While Solana DeFi protocol Jupiter staged what was by most measures a very successful airdrop launch on Wednesday, achieving a market cap of close to $800 million, the company’s critics pointed out numerous ways the company seemed to unfairly enrich itself in the process. While Jupiter’s founder, who goes by the pseudonym Meow, acknowledges he might have done some things differently, he finds the criticisms of the launch mostly based on “bad faith” and misinformation.  

Meow joined Unchained to discuss the thinking behind the launch mechanics of JUP, how the prior launch of memecoin WEN served as a dry run for JUP, whether the aggressive pricing strategy of JUP was a mistake, and what he hopes to achieve with Jupiter next, including the possibility of enabling companies of all kinds to list themselves publicly on chain. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• What Jupiter is and how it extends its functionality beyond mere token swapping
• What users are primarily utilizing the dollar-cost-average feature of Jupiter for
• Meow’s background in crypto and how he ended up in the Solana ecosystem
• Why a launchpad seemed the ideal choice for Jupiter's token launch
• What prompted the decision to release WEN, a memecoin, before launching JUP
• Meow's response to criticisms regarding the launchpad's mechanics
• Whether the aggressive pricing strategy for Jupiter was a misstep
• How Meow feels about being targeted for criticism
• What's on the horizon for Jupiter as a platform following the airdrop

Thank you to our sponsors!

• Popcorn Network
• iTrustCapital

Guest:

• Meow, cofounder of Jupiter

Links

• Unchained: 
• Jupiter Traders Claim Whopping 545 Million JUP Tokens in First 8 Hours of Airdrop
• Jupiter’s Airdropped Token JUP Debuts at a $878 Million Market Cap
• Pro-Ethereum Crowd Slams Solana-based Jupiter Airdrop as ‘Absolute Trash’
• Breakpoint 2023 Meow conference
• The Block: Solana DEX aggregator Jupiter confirms token release date

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