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August Highlights
$HEEBOO - Claynosaurz launched $HEEBOO through Metaplex, drawing more than $1.2M in deposits from over 1,800 backers.
Protocol Revenue - Monthly revenue reached $226K, the second-highest month since March, diversified across Token Metadata, Genesis and Core.
Bloomberg - Metaplex's Token Transparency Filing went live on Bloomberg Terminals, distributed across more than 350,000 terminals worldwide.
Blockworks - Metaplex’s Blockworks dashboard was launched, giving users insight into protocol financials, protocol usage, $MPLX and more.
$MPLX DAO Buyback - The Metaplex DAO bought back 7.1M $MPLX 0.7% of total supply / 1.5% of outstanding supply), bringing the DAO's total holdings to 345mm MPLX (35% of total supply).
Protocol Activity
In August, Metaplex generated $226K in protocol revenue, the second-highest month since March and a third consecutive month above $200K, including $89K from Token Metadata (40%), $64K from Genesis (29%), $62K from Core (27%), and $10K from Other (4%). Genesis revenue, driven primarily by the $HEEBOO launch, was its largest contribution since November 2025. August marked the first month in the protocol's history in which no single program produced more than 40% of revenue.
In August, 106K Token Metadata assets were created, including 88K fungible tokens (83%).
New Core mints reached 499K, the third highest month in Core's history behind only June and July. The three largest months of Core creation have all come in the last three months, with total assets created surpassing 8.7M
In August, approximately 106K unique wallets signed transactions with Metaplex.
Metaplex Platform
Genesis
Early in the month, Metaplex shipped new customization tools for issuers: delayed TGEs allowing teams to schedule graduation timing, launch pool caps that guarantee every participant a defined price or better with excess deposits refunded pro-rata, and a summary tool that tracks token, launch, liquidity, and lock decisions in one place.
Trading Upgrades In The Metaplex Web App
Metaplex trading got better in August: improved live quote refreshes, quick buy and sell buttons, Jito tips, MEV protection, an input swapper between USD and SOL, and saveable trade settings.
Bubblegum v2's Record Month
Bubblegum v2 set a new all-time monthly minting record in August finishing at 1.2M, up 179% from July. It was also the first month in which v2 out-minted the original Bubblegum, a clean signal that the compressed-NFT standard's second generation is becoming the default as collectibles activity on Solana keeps scaling.
RWAs and Tokenized Securities R&D
Metaplex Foundation continued to advance the development of new infrastructure for issuing and managing permissioned RWAs and tokenized securities with native compliance functionality enforced onchain. As U.S regulators increasingly explore frameworks for bringing permissioned real-world assets onchain, Metaplex is developing an issuer-controlled permissioned standard, designed with that direction in mind. These programs are currently live on devnet.
Trading Terminal R&D
Metaplex Foundation spent August preparing the launch of a complete overhaul of the Metaplex trading experience. The new platform named Vantage, will introduce first-of-its-kind customization and insights, and is currently undergoing beta testing ahead of its open release.
Metaplex DAO
Metaplex Protocol Revenue & $MPLX Buybacks
August's buybacks reached 7.1M $MPLX as $126k of July's protocol revenue went towards buybacks for the DAO (0.7% of the total supply / 1.5% of outstanding supply). Each month, 50% of prior month's protocol revenue is allocated to $MPLX buybacks for the DAO.
August protocol fees reached $226K USD (2,537 SOL), 50% of which will be used to buy back $MPLX for the DAO in September.
As of September 21st, the Metaplex DAO directly holds 312M $MPLX (31.2% of total supply) and has deployed an additional 33mm tokens (3.3% of total supply) as protocol owned liquidity (POL).
Metaplex Foundation
Metaplex Foundation $MPLX Purchases and Holdings
On August 11th, Metaplex Foundation publicly announced the purchase of 42.3M $MPLX (4.2% of the total supply / 8.7% of the outstanding supply), acquired directly from a large holder, representing their entire remaining position. The purchase was separate from the monthly DAO buybacks.
As of September 21st, Metaplex Foundation holds 207M $MPLX (20.7% of total supply) in treasury wallets, with an additional 10.6mm tokens (1.1% of total supply) deployed in passive Kamino LP positions.
Partnership and Community Highlights
Bloomberg And Blockworks
Metaplex's data moved onto institutional rails in August. On August 20th, Metaplex's Token Transparency Filing went live on Bloomberg Terminals, distributed across more than 350,000 terminals and bringing the protocol's disclosures to institutional investors around the world. A week later, a dedicated Metaplex dashboard went live on Blockworks, putting real-time protocol and $MPLX data in one place for analysts and consumers who track the Solana ecosystem through Blockworks Research.
$HEEBOO: A Fair Launch At Scale
The team behind Claynosaurz launched $HEEBOO, which was August's flagship Spotlight sale. HEEBOO’s litepaper detailed how it’s building the economic layer of fan participation for its new studio platform, as a direct answer to creator economies owned by platforms instead of artists.
The launch pool opened on August 25th and closed on August 27th with $1.2M in deposits by over 1,800 backers. One of the most recognizable consumer IP studios on Solana ran its token debut through a Genesis Launch Pool, and the mechanic delivered a community-discovered price, no snipers, and a fair launch.
One Year Of $CARDS
August marked one year since Collector Crypt launched $CARDS through a Metaplex Launch Pool, and the community used the anniversary to make a point about launch design: uncapped launch pools with clear FDV implications have proven one of the fairest ways to bring a token to market. A year later, Collector Crypt has delivered, the platform that chose a Metaplex Launch Pool for its token now anchors the tokenized-collectibles run on Solana.
Solana NFTs Live On OpenSea
On August 31st, OpenSea announced that Solana NFTs are live on OpenSea, allowing users to buy, sell, trade, and bid on the top Solana collections. The announcement put Solana collections in front of OpenSea's entire user base right as onchain collectibles activity was reaching record levels. The Solana assets now surfaced on OpenSea are minted through Metaplex standards.
Collectibles Summer Rolls On
The collectibles wave that drove Core's record summer kept running through August: Candy Digital continued bringing household IP like MLB onchain, Beezie's claw-machine collectibles stayed live, and Collector Crypt kept tokenizing graded cards at scale. The activity broadened across Metaplex standards, August's record 1.2M Bubblegum v2 mints came from the same physical-collectibles behavior and builders took notice of all the new IP now living onchain.
Korea: Onchain Korea Night
Korea engagement continued ahead of Korea Blockchain Week, the market's next major activation. On August 13th, Onchain Korea hosted a live community night featuring Metaplex, taking questions from the Korean community in real time - the latest touchpoint in a market where $MPLX now trades live on Upbit and Bithumb.
Ecosystem
August saw marketplaces expand to Solana, consumer platforms hit milestones, and builders ship new integrations, all leveraging Metaplex standards to bring assets onchain.
Rarible - Returned to Solana after a four-year hiatus with Claynosaurz as its first featured collection, choosing the standard where royalty enforcement is built in through Metaplex Core.
Collector Crypt - Officially crossed $1 billion in gross revenue tokenizing graded cards as Metaplex assets, one of the clearest consumer-scale proof points for tokenized collectibles on Solana.
Claynosaurz - Launched $HEEBOO through a Metaplex Genesis Launch Pool, drawing more than $1.2M in deposits from over 1,800 backers before graduating to open trading on Raydium.
Candy Digital - Continued bringing licensed IP like MLB onchain with Metaplex Core as Collectibles Summer carried into August.
Bulltoshi - Shipped live nested ownership using Metaplex Core's Asset Signer: every Bulltoshi is a Core asset with a built-in wallet that can hold SOL, tokens, or even other Bulltoshis.
Streamflow - Introduced NFT Locks built on Metaplex Core, locking a Core NFT to an unlock date and recipient with irreversible defaults and public onchain proof.
Blockworks - Began tracking Metaplex as "the leading Solana tokenization platform with over 1B+ digital assets created," with a public dashboard covering financials, $MPLX, issuance, and Genesis.
Solana Turbine - Took its latest builder cohort hands-on through the evolution of Solana NFTs - Token Metadata, pNFTs, cNFTs, and Metaplex Core - with students minting their first Core assets.
Onchain Korea - Hosted a live community night with Metaplex as Korean-market engagement builds toward Korea Blockchain Week.
Follow @metaplex on X for ongoing community updates. You can also subscribe to receive these monthly updates directly to your email here. To contribute to the Metaplex protocol, engage with us on GitHub or submit a Metaplex Improvement Proposal (MIP) at mip.metaplex.com.
Last, thanks to TopLedger for their data support on this month's round-up. They provide real-time monitoring of Metaplex activity and usage to the ecosystem. For additional Metaplex onchain metrics, please refer to the following link.
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