vesting schedule.

Community Airdrop — 54.00 million MPLX (5.40%)

• On April 29, 2022, the Metaplex Foundation offered the Genesis Developer NFT to developers contributing to the Metaplex Protocol. With the launch of MPLX, 800,000 MPLX tokens were allocated to Genesis Developer NFT holders (the Developer Airdrop).
• An additional 13.20 million tokens were allocated to creators who launched NFT projects using Metaplex’s program library (the Creator Airdrop).
• Furthermore, 40.00 million MPLX tokens were earmarked for heavy minters or early adopters of Metaplex NFTs (the Collector Airdrop), after a governance proposal for the airdrop passed in October 2022.
• Airdrop tokens were not subject to vesting and were immediately usable.

Founding Advisors — 33.40 million MPLX (3.34%)

• The Founding Advisors advocate for Metaplex among creators and developers in Web3.
• These tokens were subject to a one-year cliff, followed by a one-year linear vesting period, and a one-year lock-up period from the first token airdrop.

Founding Partners — 31.00 million MPLX (3.10%)

• The Founding Partners are early supporters and partners of the Metaplex Protocol. They launched some of the first storefronts and continue to provide input on additions to the program library, NFT standards, and developer tools.
• These tokens were subject to a one-year cliff, followed by a one-year linear vesting period, and a one-year lock-up period from the first token airdrop.

Protocol Activity

Weekly mints from the Token Metadata program have grown 58% year-over-year from 300,000 to 473,000, a 52-week high. Likewise, weekly mints from the Core program, which launched in March of 2024, saw a large uptick in September of 2024 from the 5-20,000 mints-per-week range to 50-120,000 mints-per-week, peaking at 121,000 mints the week of November 11, 2024. Weekly mints from the Bubblegum program (launched in 2023) also reached an all-time high in 2024 of 103.5 million the week of December 23, more than 20x the previous ATH from 2023.

The weekly number of fungible tokens minted via the Token Metadata program has increased 6x year-over-year from 78,000 to 450,000, reflecting the increasing uptrend in memecoin and AI token activity. Token launchpads like Pump.fun and Meteora’s Mint as well as AI agent toolkits like Griffain and SendAI use the Token Metadata program to create fungible tokens. AI agent toolkits and other agent platforms like ElizaOS also use the Token Metadata and Core programs to create and manage NFTs as part of full access to the Metaplex Program Library (MPL).

In March 2024, fungible tokens eclipsed non-fungible tokens to become the majority of weekly mints for the Token Metadata program. Since April 2024, this trend has continued to strengthen with an all-time-high dominance of more than 95% of Token Metadata program mints being of fungible tokens the week of January 20, 2025. The dominance of fungible assets being created via the Token Metadata program can be attributed to memecoin and AI activity on Solana driving the creation of additional assets in those categories.

Not only have fungible token mints via the Token Metadata program grown in absolute terms (6x YoY) and relative terms (now ~90% of Token Metadata mints), but they have also increased in dominance compared to token mints on Ethereum and Layer 2’s. In 2024, more than 7.4 million fungible tokens were minted via the Token Metadata program, seven times more than the 1.06 million minted across Ethereum and its Layer 2s. Moreover, in the fourth quarter, TM averaged 12 times more fungible token mints than Ethereum and its Layer 2s, signaling an increasing trend. Ultimately, the dominance of Metaplex’s Token Metadata program for fungible token mints is a reflection of Solana’s dominance as the epicenter for onchain trading activity, and Metaplex’s position as the protocol used to create virtually all tokens on the network.

Year-over-year, weekly protocol fees have increased 76% in SOL to nearly 5,000 SOL and 350% in USD to more than $1.2 million. While Metaplex’s highest revenue week in SOL terms (11,343 SOL) came in December 2023, it only generated $840,000 in fees based on the price of SOL at the time. With the uptick in the price of SOL in recent months, Metaplex generated an all-time high in USD fees of more than $1.2 million (4,864 SOL) the week of January 20, 2025. These outlier weeks are crucial in accounting for total fees generated. For comparison, in 2023 Metaplex generated an average weekly fee of 1,768 SOL but only a median of 895 SOL, while in 2024, it averaged a weekly fee of 2,306 SOL and median of 2,050. The 2024 median weekly fee generated eclipsed that of 2023 by 130%, while the average only eclipsed 2023 by 30%.

Half of all Metaplex protocol fees are used to purchase MPLX, which is subsequently contributed to the Metaplex DAO treasury. This is in stark contrast to many other protocols, which have to pay a large portion of fees to third parties such as liquidity providers, lenders, or validators and thus cannot afford to allocate such a high ratio to token buyback.

From June to October 2024, Metaplex used 10,000 SOL in fees each month to buyback MPLX, while 12,000 SOL was used in both November and December 2024, and January 2025. This has resulted in the buyback of ~44.47 million MPLX (~4.45% of the total token supply), with ~9.2 million MPLX (0.92% of the total token supply) bought back in January, the largest monthly buyback to date.

Weekly unique signers (wallets that signed an onchain transaction with Metaplex), increased 62% year-over-year from 219,000 to an all-time high of 354,000. Additionally, Metaplex averaged 196,000 unique signers in 2024, a 160% increase from 76,000 unique signers averaged in 2023. Like with other metrics, much of the increase can be attributed to an increase in memecoin activity. Another contributing factor to the uptick is an increase in Core mints, as each core mint requires a signing wallet. Since August monthly Core mints have increased from 57,000 to more than 400,000 in December.

In 2024, Metaplex had over 705 million transactions, more than three times its prior lifetime total of 233 million dating back to June 2021. Moreover, on December 23, 2024, daily transactions hit an all-time high of more than 23 million, its sixth consecutive day reaching an all-time high after eclipsing the previous all-time high set on February 3, 2024. This spike in transactions was almost entirely driven by Bubblegum, with more than 103 million Bubblegum transactions the week of December 23, 2024.

Ecosystem

Metaplex is the key infrastructure protocol for developers building applications with digital assets on Solana and the SVM and is used by nearly every project including marketplaces, onchain communities, collectibles platforms, games, RWA projects, DePIN, wallets, RPC providers, blockchain explorers and more.

Metaplex has powered $9.2 billion in economic activity on Solana across 980 million transactions. In addition, Metaplex accounts for over 99% of NFT mints and over 90% of fungible mints on Solana.

As the SVM proliferates, Metaplex is poised to expand its footprint as the critical infrastructure layer underpinning these new networks. SVM L2s such as Eclipse, SonicSVM, and SOON (Solona Optimistic Network) have integrated the MPL, making the Metaplex Protocol available to developers and creators who interact with digital assets on these networks.

Onchain Communities

Fungible Tokens

Metaplex’s Token Metadata program powers the memecoin economy on Solana. While more widely known for NFTs, Token Metadata also manages the metadata for fungible tokens on Solana, helping ensure their interoperability across applications. Token Metadata has benefited from the growing popularity of memecoins on Solana, with platforms like pump.fun using Token Metadata to mint new memecoins. Creators have used Token Metadata to launch over 11 million fungible tokens on Solana, with Token Metadata accounting for ~90% of all fungible tokens minted on Solana during the most recent quarter. In January, President Trump’s official memecoin launched using Metaplex’s Token Metadata program. Other recent token launches using the Token Metadata program include Magic Eden’s ME token and Pudgy Penguin’s PENGU token.

Profile Picture (PFP) NFTs

As of writing, nearly every NFT collection on Solana has been created with the Metaplex protocol, including the most prominent PFP NFT communities on Solana. This includes projects such as Mad Lads, DeGods, Solana Monkey Business, and more. Many of these traditional PFP collections were created using Token Metadata. In recent months, Core has gained significant adoption, recently crossing 2 million Core assets minted on Solana. Core offers best-in-class devex, lower minting costs, enforceable royalties, and a plugin library which allows for more dynamic asset design.

Digital Collectibles

Platforms such as DRiP and dReader are facilitating new types of interactions with collectors of digital art, music, comics, and more. DRiP uses Metaplex’s compressed NFTs to distribute millions of assets at scale, enabling new forms of content distribution that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. dReader is bringing the world of comics onchain, using Metaplex Core to power its platform for discovering, reading, and collecting digital comics on Solana.

Marketplaces

NFT marketplaces on Solana, such as Magic Eden, Tensor, and SolSniper, use Metaplex’s infrastructure to streamline the creation, listing, and trading of NFTs. These platforms rely on Metaplex’s Token Metadata, Core, and Bubblegum (compressed NFTs) programs to ensure accurate and secure storage of NFT metadata, making it easy for creators and collectors to verify the authenticity and ownership of digital art, collectibles, and in-game items. These platforms allow developers and creators to launch primary mints built with Metaplex’s token standards, and facilitate the secondary trading economy that have made NFTs popular among both collectors and traders.

AI

In recent months, Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents have emerged as one of the hottest areas of development in crypto. 78% of developers and product managers surveyed by LangChain have active plans to implement AI agents in production in the near future. On Solana and the SVM, properly integrated deployed agents can use Metaplex programs to perform actions like asset minting autonomously. As an example, SendAI has developed a Solana Agent Kit for developers to create autonomous experiences onchain that is powered by the Metaplex Program Library. Using this kit, anyone can leverage Metaplex SDKs to create autonomous workflows such as asset minting, collection assignment, and marketplace sale listing. Additionally, Griffain, an AI agent platform, enables users to create Core assets and memecoins using the Token Metadata standard, as does OctonetAI’s SANA, which also uses Aura for reading data.

Games

The Metaplex Protocol powers a range of games on Solana, providing the foundational infrastructure for creating, minting, and managing digital assets. Games like Star Atlas, Photo Finish, and Aurory leverage the protocol to create unique in-game assets, such as characters, spaceships, and collectibles. For example, these game developers use Metaplex’s Bubblegum program to mint compressed NFTs (cNFTs) for in-game assets, which decreases the minting costs associated with larger collections.

Additional use cases for game developers include using Token Metadata to create fungible tokens that power in-game payment economies, and using Core to create more performant and dynamic NFTs. Particularly, the AppData plugin for Core allows developers to assign arbitrary data from an external source to the asset’s metadata. This is particularly useful for game developers who are using Web2 rails as they can assign gameplay performance/scoring data to the onchain asset for profile status, rewards, or credentials.

Real World Assets (RWAs)

RWAs on Solana are transforming the tokenization of physical assets, allowing real-world items such as fine art, real estate, and luxury goods to be represented as tokens on the blockchain. Metaplex facilitates the creation and management of these onchain representations, ensuring their real-world counterparts can be safely traded, verified, and tracked.

Both Token Metadata and Core are popular among projects like Baxus, which creates NFTs representing ownership of specific bottles of spirits. Baxus leverages Metaplex to store detailed information about each bottle’s origin, year, and authenticity, providing verifiable digital records that simplify asset management and trading. Similarly, Collector Crypt uses Metaplex to tokenize trading cards such as Pokemon. Each NFT is redeemable 1:1 with the trading card, with distribution being powered by platforms such as Magic Eden and Blinks. SkyTrade is at the intersection of RWAs and DePIN, facilitating a marketplace for tokenized air rights using Metaplex’s compressed NFTs.

DePIN

Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) are gaining traction on Solana. Metaplex enables developers to tokenize and decentralize real-world infrastructure on the blockchain. Helium Mobile is one of the leading projects in this space, aiming to revolutionize mobile networks by creating a community-owned, decentralized wireless phone network. Helium Mobile leverages Metaplex’s Bubblegum program to mint cNFTs that represent onchain tokens for their physical infrastructure, which includes hot-spot devices that power mobile coverage. Solana is quickly becoming the go-to chain for DePIN, with other projects such as Hivemapper, Render, and DAWN all choosing the network.

Wallets

All major Solana wallets, including Phantom, Solflare, and Backpack, support the viewing, receiving, and sending of Metaplex digital assets. Notably, in December, Backpack integrated the Core Attribute Plugin upgrade to show onchain attributes directly in the Backpack wallet. This integration is key to improving the onchain game experience as it allows players to view important asset characteristics such as level, health, and strength directly in their wallets.

RPC Providers

RPCs are the communication interface between apps and the blockchain, and leverage the Metaplex DAS API to query blockchain data, index transactions and metadata, and make that data available to their customers. RPCs that offer DAS support include Extrnode, Helius, Hello Moon, QuickNode, Shyft, and Triton.

Blockchain Explorers

Blockchain explorers allow users and developers to track transactions, view wallet balances, and access onchain data. These explorers retrieve and present data supporting Metaplex digital assets using the Metaplex DAS API.

Closing Summary

Metaplex has developed nearly every major innovation for digital assets on Solana, including compressed NFTs, onchain royalties enforcement, and Aura, the first data layer optimized for digital assets. Moreover, Metaplex’s integration with major Solana-based applications, such as Phantom, Magic Eden, Tensor, and Pump.fun, as well as newer applications, has expanded the adoption and functionality of digital assets across the network’s ecosystem.

With metrics like mints, unique signers, transactions, and protocol fees hitting new daily, weekly, and monthly all-time highs, Metaplex is poised to continue as the dominant digital asset protocol on Solana and gain additional adoption from nascent Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) networks. New functionality and innovations like Aura will continue to be added as the protocol seeks to maintain and even grow its dominance in digital asset issuance and management on Solana and the SVM, alongside new offerings like indexing and data availability.

Disclaimer：

1. This article is reprinted from [Messari]. All copyrights belong to the original author [Matt Kreiser，Tehsin Amlani]. If there are objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team, and they will handle it promptly.
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