Highlights

- 451K new fungible tokens created through Metaplex, the third highest month of all time 

- 10,000 SOL of Metaplex Protocol fees were used to purchase 4.7M $MPLX, which was contributed to the Metaplex DAO

- Metaplex announced it will deploy its product suite on Sonic SVM, marking the first time the Metaplex protocol has been extended beyond Solana mainnet

- Metaplex DAO received a proposal to establish a Grants Working Group to promote Core and MPL-404

- New Core integrations including Phantom

Protocol Activity

In July, creators and developers minted 16.5 million digital assets through Metaplex. 

There were 778k Token Metadata assets created this month, 61% of which were fungible tokens (up from 52% in June). 91% of all fungible tokens minted on Solana this month were created through Metaplex.

15.9 million compressed NFTs were minted this month along with 35k Core assets. Metaplex’s latest digital asset standard continues to find adoption in its fourth month since launch. 

530k unique wallets directly signed transactions with the protocol in July.

There were 22 million unique transactions signed this month.

In July, Metaplex was the fifth largest Solana protocol based on active wallets and the seventh largest protocol based on transactions.

As of July, the total number of Metaplex collectors reached 56 million unique wallets, an increase of 1.2 million wallets month-over-month.

Developer Platform

SonicSVM 

Metaplex announced it will deploy its product suite to Sonic SVM to power digital asset creation on the first gaming-focused Solana L2.Game developers on Sonic SVM will now be able to leverage the latest innovations that have made Metaplex the leading digital asset protocol on Solana.

In collaboration with Sonic, Metaplex will deploy on-chain programs and developer tools to streamline and enhance the development of innovative gaming experiences. This joint effort marks the first time the Metaplex protocol and product suite will be deployed in an ecosystem beyond the Solana mainnet.

Popular Metaplex programs such as Token Metadata, Candy Machine, Bubblegum, as well as new innovative standards like Core and MPL-404, will be available on the Sonic SVM devnet, testnet, and mainnet.

Core

July marked another milestone for the Core standard, which surpassed 175,000 digital assets minted, received numerous feature upgrades, and integrated with some exciting partners throughout the ecosystem.

Several guides on Core were published including one that helps developers to create robust staking programs for Core collections using only TypeScript. This approach eliminates the need for a smart contract to track staking time and manage staking/unstaking, making staking programs far more accessible to web2 developers. The second, a comprehensive guide on deserializing asset data stored in Core's single account model, is an essential guide for developers to access and manage asset data effectively.

The DAS SDK expanded support and now includes a Core SDK extension, simplifying the management of digital assets on Solana. This extension allows developers to fetch and manage information about assets, collections, owners, and more, with assets automatically parsed into Core types, removing the need for developers to hand-parse JSON.

One of our community developers, @Loste, shared insights on why he believes Core could be the new standard for tokenized assets and RWAs.

Phantom announced support for Core digital asset transfers through their wallet, and SuperSweep announced support for Core for their raffling platform, joining the expanding Core ecosystem.

MPL-404

July was an exciting month for MPL-404 as well. Mutant Labs announced that MPL-Hybrid was added to the Metaplex Program Library, marking an evolution from SPL-404 and demonstrating their commitment to growing and enhancing the MPL-404 framework.

The MPL-404 documentation went live on the Metaplex Developer Hub. This new framework for digital assets, games, and on-chain communities allows for seamless swapping between fungible and non-fungible assets, unlocking new functionalities.

Several projects have already launched using MPL-404, showcasing the practical applications of this framework. Notable projects include:

• Gogonauts: From the team behind Rove, Gogonauts introduces a multidimensional brand with a focus on loyalty rewards and brand growth within the Solana ecosystem, backed by their token $GOGO.
• Non Fried Chicken (NFC): Building a vibrant ecosystem with the $BAWK token, with plans to deploy a game and the first season of their SocialFi system on Solana.
• Hakoiri: Soul Labs has launched an open-world battle royale style game that allows users to swap between Hakoiri NFTs and $HACK, the native token that backs the games liquidity pool.

These projects exemplify the diverse and innovative potential of MPL-404, and we are excited to see more developers and creators leverage this framework.

Metaplex DAO

Metaplex Protocol Fees & $MPLX Token Purchases

In July, 10,000 SOL was used to purchase 4.7 million $MPLX that was contributed to the Metaplex DAO treasury. This included 50% of the Metaplex Protocol's June fees (4,368 SOL) plus a portion of historical fees (5,632 SOL). 

This marks the second $MPLX contribution to the Metaplex DAO. As previously announced, 50% of the Metaplex Protocol’s historical and monthly fees will be used to purchase $MPLX that is contributed to the Metaplex DAO with the goal of supporting decentralization and community governance.

In July, the Protocol generated 7,835 SOL in fees, totaling 121K SOL of cumulative Protocol fees generated.

Metaplex DAO Grant Proposal: DAO Grants Working Group

A proposal by DeanslistDAO was put forward that would establish a Metaplex DAO Grants Working Group focused on promoting the adoption of Metaplex Core and the MPL-404 hybrid DeFi standard. Dean’s List, an established Solana power user community, would manage these programs. The proposal requests 1.2 million $MPLX tokens in order to support the grants initiative. The Metaplex Foundation also committed an additional $150K USDC to the program should the proposal pass.

The working group will process, evaluate, and administer grants, foster Core and MPL-404 adoption, and create educational content to increase awareness within the DAO. They also plan to drive community engagement by organizing events and monthly ecosystem calls.

Voting is currently live and will end on August 10th.

New MIP: “Public cNFT Fixed Cost Trees”

A new Metaplex Improvement Proposal (MIP) that aims to simplify the cNFT development process, opened up for discussion. The proposal suggests using pre-existing tree structures within the Bubblegum program that charge a fixed rent cost per mint. Once a tree is filled, the fixed SOL charged per mint will be used to create new publicly accessible trees.

Currently, developers must create and fund their own trees upfront, increasing the initial workload and costs. This MIP aims to streamline the cNFT experience by reducing upfront rent costs and simplifying the process.

Community 

Solana Speedrun 3

MagicBlock announced the winners of the Speedrun hackathon, with Echoes of Eldoria, a turn-based multiplayer game, taking 1st place. Rexagotchi was crowned champion of the Metaplex Track, a game that implemented Core.

There were three main track winners and an additional 10 winners divided among the other seven tracks, making a total of 13 winners.

In the Metaplex Track, game developers focused on integrating the Core standard into their game infrastructure. Rexagotchi emerged as the top choice, followed by Echoes of Eldoria and Manic Entanglement, in second and third place, respectively. 

The Metaplex team assisted in the live events hosted by SuperteamDE, in Munich and Berlin, to help hackathon participants navigate the competition with workshops and talks about Core, digital assets and more. In addition, the Metaplex team hosted an online workshop to show how to create an idle game from scratch using Core.

Congratulations to all the winners and participants and a huge thanks to the organizers, judges and partners who helped make this event a success. 

London Hacker House

Solana Summer rolled on to the Solana Hacker House London over July 5th-6th. Over 600 people attended two days of talks, panels, and workshops with industry leaders from the Solana ecosystem. This event focused on real-world assets (RWA), payments, and gaming.

The Metaplex team visited the event, engaging with developers and attendees, showcasing the latest in digital assets, and meeting with teams such as Superteam, Bonk, MonkeDAO, exchangeArt, Solflare and Solana Foundation.

Superteam Germany Creator & Developers Guilds

Metaplex participated in the Developer Guilds and Creators Guild hosted by Superteam Germany, sharing insights on building within the Solana ecosystem.

The Developers Guild session hosted a workshop that demonstrated how to create digital assets using Core, highlighting the ease and efficiency of on-chain publishing with this standard. The Creators Guild hosted a panel about writing, publishing, and storytelling on Solana, with the participation of members from Superteam Nigeria, dReader and Metaplex.

Talent Olympics

Metaplex was part of the Talent Olympics, a competition organized by Superteam with support from teams across the ecosystem. The event, held from July 11-14th, featured over 250 submissions, a $20K prize pool, and participation from 45+ hiring partners.

Developers completed challenges to earn points, with the top performers receiving prizes and job interviews. Participants competed in front-end and Rust challenges, showcasing their skills and proof of work. Nigeria, India, and Turkey led in submissions, highlighting the global reach of the event.

Application Ecosystem

July showcased continued innovation within the ecosystem of application developers on Solana. New product development, use case testing, and feature integrations highlighted an inspiring month for the dApp community. 

• XP, a new NFT ticketing platform that uses Metaplex NFTs, was introduced by Solana.
• ReQuest and Itheum, two NFT focused projects, claimed the podium on the Solana Summit Hackathon. ReQuest is an on-chain ticketing marketplace, while Itheum is a platform that brings AI data on-chain using NFTs.
• SNS has rebranded from Bonfida, aiming to be the premier blockchain naming service on Solana, committed to enhancing web3 identities with .sol domains, which are represented using NFTs. 
• Triton One has successfully completed the initial phase of the Old Faithful project, ensuring Solana's ledger history is widely available and verified.
• SkyTrade Network joined the The Empire podcast to discuss their innovative marketplace for tokenized air rights, which uses Metaplex cNFTs. The team addressed the advantages of using the blockchain to create new asset classes that revolutionize the trading of real world assets (RWAs).
• Photo Finish, powered by Metaplex, announced the start of season 18 with new improvements, updates, and other changes.
• BuildWithMonkeDAO released their recommendations for grant applicants. Metaplex is a partner to the BWMD program and, with Solana Foundation, has contributed to the grant pool with $MPLX for grantees.
• Truffle announced joining the NFT.Storage community, aiming to lower the barrier to entry for artists and creators.
• THE CONNECT3D announced a partnership with Mutant Labs to integrate MPL-404 to their SAAS service suite. 
• Candy Machine Blinks, a submission for Blinks Buildstation by Sen, allows users to mint digital assets through Candy Machine directly using the new Blinks.

Creator Ecosystem 

Creators across the ecosystem continue to innovate, building on-chain communities and attracting audiences through digital assets. Here are some notable highlights from July:

• Torque, a Metaplex Startup Program participant, partnered with MonkeDAO on their first Blinks Gen3 giveaway showcasing Torques middleware called Boosted Blinks allowing the addition of targeting and additional rewarding structures.
• Josip Volarevic, the founder of dReader, was interviewed by one of Metaplex’s community developers, where they talked about the use of Metaplex Core to transform on-chain storytelling, allowing creators to monetize their comics.
• Bread Heads, the NFT card game, announced that they will begin the migration process to Core.
• Web Weavers, the collection by the DEX Spiderswap, and Baby Monke, a collection designed to celebrate heroes on Solana, announced they would be powered by Core.
• Saga Monkes introduced the Tattoo Cabal, a subgroup of the Saga Monke community, that utilizes infrastructure powered by Core to provide tokenized experiences and memberships.
• Aurory announced Chapter 10, the rogue-lite adventure called “Seekers of Tokane” featuring new gameplay, items and other in-game novelties.
• Famous Fox Federation, CyberFrogs and Marms, partnered with Greed Academy to support educational initiatives in the Solana ecosystem.

Follow @metaplex on X for ongoing community updates. You can also subscribe to receive these monthly updates directly to your email here. Developers should follow and turn on notifications for @metaplexstatus for the latest updates. To contribute to the Metaplex protocol, engage with us on GitHub or submit a Metaplex Improvement Proposal (MIP) at mip.metaplex.com.

Lastly, thank you 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 on-chain metrics, please refer to the following link.