‘Waste of resources’? – Jupiter CTO explains why JUP buybacks may end

The Solana-based DeFi super-app, Jupiter, is considering sunsetting the JUP token buyback. 

In a social media post on the 2nd of January, Siong Ong, Co-Founder and CTO of Jupiter, said they haven’t seen much impact from the program and felt it was a “waste” of resources. 

“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 for growth incentives for existing and new users.”

Ong was following the footsteps of Helium Founder Amir Haleem, who said they’ll “stop wasting money on HNT buybacks”, because the market isn’t concerned about the effort.

JUP community split  

Jupiter initiated the JUP buyback program in mid-February 2025 and has reportedly spent approximately $70 million. Moreover, Jupiter [JUP] rallied about 300% in the first month after the buyback launch.  

However, the token has printed new yearly lows in 2025, despite the aggressive buybacks that were previously viewed as bullish. At press time, it traded at $0.2, down from its peak of $1.8 –An 88% price crash. 

Source: JUP/USDT, TradingView 

However, the community was divided on whether to drop the buyback program. One user proposed sharing the revenue with stakers to increase staking yield and drive price. 

“With 753 million JUP staked, that’s almost $0.09 per JUP. For me personally, that would a really nice passive income.  That’s a 43% dividend yield. Of course the price would pump on such a news.”

But Ong wondered how the product would grow if everything were allocated to staking rewards.

For his part, analyst Fabiano stated there is currently no reason to hold the token because it is not tied to the protocol’s success (not equity). 

According to him, a short-term solution would be sharing revenue with stakers to reduce their quarterly dumping pressure. 

“What if we redirected those $10M toward staking rewards, instead of buying JUP for the Litterbox? At current prices, this could result in roughly 25% APY? -which is insanely attractive.”

Source: X

What’s next for JUP?

Other critics pointed out Pump.fun [PUMP] muted performance despite a massive buyback, adding that not all protocols should jump on the trend. 

However, the buyback programs have been successful for Hyperliquid [HYPE] and Aave [AAVE], particularly during periods of positive market sentiment. 

As of writing, it was unclear which proposal and direction the team would lean on following several pieces of feedback on the proposal. 

Jupiter has evolved from a DEX aggregator to a super-app spanning lending, prediction markets, and even perpetual trading. The ongoing development has also seen it scale cumulative revenue to $369 million. 

Source: DeFiLlama

Final Thoughts 

• The Jupiter team appeared disappointed with the limited impact of its buyback program despite committing $70 million. 
• But the community was split on the plan to stop the token buyback program.