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[Monthly Round Up]

Metaplex May Round-Up 2025

June 17th, 2025

May Highlights

  • Fungible Tokens - Fungible token creation surpassed 1.2M, up 12% from April and the sixth time it's crossed 1M since the protocol’s inception. 

  • Bubblegum V2 - The next generation of compressed NFTs went live in May, unlocking new functionality tailored towards enterprise use cases.

  • Protocol Fees - Protocol fees reached $2.2M (~13.5K SOL) in May, up 40% month-over-month.

  • $MPLX Buyback - ~$1M (6K SOL) of Metaplex protocol fees were used to buy back 4.4M $MPLX (~0.4% of total supply) for the Metaplex DAO.

  • Resize Initiative - [MTP-004] was approved by the Metaplex DAO, extending the ability for NFT holders to claim excess SOL while also allocating SOL for SOL-MPLX liquidity.

Protocol Activity

In May, 1.3M Token Metadata assets were created. Of these, 1.2m or 93% were fungible tokens, driven by apps like Pump.Fun, Launchcoin/Believe, Raydium Launchlabs, Bonk, Boop, and others.  Cumulatively, over 16m fungible tokens have been minted using Token Metadata.

Core adoption continued to grow in May, surpassing 2.7M total mints, with over 180,000 new assets created during the month. As part of its new Solana edition, Ledger Flex now issues a soul-bound Core NFT with every device

In May, creators minted over 13M digital assets through Metaplex, which represents an 85% increase month over month, including nearly 12M compressed NFTs.

Metaplex continued to see strong engagement in May, with 518K unique wallets signing transactions. In total, over 11M unique wallets have signed transactions since launch.Metaplex was the 6th largest Solana protocol based on active wallets and the 8th largest protocol based on active wallets.404K new wallets collected a Token Metadata asset and 2.7M new wallets collected a Bubblegum NFT, which represents a 79% MoM increase in total new collectors.

Developer Platform

Bubblegum V2

The next generation of compressed NFTs launched in May, marking the most significant upgrade to compressed NFTs since their inception. Used to mint over 1 billion assets to date, Bubblegum now introduces v2: a scalable, enterprise-ready upgrade designed to meet the needs of gaming, AI, RWAs, collectibles, and more.

New capabilities include:

  • Permissioned plugin: Define who can transfer, burn, freeze, or soulbind an asset

  • Royalties plugin: Enforce creator royalties onchain, automatically

  • Onchain attributes: Enable collection evolution and real-time updates, fully trustless

Bubblegum v2 is already integrated by early adopters like dVIN, getting ready to mint 150K+ wine provenance NFTs; Crossmint, powering loyalty and product passports; Matrica, enhancing token-gated tools and SDKs, and SendAI/SendArcade, exploring AI and gaming experiences. Solana Labs also joined the initial launch cohort.

At launch, Bubblegum v2 is supported by a launch partners including Triton, Solflare, Phantom, QuickNode, Magic Eden, Tensor, Sonic, and more, ensuring assets are instantly usable across the Solana ecosystem.

The upgrade is fully available through Metaplex SDKs and tools. Read the full blog post on the launch.

Token Metadata

1.3M assets were created through Token Metadata in May, including 1.2M fungible tokens, reinforcing Metaplex’s position as the go-to standard for fungible token launches on Solana.

The Token Metadata Resize initiative also remained active, with over 3.3m NFTs optimized and over 7,800 SOL claimed by users.

Metaplex Treasury Initiative MTP-004 “Extended Claim Period with SOL-MPLX Liquidity Provisioning” by yamalyama was approved by the Metaplex DAO. This proposal results in an extended 18-month window for eligible NFT holders to continue claiming excess SOL created by the resize initiative.

The resize initiative was one of the final upgrades to Token Metadata (TM) before handing the upgrade authority to security firms who are doing final audits ahead of immutability. 

Anybody with a TM NFT can continue to resize their eligible NFTs’ accounts and claim excess SOL until the newly approved MTP-004 claim mechanics are ready to be implemented. The new mechanics will generally work as follows:

A snapshot will be taken of every TM account yet to be resized followed by an automatic resizing, which helps optimize Solana by removing unneeded state. This will begin an extended 18-month window whereby any eligible NFT holder who had not resized their NFT’s accounts can claim the full amount of excess SOL created by the resize optimization.

The unclaimed funds will be divided into two pools:

  • 10% (~5.2K SOL) will go to a Claim Pool that is automatically topped up so that NFT holders can claim the full amount as if they had done the resize directly.

  • 90% (~46.8K SOL) will be designated for adding to SOL-MPLX liquidity while also available to top up the Claim Pool as needed.

After 18 months, the DAO can vote on what to do with any unclaimed funds. 

Metaplex Protocol Fees & $MPLX Buybacks

~$1M (6,030 SOL) was used to buy back 4.4 million $MPLX (0.4% of total supply) for the Metaplex DAO. Each month, 50% of the prior month’s protocol fees are allocated to buying back $MPLX for the Metaplex DAO.

May’s protocol fees totaled $2.2M (13,480 SOL), driven by continued asset creation across Solana and the SVM. Half of this, 6,740 SOL, will be used for MPLX buybacks in June. With cumulative protocol fees now exceeding $34M (245,000 SOL), Metaplex continues to demonstrate its scale as core infrastructure for the onchain economy. The Metaplex DAO remains a central force for governance, protocol development, and long-term ecosystem growth.Metaplex Earn Campaign

May continued the momentum of Season 2 of the Metaplex Earn campaign, spanning weeks 6 through 9 of the 12-week program. The campaign, developed with Forgd, Kamino, Orca, and Jito, aims to deepen $MPLX liquidity and expand DeFi utility.

The big update in May: a new MPLX-USDC vault was launched in Week 7, providing LPs with a direct MPLX-stable pair. It has since distributed weekly rewards of up to 10,000 $MPLX and 150 $ORCA. Meanwhile, the flagship MPLX-jitoSOL vault continued with rewards of up to 85,000 $MPLX, 650 $JTO, and 200 $ORCA.

TVL in the jitoSOL vault neared the $7M cap as participation remained strong. The campaign enters its final stretch in June, with updates to the program teased for the upcoming weeks.

MTP-004: Extended Claim Period with SOL-MPLX Liquidity Provisioning

As previously mentioned, the Metaplex DAO voted to approve MTP-004, which includes extending the claim period for the excess SOL resulting from the resize initiative by 18 months, while also provisioning SOL for SOL-MPLX liquidity. 

The unclaimed funds will be divided into two pools:

  • 10% (~5.2K SOL) will go to a Claim Pool that is automatically topped up so that NFT holders can claim the full amount as if they had done the resize directly.

  • 90% (~46.8K SOL) will be designated for adding to SOL-MPLX liquidity while also available to top up the Claim Pool as needed.

Please refer to the Developer Platform section above for more information.

Metaplex DAO Grants

Cohort 1 of the Metaplex DAO Grants Program, managed by the Metaplex DAO Grants Working Group including members from IslandDAO, officially wrapped at the end of May. Designed to support public goods and protocol adoption across Metaplex Core and MPL-404, the program distributed approximately $160,000 in funding (100K USDC + 1M MPLX) to 12 grantees out of 76 total applicants.

The focus was on open-source contributions and infrastructure-level innovation, with teams like Verxio, Publique, Faenora, Silicons, Nomadz, RubiansVR, and WeRate selected as grantees.

Applications for Cohort 2 are now open. Learn more at metaplexdaogrants.replit.app.

Partnership Highlights

Trump Dinner Leaderboard Powered by Metaplex

Following April’s leaderboard campaign, the $TRUMP Gala Dinner took place in May, with attendees from across the ecosystem, including the Metaplex team.

To commemorate the event, the $TRUMP team airdropped three historical NFTs to participants, with leaderboard and distribution eligibility logic powered entirely onchain by Metaplex.

This marked a full-cycle execution of a verifiable loyalty program, from campaign logic to physical experience to collectible reward, entirely on Solana and powered by Metaplex.

Token Launches

Play Solana and Shaga announced at Accelerate that they would be partnering with Metaplex to power their upcoming token launches as early adopters of Metaplex’s soon-to-be-released TGE toolsuite. More details coming soon.

Metaplex Expands to FOGO

Metaplex officially launched on FOGO, bringing its full suite of token programs and tools, including Token Metadata, Core, Bubblegum, Candy Machine, and DAS, to both FOGO testnet and mainnet.

Running on Firedancer-powered infrastructure, FOGO offers ultra-low latency, high throughput, and full SVM compatibility, making it ideal for scaling consumer, gaming, and social apps. Builders now have access to the same Metaplex dev tools, optimized for a high-performance L1.

Community

Messari Report: State of Metaplex Q1 2025

Messari published its State of Metaplex Q1 2025 report, outlining key metrics and trends across the protocol. Metaplex generated $8.3 million in protocol fees during the quarter, with 22 million $MPLX repurchased, representing approximately 2.2% of the total token supply. Fungible token creation via Token Metadata continued to dominate, with 3.9 million mints, more than 2.6 times the combined output of Ethereum and its L2s. The Token Metadata optimization initiative saw over 3 million NFTs resized, releasing more than 7,000 SOL and improving onchain efficiency. By the end of Q1, Metaplex had surpassed 1 billion cumulative transactions, with approximately 2.8 million daily unique signer instances recorded over the quarter. Read the full report here.

Colosseum Breakout Hackathon

Metaplex sponsored Breakout Hackathon’s Gaming Track hosted by Colosseum officially concluded in May. Submissions are now live in the public Colosseum project directory, where anyone can browse and vote for their favorites. Final results will be announced in June following a four-week review process.

To support the hackathon globally, the Metaplex team collaborated with local Superteam communities to reach builders across multiple regions. Scharko, Metaplex BD, kicked off the second week of Buildstation Belgrade with Superteam Balkan, presenting Metaplex’s vision for onchain gaming. Tony Boyle, Metaplex DevRel, led a live session at Solana Startup Village Toronto by Superteam Canada, walking builders through Core assets and minting logic. Metaplex also supported a two-day Demo Day in Barcelona and Malaga hosted by La Familia, where Spanish builders presented their Breakout submissions and connected with the ecosystem.

Metaplex at Solana Accelerate NYC

The Metaplex team was on the ground throughout Solana Accelerate, engaging with founders, developers, and investors across multiple events. 

The week kicked off with Solana Consumer Day, hosted by Yash and supported by top Solana teams, including Metaplex, where Clay Helms, Metaplex Foundation BD, spoke on stage, discussing new consumer products and the next evolution of onchain experiences. Clay also joined the “Cheat Codes for Web3 Gaming” panel at Solana SPEED, hosted by OFFLINE and sponsored by Arcium and Pinata, alongside Shaga and indie.fun.

Metaplex sponsored SHIFT NYC, an invite-only event hosted by Sonic at a classic sports car showroom, designed to connect high-conviction founders and institutions. At the event, Stephen Hess also hosted a fireside chat titled “Shift in TGEs”, alongside Daeshawn Ballard, Kinsa Durst, and Vitor Sousa, to discuss how token generation events are evolving across the ecosystem.

The team also attended Ship or Die and Scale or Die, the two flagship summits that formed the core of Solana Accelerate, connecting with the broader ecosystem, discussing infrastructure needs, and supporting projects building on Metaplex.

Solana Contentathon

The Solana Contentathon concluded in May with over 1,600 total submissions across 17 tracks. The Contentathon had a total prize pool of $43K+ and was supported by leading ecosystem protocols like Kamino Finance, Renzo, SolBlaze, Access Protocol, Exchange.art and more. The Metaplex track saw 137 entries, one of the highest, tasking creators with producing educational content on Metaplex tools and use cases.

Following review, the five winners of the Metaplex track with its 52K $MPLX prize pool were announced:

  1. @RalAndrewTalks for a longform article on Metaplex and the creator economy

  2. @svalinajj for a high-impact video introduction to Metaplex

  3. @_9figures for a practical, project-based explainer

  4. @defisensei7: for a mini-documentary

  5. @eternal_sammie: for a thread on Metaplex and the future of digital assets

GREED Academy: Semester 2

GREED Academy Semester 2 began in May, with Metaplex as platinum sponsor contributing 100,000 MPLX to a total prize pool of over $120,000.

Lesson 2 focused on digital assets, covering token standards, asset utility, and how to mint a soulbound Core NFT using Metaplex’s UI. Students explored how standards like SPL, Token Metadata, and Core shape onchain ownership.

The lock-in window to earn rewards closed at the end of May, but all lessons remain open and free to explore at greed.academy.

Application Ecosystem

May brought fresh momentum across Solana’s application layer, with notable updates powered by or integrating Metaplex infrastructure.

  • Solana AppKit launched with native support for Metaplex protocols, streamlining mobile app development with token and NFT modules included out of the box.

  • ChainGPT went live on Solana, marking a new phase for AI x tokenization using Metaplex infrastructure.

  • Ledger - Announced their new Solana edition, Ledger Flex, issues a soul-bound Core NFT with every device, giving buyers verifiable ownership and gated perks.

  • PlaySolana spotlighted Metaplex as part of its onchain stack for gaming and DeFi, pushing mobile-first onboarding through its custom PSG1 hardware.

  • Circus launched as the evolution of Jestr, introducing a more robust, social-native token launch protocol powered by Token Metadata and integrated with Meteora, Farcaster, and Tapestry.

  • Mallow introduced an airdrop tool for Core and legacy Metaplex editions, allowing creators to distribute assets with one click.

  • Nomadz completed Milestone 1 of its Metaplex DAO grant, with onchain gamification logic and 500+ Nomad IDs minted using Core.

  • Poof launched its open beta, letting anyone spin up Solana apps using simple prompts, bringing AI-native UX to blockchain development.

  • Hivemapper announced Lyft as a customer of Bee Maps, expanding real-world mapping adoption via decentralized infrastructure.

  • BR1: INFINITE officially launched on the Epic Games store, reinforcing Solana-native IP as a force in mainstream gaming.

Creator Ecosystem 

May saw continued growth in Solana’s creator economy, with new campaigns, collections, and tools powered by Metaplex infrastructure:

  • Play Solana announced <Player2>, their second NFT collection expanding the PSG1 ecosystem and onboarding more users into Solana gaming.

  • Mallow May launched in partnership with Metaplex, spotlighting indie artists through a zero-fee edition campaign with SYOP pricing and a surprise collector reward.

  • Portals became the second-largest Solana collection by market cap and the largest gaming collection, with its Core-powered ecosystem of browser-based, user-generated games.

  • Moonwalk Fitness teamed up with Brave, Metaplex, and BONK for a charity-driven fitness challenge, raising over $24K for animal causes.

  • Distribute rolled out VIP NFTs granting holders 10% extra rewards across its token distribution platform.

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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