Soju and Zen, the new anonymous co-leads of Solana DeFi project Meteora and veterans of Jupiter, break down their radical approach to the upcoming MET token launch. They detail how they navigated the project out of a co-founder scandal by focusing relentlessly on product and community alignment.
From Scandal to Stability
- "The people who lost a lot of money, the people who got offended the most, those people are now the core of our community... If those people who lost money can trust Meteora again, I don't see why the people who didn't lose money... can't trust us again."
After their co-founder’s resignation, the new leadership’s first move was to stabilize the ship. They rebuilt trust not with empty promises but by focusing intensely on product development and listening to their community. This strategy successfully retained their core users—even those most affected by the previous drama—by proving their commitment to delivering real value.
The Unconventional MET TGE
- "Anyone who has been allocated MET for any reason will receive all of their MET at TGE. There will be no vesting, no lock-in, no nothing. Everyone's fully unlocked. So what this means is we have 48% of supply unlocked at TGE."
Meteora's token launch is a deliberate counter-narrative to the typical crypto playbook. They are not raising any money; instead, the launch is framed as a "thank you" to their stakeholders. Key features of their approach include:
- Massive Initial Float: With 48% of the total supply unlocked on day one, Meteora is engineering one of the highest initial floats on Solana.
- No Vesting: All stakeholders, from early backers to airdrop recipients, receive their full allocation at launch, eliminating the sell pressure overhang from future vesting cliffs.
- Long-Term Valuation: This high-float strategy is designed to create a more realistic initial valuation, prioritizing sustainable, long-term growth over a short-lived, high-FDV launch.
The Future is Spot Liquidity
- "We don't know where Solana DeFi will go... But what we do know is our community wants to make more money, generate more fees, and our partners want even more flexibility... These are the two things that we know and we can guarantee."
While the rest of DeFi chases shiny objects like perpetual DEXs, Meteora is doubling down on its core competency: being the best-in-class infrastructure for spot liquidity pools. They believe spot trading is the foundational, non-negotiable building block of DeFi that will endure for decades. Their strategy is to focus on empowering their retail "LP Army" to earn fees and provide the essential liquidity layer for Solana’s emerging on-chain capital markets.
Key Takeaways:
- Meteora's comeback story is a playbook in community management through product-led execution. Their token launch is a bold experiment in long-term alignment, betting that a fair distribution and realistic valuation will create a stronger foundation than a hyped, low-float launch.
- High Float is the New Moat: Meteora's 48% day-one float with no vesting is a radical strategy to establish a fair valuation and reward its entire community at once, defying the typical low-float, high-FDV model that often leads to painful sell-offs.
- Product Over Hype: After a major scandal, the new leadership rebuilt trust with tangible product launches and a laser focus on their core liquidity infrastructure, proving that execution is the ultimate form of communication.
- The Bet on DeFi's Bedrock: While competitors pivot to perpetuals, Meteora is doubling down on spot liquidity, believing it to be the foundational layer that will underpin Solana's entire capital market ecosystem for years to come.
For further insights and detailed discussions, watch the full podcast: Link
This episode reveals how Meteora is navigating a high-stakes token launch after a leadership crisis, betting on a community-first, high-float tokenomics model designed to rebuild trust and dominate Solana's core liquidity infrastructure.
Introduction to Meteora and its New Leadership
- Jack Cuban introduces Soju and Zen, the new co-leads of the Solana DeFi project Meteora, just three days before its highly anticipated Token Generation Event (TGE). A TGE is the first time a new cryptocurrency is created and distributed to the public. Soju, drawing on experience from the Jupiter TGE, expresses excitement for launching the MET token, noting a recent slowdown in major Solana DeFi token launches.
- The conversation begins by acknowledging that Soju and Zen took over leadership within the last six months, setting the stage for a discussion on the project's recent history and future direction.
Meteora's Core Business: Dynamic Liquidity
- Zen explains that Meteora's core business is providing the technological foundation for token swaps on Solana through advanced liquidity pools. Liquidity pools are collections of tokens locked in a smart contract that enable decentralized trading.
- Revenue Model: Meteora earns revenue by taking a 5-20% cut of the trading fees generated by its liquidity providers (LPs), with a current average take rate of 9.7%.
- DLMM Technology: Meteora's flagship product is the Dynamic Liquidity Market Maker (DLMM). Unlike traditional Automated Market Makers (AMMs), the DLMM dynamically adjusts trading fees based on market volatility. This feature helps LPs maximize their earnings during volatile periods, mitigating the risk of impermanent loss—a potential loss LPs face when the price of their deposited assets changes.
- Capital Efficiency: Soju adds that the DLMM allows for concentrated liquidity, where LPs can provide assets within a specific price range. This makes capital more efficient, as liquidity isn't wasted on unlikely price points, leading to higher fee generation for LPs. Soju notes, "It concentrates the liquidity and the range... so it becomes more capital efficient."
The Liquidity Provider (LP) Journey
- For users new to DeFi, Zen outlines the two primary paths for becoming an LP on Meteora:
- Dynamic AMM: Recommended for beginners, this product simplifies the process. Users select a pool and deposit both tokens required for the pair.
- DLMM: Geared toward advanced users, the DLMM offers more complex strategies, including single-sided deposits and various distribution shapes like "spot" and "curve" to optimize fee capture.
- The LP Army: Soju frames LPing as an alternative to speculative trading. Instead of just buying a memecoin and hoping its price increases, users can join the "LP Army"—Meteora's community of over 10,000 daily active LPs—to earn consistent fees from trading activity.
Navigating the Leadership Transition
- The discussion shifts to the leadership change following the resignation of co-founder Ben Chow, which was linked to the controversial Libra token associated with Argentinian President Javier Milei.
- Zen, who was part of Meteora's founding team before moving to Jupiter, explains he returned to help stabilize the project. The initial focus was on calming the team and community.
- The new leadership team revamped community communication and implemented proposals based on user feedback to restore confidence.
- Zen emphasizes a strategic shift back to product innovation. "We learned... to really focus back on what brought us where we are in the first place, which was product," he states. This renewed focus led to the development of the Dynamic Bonding Curve (DBC) and attracted new partners like launchpads.
Rebuilding Trust After Controversy
- Jack Cuban directly addresses the potential for lingering distrust from the community due to the past scandal.
- Soju offers a powerful perspective, noting that the community members who were most affected—those who lost money trusting the previous leadership—are now the project's most ardent supporters.
- He argues that the team's actions over the past six months have demonstrated a genuine commitment to delivering value and righting past wrongs.
- Soju's stance is clear: "If those people who lost money can trust Meteora again, I don't see why the people who didn't lose money... can't trust us again and move forward with us."
The MET Token: An Alignment Tool
- The conversation turns to the upcoming MET token launch, exploring its purpose and design.
- Vision Over Utility: Soju clarifies that the token's primary purpose is not immediate utility or value accrual through mechanisms like buybacks. Instead, it serves as an "alignment and coordination coin" to unite the community around Meteora's long-term vision of making Solana the premier platform for tokenized assets.
- No Governance or Revenue Share: At launch, the MET token will not have governance rights or a direct revenue-sharing model. The team's compensation is tied to both cash and tokens, ensuring their incentives are aligned with the community's long-term success.
- Timing the TGE: Zen explains the decision to launch now was driven by product and infrastructure readiness. He wanted to ensure Meteora could provide a "perfect first impression" to the influx of new users the TGE would attract.
Tokenomics Deep Dive: A High-Float Strategy
- Soju details Meteora's unconventional tokenomics, designed for community distribution and long-term stability.
- No Vesting, High Float: In a rare move, all allocated tokens will be fully unlocked at TGE, with no vesting schedules for any stakeholders. This results in an initial circulating supply of 48%, which Soju believes is the highest of any major project on Solana.
- Community-Driven Price Discovery: This high-float model means that initial selling pressure will come from community members and early supporters, not the team. This contrasts with typical low-float launches where teams often sell into a high valuation.
- Avoiding the High-FDV Trap: By releasing a large supply at launch, Meteora intentionally avoids the "low-float, high-FDV (Fully Diluted Valuation)" model that often leads to sharp price declines post-launch. Soju explains, "We chose to take the long-term option which is high float, lower FDV... we'll be building for six years no matter what."
- Inflation Model: The token supply will inflate from 48% to 100% over six years through a linear, daily unlock schedule with no cliffs, ensuring a gradual and predictable increase in supply.
The Future of Solana DeFi
- Looking ahead, Soju and Zen share a pragmatic vision for Solana's DeFi ecosystem, grounded in core user needs rather than chasing trends.
- Focus on Fundamentals: Soju compares their strategy to Jeff Bezos's focus on cheaper prices and faster delivery. Meteora will concentrate on helping LPs earn more fees and providing partners with more powerful tools, believing these are timeless demands.
- Resilience Through Volatility: Zen notes that even during recent market downturns, Meteora's LPs reported positive returns, as the DLMM's dynamic fees capture value from volatility.
- Why Not a Perp DEX? Despite the popularity of perpetual derivatives exchanges (perp DEXs), Meteora remains committed to its core competency in spot liquidity. Soju asserts, "We are a team who just likes to push the basic building block of DeFi forward, which is on-chain pools." They believe spot trading is a foundational element of DeFi that will endure for decades.
Conclusion: A Bet on Fundamentals and Community
- This episode highlights Meteora's strategic pivot toward long-term sustainability and community alignment. By opting for a high-float, no-vesting token launch, the team is prioritizing a stable foundation over short-term hype. For investors and researchers, Meteora's approach serves as a key case study in rebuilding trust and focusing on core DeFi infrastructure.
