Metaplex January Round-Up 2026

January Highlights

• $MPLX Buyback - $239k of December's protocol revenue used to buy back 5.8M $MPLX for the DAO (0.6% of the total supply / 1% of outstanding supply).

• Protocol Revenue - Protocol revenue reached $608K (+27% MoM).

• Token Metadata - New fungible tokens created through Metaplex increased 31% MoM led by Bonkfun and BagsApp.

Protocol Activity

In January, Metaplex generated $608k in protocol revenue including $526k from Token Metadata (86%), and $72K from Core (12%). 

In January, 398K Token Metadata assets were created, including 374K fungible tokens (94%). 

New Core mints grew 26% MoM to 363K, the highest monthly total since August 2025.

In January, approximately 246K unique wallets signed transactions with Metaplex.

Metaplex Protocol

Genesis

The launch mechanisms supported by the Genesis SDK were expanded to include fixed price presales. Now anyone can launch their own Genesis presale, or integrate the reliable, audited and battle-tested protocol into launchpads and trading terminals. Alpha stage token launches remained paused to prepare for the next phase of Genesis and the rollout of the broader Metaplex platform starting in February.

Learn more at metaplex.com

Bonk & Bags

Bonk.fun saw a strong resurgence in January, reaching a peak of 8,987 daily tokens deployed. Bags similarly saw a rise in creation with a peak of 11,389 daily tokens deployed. Both Bonk and Bags use Metaplex’s Token Metadata to create new fungible tokens.

Bubblegum V2

In January, Bubblegum V2 nearly reached 4M cumulative mints. Bubblegum V2 is the latest iteration of the Metaplex Protocol program for creating and interacting with compressed NFTs (cNFTs) on Solana. Built for large-scale operations, Bubblegum V2 preserves all the benefits of the original Bubblegum while introducing powerful new features. Compressed NFTs make it possible to scale the creation of NFTs to new orders of magnitude by rethinking the way we store data onchain.

Guides & Documentation

The MPL Token Metadata Kit was deployed in January, a new SDK that allows developers to use the Token Metadata program natively with solana/kit, without relying on the Umi framework. For teams already building on Kit, this removes adapter overhead, simplifies dependencies, reduces bundle size, and enables seamless composability with other official Solana clients. For existing Umi users, it provides a clean migration path as stacks modernize toward Kit.

Metaplex DAO

Metaplex Protocol Revenue & $MPLX Buybacks

January’s buybacks reached 5.8M $MPLX as $239k of December's protocol revenue went towards buybacks for the DAO (0.6% of the total supply / 1% of outstanding supply). Each month, 50% of prior month’s protocol revenue is allocated to $MPLX buybacks for the DAO. 

January protocol fees reached $608k USD (4,597 SOL), 50% of these fees will be used to buy back $MPLX for the DAO throughout January.

With cumulative protocol revenue approaching $48 million (318,525 SOL) to-date, Metaplex continues to scale while the DAO remains a key driver of governance, development, and ecosystem growth.

Metaplex Rewards Campaign

In January, a Metaplex DAO proposal submitted by Torque went live, seeking $250k worth of $MPLX to run a three-month “Season 1” growth campaign for projects launching tokens with Metaplex. The full allocation would be distributed directly to users via Torque’s analytics-driven incentive engine, with Torque covering all operational overhead and returning any unclaimed MPLX to the DAO. The campaign is designed to aggregate liquidity, improve post-launch retention, and generate onchain market intelligence to inform future Metaplex product and rewards strategy.

Earn Season 4 Campaign Passed

In January, the proposal by Forgd successfully passed, proposing to roll over 1,000,000 $MPLX of unused Season 3 rewards to fund a 4-month continuation of MPLX liquidity and adoption initiatives. The proposal does not request any new tokens from the DAO treasury, and positions Season 4 as a more capital-efficient phase with moderated LP incentives as trading fees make up a larger share of yield. In addition to maintaining Kamino vault liquidity, Forgd plans to activate a dedicated MPLX lending market on Kamino Lend v2 (previously deferred), expanding MPLX utility as onchain collateral while continuing the shift of price discovery and order flow onchain.

Partnership Highlights

Hackathon with Play Solana - Play Solana announced the Onchain Assets & Programmable Gaming Infrastructure Track, presented by Metaplex, focused on building onchain game assets, creator tools, and composable gaming systems. Participants used Metaplex programs and SDKs to integrate marketplaces, NFTs, collections, metadata, royalties, identity, and in-game asset composability.

Mark and Sunny - In a recent podcast, hosts Mark and Sunny called out Metaplex as a core driver behind some of the strongest token launches that closed out last year. They specifically credited Genesis with enabling safer, higher-quality launches by solving common issues like sniping, poor mechanics, and bad operator risk. As Genesis opens to more teams this year, they expect a surge of credible projects, including experienced Web2 companies choosing Solana and launching the right way from day one.

Ecosystem

December saw continued growth across applications, creator platforms, and developer communities building with Metaplex. From AI-driven asset creation to large-scale commerce platforms launching on Solana, momentum continued across the broader ecosystem.

• Play Solana announced the Matrix Hackathon with an Onchain Assets Track powered by Metaplex.

• Fogo launched their token and Mainnet with asset creation powered by Metaplex via Token Metadata, Core, Candy Machine, and MPL404.

• Avinafun announced their upcoming integration of the Genesis SDK into the Avinafun ecosystem.

• Tapdotfun opened their waitlist for an anticipated NFT launchpad utilizing Metaplex standards.

• Sorare continued its migration to Solana minting and transferring almost 2M Bubblegum V2 assets to date.

• Bonk announced Classic Mode supported by Metaplex Token Metadata.

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.