Metaplex March Round-Up 2025

March Highlights

• Fungible Tokens - Nearly 900k fungible tokens were minted bringing the cumulative total to over 14 million tokens created to date.

• Binance Wallet - Binance Wallet announced support for $MPLX, enabling direct trading and swaps, accompanied by a launch campaign.

• Metaplex Earn Season 1 (Forgd) -The eight-week liquidity campaign concluded in March and successfully boosted $MPLX on-chain liquidity, achieving ~$4M TVL in the MPLX-JitoSOL Orca pool, and $47k in maker fees for retail LPs.

• Protocol Fees - Protocol fees surpassed $1.4m in March, despite the market volatility and reduction in Solana onchain activity.

• $MPLX Buyback - 6,825 SOL of Metaplex protocol fees were used to buy back 4.8m of $MPLX (~.5% of total supply) for the Metaplex DAO.

Protocol Activity

In March, 983k Token Metadata assets were created. Of these, 897k or 91% were fungible tokens. Cumulatively, over 14 million fungible tokens have been minted using Token Metadata.Core adoption continued in March, surpassing 2 million total mints to date. Over 161k Core assets were created, reflecting steady momentum for Metaplex’s most advanced NFT standard.Creators and developers minted nearly 10 million digital assets through Metaplex, including 8.8 million compressed NFTs.

Metaplex continues to see strong engagement, with 518k unique wallets signing transactions in March. The month also marked another milestone for unique wallets, with over 10 million unique wallets having signed transactions since inception.Metaplex was the 7th largest Solana protocol based on transaction quantity and the sixth largest protocol based on active wallets.The total number of Metaplex collectors has now surpassed 110 million unique wallets. Of which, 354k new wallets collected a Token Metadata asset and 2.4 million new wallets collected a Bubblegum NFT in the last month.

Developer Platform

Core

Metaplex celebrated one year of Core, marking a significant milestone since the standard first introduced advanced customization and powerful digital asset management to Solana and the SVM. Over 2.3 million Core assets have been minted to date, highlighting continued adoption by developers, businesses, and creators across a broad range of verticals, including autonomous Agents, Real-World Assets (RWAs), gaming assets, on-chain communities, and beyond.

Token Metadata

Nearly 1 million new tokens were created using the Token Metadata standard, bringing the cumulative total to over 14 million since inception.

Having powered millions of token launches at the digital asset standard level, Metaplex is investing in additional tooling and onchain programs to service all requirements associated with launching tokens on Solana. This toolsuite aims to empower devs who launch tokens with greater flexibility and control, and to promote more transparency and accessibility around TGEs for the entire ecosystem. If you're planning or evaluating a TGE on Solana please reach out to [email protected] 

The Token Metadata optimization initiative continued making progress, with the accounts of 2.9 million NFTs optimized in total so far, reducing Solana's network load by nearly 1GB, and distributing over 6700 SOL in excess SOL to users.

Holders have until April 25th to resize the Token Metadata accounts for their NFTs at resize.metaplex.com and reclaim excess SOL (0.0023 SOL per Master Edition, 0.0019 SOL per Edition). After this deadline, remaining unclaimed SOL will be contributed to the Metaplex DAO.

For more information, see the official Resize FAQ.

Aura

The new Aura public gateway launched in March, introducing a permissionless UI for RPC requests and DAS queries across Solana and the SVM that enhances accessibility for developers across the ecosystem.

Documentation, Guides & Articles

Metaplex also published new developer-focused guides:“How to build a Token Claimer using Anchor and Merkle Tree”, which goes over how to provide an efficient, low-cost, and fully controlled method for creating airdrops without third-party dependencies. And “How to Automate NFT Aidrops  to Another Wallet” explaining how to mint NFTs from a Candy Machine to different wallet addresses using either Sugar CLI or TypeScript, making giveaways and community distributions easy and scalable.

Metaplex DAO

Metaplex Protocol Fees & $MPLX Buybacks

6,825 SOL (~$890k) was used to buy back 4.8 million $MPLX (0.5% 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. March’s protocol fees totaled 10,050 SOL (~$1.4MM), driven by asset creation across Solana and the SVM.

With cumulative protocol fees surpassing 215,000 SOL, Metaplex continues to power tokenization at scale, reinforcing its role as core infrastructure for the onchain economy. The Metaplex DAO remains a key force in governance, protocol development, and ecosystem expansion.Metaplex Earn Campaign

March marked the conclusion of Metaplex Earn Season 1, an eight-week liquidity incentive campaign developed in partnership with Forgd, Kamino, Orca, and Jito. The campaign closed strong, and distributed a total of 1M $MPLX, 5K $JTO, and 2K $ORCA in additional rewards.

The campaign successfully deepened $MPLX's onchain liquidity, significantly increasing the token's presence on DEXs. Highlights include:

• DEX liquidity-to-market-cap ratio grew from 1% to 3.42%. Nearly a 4x increase.

• MPLX-JitoSOL Orca pool TVL reached nearly $4M, becoming the leading source of $MPLX liquidity. Bringing the total TVL onchain of $MPLX to nearly $8M.

• Retail liquidity providers earned $47k in maker fees, alongside token rewards.

Building on this momentum, Forgd proposed Metaplex Earn Season 2, which was approved by the Metaplex DAO on March 28th. Season 2 allocates 2 million $MPLX for a three-month campaign, which kicked-off in the first week of April, with dynamic and sustainable incentives, aiming to maintain deep liquidity, expand utility in DeFi, and transition $MPLX liquidity toward organic growth.

Metaplex DAO Grants

The Metaplex DAO awarded a grant to weRate, supporting their integration of Core to build a transparent, blockchain-driven review economy. By using Core, weRate aims to transform how reviews create value, promoting verified user experiences that benefit consumers and businesses alike.

Partnership Highlights

Pump.Swap Launch

Pump.fun launched their new product PumpSwap, a new AMM offering instant migrations, enhanced liquidity, and creator revenue sharing. Metaplex supported the launch as a strategic partner to help accelerate PumpSwap’s early momentum.This marks the next phase in a growing partnership between two of Solana’s most used platforms, which began with millions of memecoins created on Pump.fun’s launchpad using Metaplex Token Metadata.

Metaplex supported the launch as a strategic partner to help accelerate PumpSwap’s early momentum.

Binance Wallet 

Binance Wallet officially announced support for $MPLX, making it possible for users to directly trade, swap, and manage their tokens seamlessly within the Binance Wallet interface. To celebrate this integration, Binance Wallet launched an exclusive promotional campaign aimed at increasing awareness and adoption of $MPLX among both new and existing users. This integration marks an important milestone for the $MPLX community, significantly improving accessibility and liquidity for token holders.

Momentum with Drift

Metaplex announced its partnership with Drift Protocol on Momentum, a five-week growth-stage accelerator aimed at scaling DeFi on Solana. Starting mid-April and concluding at Solana’s Accelerate in NYC, Momentum will support 5 to 7 DeFi projects (post-product, pre-Series A), providing resources to refine products, raise capital, and address growth bottlenecks.

Community

Messari Report

Messari released the State of Metaplex Q4 2024 report, highlighting record-breaking adoption, surging mint volumes, and protocol optimizations. Notable metrics include 10M+ fungible tokens minted, Core NFT mints rising 244%, and Bubblegum cNFT mints up 350% QoQ. A record 34,000 SOL (+13% QoQ) generated from protocol fees was spent buying back a record 18.4 million MPLX (+40% QoQ). The Aura network hit 150M+ read requests with near-perfect reliability, while ecosystem integrations continued expanding across marketplaces, wallets, DePIN projects, AI platforms, and SVM L2 networks.

Solana Contentathon

Metaplex sponsored a track in the Superteam Contentathon, a content creation initiative organized by Solana Collective, that promotes Solana ecosystem projects. The event featured over $43,000 in prizes, allowing participants to showcase their creativity through writing, infographics, videos, and other engaging formats, with the participation of other protocols in the ecosystem like Kamino Finance, Renzo, SolBlaze, Access Protocol, Exchange.art and more.

Metaplex sponsored a bounty with a total prize pool of 52k MPLX for participants to create educational content about Metaplex, uses cases, communities, and more. Contentathon is ongoing and submissions will conclude April 24th.

Solana Global Creator Competition

Metaplex was an official track sponsor for the Solana Global Creator Competition, supporting content creators, designers, and animators building onchain. With $115K in prizes, the event brought together a global community to showcase AI-powered storytelling, 3D design, and digital branding. The competition ended on March 14th and submissions are under review at the time. Some of the highlighted submissions include the ones of @0xcryptooracle, @blessedokerekee, @MsQinggg or @svalinajj.

Matsumoto Winter Arc Japan

Metaplex sponsored Matsumoto Winter Arc hosted by Superteam Japan. The month-long event featured presentations and networking, highlighting Japan's growing Solana ecosystem. Tony Boyle, Metaplex DevRel, represented the Foundation, emphasizing the protocol’s role in Japan’s emerging digital asset economy.

El Encuentro Madrid

Metaplex joined La Familia at El Encuentro, Spain's largest Solana-focused event. The gathering brought together developers, creators, and community leaders, with Metaplex showcasing innovations in infrastructure and connecting with the local ecosystem.

Next Blockchain Expo Warsaw

Scharko represented Metaplex at the Next Blockchain Expo in Warsaw, delivering a talk on Solana’s history and Metaplex’s key role during pivotal moments in blockchain development.

Stephen Hess on the Record

Metaplex Foundation director, Stephen Hess, was interviewed by Mango, sharing insights on Metaplex’s journey, vision, and the evolving landscape of tokenized assets on Solana.

He was also featured on the Block by Block podcast, discussing Solana’s early days and the meaning behind “glass chewing,” sharing personal insights and stories from Solana Labs and Metaplex’s formative periods.

Lastly, he also joined MonkeDAO for their inaugural Monke Talks podcast, diving deep into Metaplex’s evolution and future direction.

Superteam Balkan Anniversary

Metaplex’s BD Scharko joined Superteam Balkan’s 1st Anniversary, emphasizing the critical role of Superteams globally in driving Solana adoption. The anniversary highlighted regional growth.

Twitter Spaces Highlights: Cryptoape Show & Kyzzen NFT Roundtable

Clay, Head of BD and Partnerships, participated in several community-focused discussions on Twitter Spaces this month. He joined Cryptoape’s Everything Crypto Show, discussing current ecosystem trends, and later contributed to Kyzzen’s NFT Roundtable, sharing insights on Metaplex’s role in the ecosystem, new products and the future of digital assets on Solana.

Superteam Community Highlights

Metaplex actively engaged with Superteams globally this month. In Nigeria, @dev_tochukwu hosted a presentation on Metaplex Core and the protocol library at the Startup Village. Meanwhile, Superteam Malaysia featured @ChiiYuen leading a workshop exploring Metaplex Core and Token Metadata, supporting the expansion of Metaplex standards within local developer communities.

Application Ecosystem

March saw continued expansion across Solana and Metaplex’s application ecosystem, with new projects launching and major platforms integrating Metaplex’s digital asset standards.

• Dynamic highlighted their integration with Metaplex Aura, powering logins and authentication for scalable, real-time data availability and state compression.

• Remora Markets  is bringing tokenized securities to Solana using the Token Metadata standard and has opened onboarding for entities to complete KYB, allowing them to become part of the first wave of users minting Remora assets.

• Shaga, the DePIN gaming project from the inaugural Metaplex Startup Program cohort, made its global premiere, showcasing ultra-low latency gaming accessible instantly and globally.

• Portals launched Chrono Rush, a gamified token launch and onchain space battle idle game. Introducing $CHRONO which is distributed through idle gameplay, and a portion of the supply airdropped to select NFT holders across Solana.

• Dripster launched its platform and genesis token, $ACCELERATE, utilizing a novel model for token-based capital formation and RWA-linked products. Dripster leverages Core, Candy Machine, and Token Metadata programs to mint NFTs and fungible tokens that represent physical goods—allowing holders to claim real items without burning their tokens.

• Rubians, a Metaplex DAO Grant recipient, released the new Solana Godot SDK 1.3, now featuring complete support for Core assets, advancing the web3 gaming development community.

• DAG.GG teased its vision for reimagining GameFi. Instead of launching another token, DAG aims to decentralize game development itself, rewarding developers, exciting traders, and entertaining players.

• Titan launched the private beta of its Meta DEX Aggregator, becoming Solana’s first aggregator of aggregators. Titan routes trades through platforms like Jupiter’s Metis and its own algorithm, Talos.

Creator Ecosystem 

March also saw renewed momentum across Solana’s NFT ecosystem, with top collections seeing surging trading activity and new projects launching with Metaplex-powered assets.

• BONK entered into the art world by acquiring Exchange Art, pledging to support artists and maintain a creator-first marketplace with a new dedicated team and roadmap.

• Defi Dungeons launched their mint ahead of their April 2 game release, leveraging Metaplex Core assets. Built by Longwood Labs (creators of The Heist and Remnants), this idle-MMORPG merges onchain DeFi with classic RPG mechanics.

• Publique continued its 1/1 character auctions, minting and selling characters 006 through 009. As a member of the first Metaplex Startup Program cohort, Publique is building a story-driven digital universe using Core.

• BR1INFINITE celebrated the one-year anniversary of its Loot Box Collection—one of the earliest use cases of Metaplex Core in gaming.

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.