Metaplex April Round-Up 2025

April Highlights

• Fungible Tokens - Fungible token creation surpassed 1.1m, up 22.7% from March and the fifth time it's crossed 1m since the protocol’s inception. 

• Token Launchpads - New launchpads like Believe/Launchcoin, BonkLive, Boop.fun, Raydium Launch Lab, Meteora Mint, and Moonit are leveraging Metaplex’s Token Metadata, reinforcing it as the go-to standard for fungible token creation on Solana.

• Presidential Dinner - Metaplex powered the $TRUMP memecoin leaderboard for an exclusive dinner with President Trump.

• Protocol Fees - Protocol fees reached $1.6m in April, up 14% month-over-month from March.

• $MPLX Buyback - 5,024 SOL of Metaplex protocol fees were used to buy back 3.5m of $MPLX (~0.4% of total supply) for the Metaplex DAO.

• Metaplex Transaction Value -Total Metaplex transaction value surpassed 100m SOL or over $10B since inception.

Protocol Activity

In April,1.2m Token Metadata assets were created. Of these, 1.1m or 94% were fungible tokens. Cumulatively, over 15 million fungible tokens have been minted using Token Metadata.

Core adoption continued in April, surpassing 2.5 million total mints to date. Over 238k Core assets were created, up 48% MoM, reflecting continued momentum for Metaplex’s most advanced NFT standard.

In April, creators and developers minted over 7 million digital assets through Metaplex, including 5.7 million compressed NFTs. Cumulatively, nearly 900 million assets have been created through Metaplex.

Metaplex continued to see strong engagement, with 554k unique wallets signing transactions in April, up 7% MoM. Bringing the total to over 10 million unique wallets having signed transactions since launch.

Metaplex was the 6th largest Solana protocol based on active wallets and the 8th largest protocol based on active wallets.

379k new wallets collected a Token Metadata asset and 1.3 million new wallets collected a Bubblegum NFT in the month of April.

Developer Platform

Metaplex-powered transactions surpassed $10B in total spend, as adoption of its token standards and developer tools continued to grow across Solana and the SVM.

Token Metadata

Momentum continued around the Token Metadata standard in April, with several new token launch platforms across Solana, such as Believe’s LaunchCoin, Raydium’s LaunchLab, BonkLive, boop.fun, MetaDAO, Moonit, and dev.fun, all using the Token Metadata program to power fungible token creation at scale.

The Token Metadata Resize initiative remains active, with over 3.3 million NFTs optimized to date, freeing up network storage and sending more than 7,700 excess SOL to those who participated in the program.

Three Metaplex Treasury Initiatives were submitted to the DAO regarding how to handle the remaining excess SOL (~52k SOL as of May 9th). Per DAO procedure, the proposal opened a community feedback period followed by voting. As such, the original resize deadline and final instruction has been postponed until the DAO process comes to a resolution.

The first proposal, submitted by Slorg, recommends redistributing 90% of remaining excess SOL back to the wallets that held eligible NFTs, with the remaining 10% going to the Metaplex DAO. The second proposal, from Josip, proposes a broader treasury allocation across many projects within the Solana ecosystem. The third proposal, submitted by Metapsilo, introduces a hybrid approach, staking excess SOL for NFT holders to claim over 18 months while establishing a new Metaplex DAO Committee to steward funds, governance, and community growth through phased infrastructure and engagement milestones.

For more information, visit the Resize FAQ and the Metaplex DAO on Realms to follow or participate in active proposals.

Core

Adoption of Metaplex Core continued in April, with over 235,000 new assets minted—bringing the total to more than 2.5 million Core assets created since launch.

Developers, DAOs, and creators continued to leverage Core for advanced digital asset management. Notably, IslandDAO launched its “Perks On Chain” collection using Core, blending governance multipliers and real-world benefits like event access and exclusive merchandise to redefine how DAOs engage their communities.

MPL-404

Pixel Moo launched a new 404-powered collection, bringing #MOODENG to life through interactive, community-led experiences. The mint was supported by OKX and Mutant Labs, with native 404 swap support and wallet integration, marking another step forward for the 404 protocol’s memetic, permissionless future.

Metaplex DAO

Metaplex Protocol Fees & $MPLX Buybacks

5,024 SOL (~$684k) was used to buy back 3.5 million $MPLX for the Metaplex DAO.

Each month, 50% of the prior month’s protocol fees are allocated to buying back $MPLX for the Metaplex DAO. April’s protocol fees totaled $1.6MM (12,060 SOL), driven by asset creation across Solana and the SVM.

With cumulative protocol fees surpassing $32 million (230,000 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

April marked the Metaplex Earn Season 2 kickoff, following a successful DAO vote to renew the liquidity incentive campaign. Developed in partnership with Forgd, Kamino, Orca, and Jito, the new season builds on the momentum of Season 1 with a larger reward pool and longer duration.

Season 2 will be live for 3 months, with up to 2 million $MPLX and 3,000 $ORCA available in total rewards. An additional 3,000 $JTO was allocated to the first month.

Participants earn rewards by depositing into the MPLX-JitoSOL pool via Kamino’s auto-managed vault, with no lockups, automatic rebalancing, and compounding. Recurring additional weekly rewards during the month included 85,000 $MPLX, 650 $JTO, and 200 $ORCA, distributed each week to participants.

The campaign aims to deepen $MPLX liquidity, support retail LPs, and continue expanding utility across DeFi.

Metaplex DAO Grants

The Metaplex DAO awarded a grant to Nomadz, supporting the development of their gamification engine powered by Core. The platform aims to enhance travel experiences with onchain questing, loot-based NFTs, and progression systems, all tied to a user's Nomadz ID, a Soulbound NFT that tracks XP, achievements, and more.

Metaplex also supported the first round of the Build With MonkeDAO (BWMD) program, which awarded 11 grants out of 433 applications. With additional support from the Solana Foundation and Metaplex, BWMD v2.0 launched in April, introducing new mechanics and capital to empower the next wave of builders through DAO-backed grants, mentorship, and early-stage investment opportunities.

Teams building with Metaplex and looking to secure funding can apply through the Metaplex DAO Grants Working Group or directly via the Metaplex DAO atmip.metaplex.com.

Partnership Highlights

Trump Dinner Leaderboard Powered by Metaplex

The $TRUMP memecoin community launched a unique time-weighted leaderboard for an exclusive dinner event with President Trump, rewarding long-term holders over short-term traders. The scoring system was built by Metaplex, using onchain logic to track wallet behavior over time.

This marks a creative application of token-based incentives and showcases how communities can build verifiable loyalty programs using Metaplex tooling.

Metaplex Expands to X1

Metaplex announced support for developers building on X1, bringing its full suite of asset creation tools to the L2 built by OKX and Polygon.

From Token Metadata, the leading standard for minting fungible tokens, to Core, the most advanced NFT protocol on Solana, and Candy Machine, builders on X1 can now utilize Metaplex programs to create tokens, NFTs, and hybrid assets with the same flexibility, speed, and scalability that has powered over 900M assets and $10B in transaction volume on Solana.

X1-specific documentation is coming soon to the Metaplex Developer Hub.

Community

Colosseum Breakout Hackathon

The Breakout Hackathon hosted by Colosseum kicked off in April, challenging builders to bring the world’s markets onchain. Metaplex is proud to sponsor the Gaming track, supporting teams exploring the next wave of playable, composable assets.

Up to 15 winning teams will receive $250K in pre-seed funding and join the next Colosseum accelerator batch. Submissions are open until May 16.

Superteam Japan Q1 Impact Report

Superteam Japan published its Q1 2025 Impact Report, highlighting 68 events hosted, 2,300+ participants engaged, and major progress on enterprise outreach and founder support. Metaplex played a key role throughout the quarter, from sponsoring the Winter Arc in Matsumoto to powering workshops and integrations during Trend Hack and Builders Weekend. With Q2 now focused on the Breakout Hackathon and the return of SuperTokyo in August, Metaplex continues to support Japan’s growing builder ecosystem.

Solana Global Creator Competition

The Solana Global Creator Competition winners were announced after the submission period closed in March, generating over 3 million impressions and 800+ minutes of original content from 300+ creators across 30+ countries. Metaplex sponsored the Content Creation Track, which received the most submissions of any category, 257 in total, and awarded $25,000 across the top entries, with Vali coming in first place, followed by The Crypto Oracle in second, and og.blessed in third. A second season is already confirmed for December, with pre-registration now live.

Solana Contentathon

Metaplex’s 52K $MPLX bounty track wrapped in April as part of the broader Solana Contentathon, organized by Solana Collective. The event saw 1,634 total submissions across 17 tracks, with the Metaplex track drawing 137 entries. Creators were challenged to produce educational content around Metaplex protocols, tools, and use cases, with prizes ranging from 2.6K to 26K $MPLX distributed across the top five winners. 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. Submissions are now under review and winners will be published in May.

GREED Academy: Semester 2

Metaplex was announced as the platinum sponsor for GREED Academy’s second semester, contributing 100,000 MPLX to a total prize pool valued over $120K. The new semester features 8 weekly lessons focused on core crypto concepts, including a deep dive into token standards, metadata, and how onchain assets actually work.

Lessons are open to all, but only enrolled students who stake SOL and complete at least 4 lessons are eligible for rewards. Lessons begin in May.

Metaplex at Solana Crossroads

The Metaplex team was on the ground in Istanbul for Solana Crossroads, connecting with builders and founders across the ecosystem. The team spent the week meeting projects, discussing infrastructure needs, and talking on what’s next for tokens and NFTs on Solana.

Metaplex at Token2049

The Metaplex team touched down in Dubai for Token2049, joining the global crypto community for one of the largest events of the year. Nicholas Strange, Metaplex Foundation BD, and Tony Boyle, Metaplex Foundation DevRel, were on the ground, meeting builders, sharing insights on digital asset infrastructure, and discussing what’s next for tokenization on Solana and the SVM.

SHIFT NYC

Metaplex announced its sponsorship of SHIFT NYC, an event that will be hosted by Sonic during Solana’s Accelerate week in NYC. Set in a classic sports car showroom, SHIFT brings together high-conviction builders, VCs, and institutions for focused networking and conversation.

Twitter Spaces Highlights

April featured several Twitter Spaces engagements from Metaplex, with two standout sessions. One hosted by Metaplex and Eclipse showcased builders launching with Core and Token Metadata on Ethereum’s first SVM L2, including Validators, AllDomains, Fight Horse, and Into the Verse. Another hosted by Kyzzen brought together leading Solana NFT projects like Galactic Geckos, Solarians, Merkle, and more to explore the evolving NFT landscape and ecosystem growth.

Application Ecosystem

There was continued momentum across Solana and the Metaplex application ecosystem, driven by the launch of new platforms, major updates across creator tools and token infrastructure, and integrations into loyalty, gaming, and mobile-first trading experiences.

• Believe released LaunchCoin, a new type of token launchpad that allows anybody to create a new memecoin simply by replying to a tweet with @launchcoin, a $TICKER, and name.

• Raydium launched LaunchLab, a creator-focused platform for token launches with new launch mechanics, powered by Metaplex.

• BonkLive, boop.fun, MetaDAO, Moonit, dev.fun, and xApple also launched new token launch platforms during the month, each using Metaplex’s Token Metadata program to power their fungible token creation.

• xApple by xCombinator launched a Telegram-native token launchpad on Solana, using Meteora’s DBC with built-in referral and creator rewards.

• Verxio launched a fully onchain loyalty platform built on Core, allowing brands to issue and manage programmable rewards at scale. They also announced a collaboration with Airbills to supercharge loyalty rewards on the platform.

• Magic Eden acquired Slingshot, strengthening its position in mobile-first trading and expanding access to tokens across multiple chains.

• Portals released their litepaper, outlining a full-stack platform for browser-native games with tokenized assets, $PORTALS-based liquidity, and a creator-focused incubator.

• MagicBlock raised a $7.5M seed round to build real-time app-specific infrastructure on Solana, aiming to reduce fragmentation and improve UX.

Creator Ecosystem 

April brought a fresh wave of innovation across Solana’s creator economy, with new launches, upgraded systems, and experiments, all powered by Metaplex infrastructure.

• Mallow announced “Mallow May”, a mint campaign sponsored by Metaplex, waiving mint fees for select Core-based editions and spotlighting independent artists across Solana.

• Claynosaurz launched their Achievements System v1.0, rewarding holders for onchain and offchain engagement, with staking, badges, and upcoming digital reward pack, all laying the groundwork for deeper collectible utility.

• The Vorld enabled custom naming for collectibles, powered by Metaplex. The drop was exclusive to early supporters as the project builds toward its next phase.

• Arcade Protocol by Breadheads rolled out play streak tracking using Core’s AppData plugin, gamifying engagement for their web3-native arcade.

• Turbine hosted a Metaplex workshop featuring Andrés Correia, introducing developers to token standards, minting logic, and what’s possible with Core.

• Aliens.sh introduced Genesis Vault, an onchain time capsule for humanity powered by Inscriptions, inviting users to permanently store messages, art, and historical data on Solana, forever.

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.