Jupiter’s token debate has reopened an previous query in crypto: can buybacks work when provide retains rising?
Abstract
- Giant buybacks struggled to offset speedy progress in JUP’s circulating provide.
- Ongoing unlock schedules saved regular promote strain on the token.
- Business voices argue longer-term capital methods may go higher than short-term repurchases.
Jupiter’s buyback plan was by no means giant sufficient to maintain tempo with the quantity of recent JUP getting into the market.
The dialogue picked up once more in early January after feedback from Jupiter (JUP) co-founder Siong Ong, adopted by an explanation from Solana (SOL) co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, which triggered a wider debate over whether or not token buybacks make sense in high-emission crypto fashions.
A buyback overwhelmed by unlocks
Utilizing about half of the protocol’s price income, Jupiter spent over $70 million in 2025 to repurchase JUP. The trouble appeared important on paper. Jupiter processed billions of transactions and remained considered one of Solana’s most lively decentralized finance platforms.
Value motion informed a special story. By early January 2026, JUP was buying and selling close to $0.20–$0.22, down near 89% from its peak. The rationale was not a scarcity of exercise on the trade, however the tempo of provide progress.
Since launch, JUP’s circulating provide has elevated by about 150%, whereas the buyback program has offset solely a small fraction of newly unlocked tokens. Unlocks nonetheless occur on a set timetable.
Via June 2026, about 53 million JUP are scheduled to unlock every month, including constant promote strain no matter protocol efficiency.
On this state of affairs, the buybacks operate extra as a short-term buffer than as a long-term assist. Ong acknowledged this reality and argued that it will be inefficient to proceed allocating capital to buybacks, proposing a shift in focus to progress incentives as a substitute.
Why Yakovenko says buybacks fall quick
Yakovenko framed the difficulty in less complicated phrases. In markets with heavy emissions, short-term buybacks don’t reset how sellers worth threat. Tokens unlocked at the moment are bought at at the moment’s worth, not at some future worth implied by ongoing repurchases.
https://twitter.com/toly/standing/2007869110399668573?s=46&t=nznXkss3debX8JIhNzHmzw
His different targeted on time. Relatively than shopping for again instantly, protocols might accumulate earnings and deploy them later, or supply staking packages with longer lockups. Doing so forces unlocks to be valued in opposition to a future, post-buyback setting as a substitute of spot demand.
It additionally encourages holders to assume in longer cycles, much like how stability sheets are inbuilt conventional finance. The response throughout the Jupiter neighborhood has been combined.
Some see buybacks as obligatory for self-discipline and alignment. Others agree they lose impression when provide growth is that this aggressive.
Jupiter has already adjusted course by decreasing its deliberate 2026 airdrop, slicing the allocation from 700 million to 200 million JUP. The lesson is tougher to disregard. In token fashions the place unlocks dominate, buybacks alone not often change the result.
