The co-founder of Solana decentralized exchange aggregator Jupiter, Siong Ong, has initiated a community debate on whether to halt the platform's JUP token buyback program. Ong raised the question on X early Saturday morning, January 3, 2026, after the exchange allocated more than $70 million to token repurchases over the past year with minimal effect on JUP's price.
Ong argued that the capital could be better redirected toward user growth and platform incentives. "We spent more than 70m on buyback last year and the price obviously didn’t move much. We can use the 70m to give out growth incentives for existing and new users. Should we do it?" he asked the community. Jupiter had previously committed to directing 50% of its protocol revenue toward repurchasing JUP tokens and locking them for three years, a policy that officially began in February 2025.
The discussion gained perspective when Ong quoted comments from Amir Haleem, CEO and co-founder of Helium and its parent company Nova Labs. Haleem stated his team was stepping away from token buybacks because markets were largely indifferent to such programs under current conditions. He noted that Helium and its Mobile network generated $3.4 million in revenue in October 2026 alone, and funds would be better deployed towards subscriber growth, network expansion, and improving carrier offload usage. Ong praised this decision as "taking the first step" and suggested Jupiter could follow suit.
The proposal sparked significant debate within the Solana community. Some members defended the buyback model, arguing it would work long-term if paired with sustained revenue growth, leading to more tokens being removed from circulation. One proponent, Lochie (@lochie_sol), argued, "But back will be effective if it’s A) long term B) Jupiter keeps increasing its revenue for years to come. That way: the stronger the product, the more tokens getting swept off the floor."
Detractors, however, accused the team of attempting to abandon commitments that initially attracted investors. One critic warned that canceling buybacks would undermine Jupiter's success and JUP holders, claiming the token could lose relevance even if the platform generated significant revenue, becoming "a memecoin with JUP logo that can cost 0 even if Jupiter rakes in billions." Ong strongly rejected allegations of a potential rug pull, stating that JUP represents 99% of his net worth.
Simultaneously, Jupiter announced a major reduction in its planned JUP airdrop. The total airdrop has been slashed from 700 million JUP to 200 million JUP to ease selling pressure. Of this, 175 million JUP will go to active community users, and 25 million JUP are set aside for people who stake JUP. An additional 200 million JUP are reserved exclusively for stakers. Furthermore, 300 million JUP will remain locked to support JupNet's long-term growth, and another 300 million will be used for ecosystem rewards with no near-term selling. The final snapshot for the airdrop is set for January 30, 2026.
Amid the buyback discussion, community members proposed distributing protocol revenue directly to JUP stakers as SOL or USDC rewards to help valuation grow. Ong dismissed this idea, convinced that stakers do not meaningfully contribute to platform growth and that such incentives could weaken Jupiter's competitive drive against other Solana-based DEXes.
According to DappRadar data, Jupiter is among the top five most used exchanges on Solana over the last month. In the 30-day period, Raydium led with $793.8 million in trading volume and 3.67 million unique active wallets, while Jupiter Exchange attracted around 1.48 million unique users and generated approximately $169.8 million in volume. Despite this platform growth, the JUP token price remains near $0.205, close to multi-month lows and about 89% below its all-time high of $1.83.
