Solana Asset Management Protocol Metaplex: The Invisible Beneficiary of the Meme Craze

1. Introduction

Solana is undoubtedly the most outstanding L1 public chain in this bull market cycle. Whether it's the number of active addresses or the fee revenue, Solana's market share in L1 has shown explosive growth:

• The share of active addresses increased from 3.48% to 56.83%, a year-on-year growth of 1533%.
• The share of fee income increased from 0.62% to 28.92%, a year-on-year growth of 4564%.

The meme token craze is the main driving force behind the rapid growth of various core metrics of Solana. In addition to Solana itself, DEXs like Raydium have also benefited significantly. This article will focus on another project that has benefited from the asset issuance boom on Solana: Metaplex.

This article will discuss the following four questions:

1. What is the business positioning and business model of Metaplex? What are its competitive advantages?
2. How is the business data performance of Metaplex?
3. What is the background and funding situation of the Metaplex team?
4. What is the current valuation level of Metaplex? Does it have investment value?

2. The business positioning and business model of Metaplex

Metaplex is a digital asset creation, sales, and management system built on the Solana blockchain and supporting SVM, providing developers, creators, and businesses with tools and standards for building decentralized applications. The types of crypto assets supported by Metaplex include NFTs, FTs, RWAs, game assets, DePIN assets, and more.

Metaplex has recently expanded its business into data indexing and data availability services within the Solana ecosystem. In the long term, Metaplex is expected to become one of the most important multi-domain foundational service projects in the Solana ecosystem.

2.1 Metaplex Product Matrix

Metaplex's main products include:

• Core: A new generation NFT standard that adopts a "single account design" to reduce minting costs.
• Bubblegum: a program for creating and managing compressed NFTs
• Token Metadata: Attach metadata to assets on Solana
• Candy Machine: NFT minting and issuance program
• Aura: decentralized indexing and data availability network

2.2 The business model of Metaplex

Metaplex generates revenue by providing on-chain asset-related services. Although the direct partners are other projects on Solana, most of the fees come from small projects or retail users that utilize these projects, including project parties and individual users creating various types of tokens.

The Metaplex product's fee structure on Solana is relatively low. For example, the cost for users to mint an NFT is only 0.0015 SOL; Meme project issuers only need 0.01 SOL for Token Metadata once. Such costs are nearly negligible for users.

2.3 Competitive Advantages of Metaplex

The competitive advantages of Metaplex are mainly reflected in two aspects:

1. High switching costs: After developers and users become deeply reliant on Metaplex's tools and protocol, switching to other protocols will incur high costs.

2. Establishing Standards: The asset format of Metaplex has become the de facto standard within the Solana ecosystem, and new projects will prioritize compatibility with Metaplex.

Thanks to these advantages, there are currently no projects in the Solana ecosystem that can compete with Metaplex, ensuring its strong profitability.

3. Metaplex Business Data: Products and market demand are highly aligned, with strong growth in key metrics.

3.1 Monthly Active Users

As of November 30, 2024, the number of monthly active users of Metaplex reached 844,966, setting a new historical high, with a year-on-year growth of 253%.

3.2 Number of assets minted via the protocol

In November, the total number of minted asset types exceeded 1.44 million, setting a historical high. Among them, 94% were fungible tokens, while only 6% were NFTs. In comparison, this ratio in January of this year was 18.6% to 81.4%.

3.3 protocol revenue

In November, the protocol revenue reached 3.3 million USD, also setting a historical high.

It is worth noting that Metaplex's business revenue is quite organic, without direct token subsidies, making it a typical project that aligns products with market demand.

4. Metaplex Team: The Ecological OG Close to the Solana Core Circle

Metaplex was founded by Stephen Hess in November 2021. As one of the earliest employees of Solana, Stephen participated in the development of several important projects for Solana, including the first version of the Solana NFT standard.

In January 2022, Metaplex secured a strategic investment of $46 million from institutions such as Multicoin, Jump, and Alameda, with a valuation of approximately $450 million.

The team is streamlined to about 10 people (, but has strong product delivery capabilities and ambition, with high efficiency in product iteration and new product development.

![Is the NFT protocol Metaplex underestimated while quietly making a fortune in the Solana Meme craze?])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-391fd2cdddc3de14ab09b6eae7010d8e.webp(

5. MPLX: Token Utility and Valuation Level

) 5.1 Token Basic Information

The total supply of MPLX is 1 billion, and the current circulation rate is 75.6%.

![Is the NFT protocol Metaplex underestimated while quietly making a fortune in the Solana Meme craze?]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-303c4ed8491d582f5cecbc716e2e6060.webp(

) 5.2 token utility

• Governance Voting
• 50% of the protocol revenue is used for buyback.
• Future staking assets that may become Aura nodes

5.3 protocol valuation

Compared to Raydium, which is also part of the Solana ecosystem and benefits from the Meme craze, Metaplex's valuation is slightly higher. However, the business positioning of the two is quite different, making the comparison only of reference value.

![Is the NFT protocol Metaplex undervalued while quietly making a profit during the Solana Meme craze?]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-ca888d028c835b96b23b757232743604.webp(

) 5.4 Potential Opportunities and Risks

Opportunity:

• More active tracks are emerging in the Solana ecosystem.
• Launch on larger trading platforms to obtain liquidity premium
• Increase service fees

Risk:

• The decline of the Solana Meme craze has led to a decrease in business revenue.
• The revenue model is difficult to generate sustainable income.

Summary

Metaplex is actually a foundational protocol serving all types of assets within the Solana ecosystem and is a direct beneficiary of the Meme craze. Investors optimistic about the Solana ecosystem should pay long-term attention to Metaplex, which occupies an upstream ecological position in "asset issuance and management."