Metaplex Token Plunges 68% After Adding Solana NFT Collectors To Airdrop

Metaplex Foundation, which oversees Solanaits Metaplex NFT protocol, recently launched an airdrop of the MPLX token for Solana NFT creators – and on Monday, that extended the offer to qualified collectors who had previously interacted with certain NFT projects. However, the extended token offering quickly reduced its price.

The MPLX token’s price is currently down 65% in the last 24 hours, after initially tanking by more than 68%, to a price of around $0.11, per data from CoinGecko. The price of MPLX has fallen from a high of $0.34 during the same period. MPLX is also down 67% in the past week, and 87% from its record high of nearly $0.90 on September 20 in the hours after the token first launched. The token hit a new all-time low this morning.

MPLX is a governance token designed to give the community the ability to vote on future developments around the Solana NFT protocol. It debuted late on September 19 and was originally only available to creators who had developed Metaplex-based Solana NFT projects.

There was one significant caveat at launch, though, and it remains in place now: Airdrop isn’t available to any US-based users, likely due to regulatory concerns.

At launch, the airdrop also excluded the creators of projects that had “difficult” users — meaning creators who had disappeared after launch or failed to live up to their promises — with the help of digital asset compliance firm TRM Labs.

Now, Solana NFT collectors who have interacted with an eligible NFT coin can also claim a share of the 40 million MPLX tokens dedicated to such users. It’s not immediately clear which projects qualify, but anyone outside the US can connect a Solana wallet MPLX airdrop website to check eligibility and potentially claim tokens.

MPLX has a maximum supply of 1 billion tokens, although it is unknown how many tokens are currently in circulation – both CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap do not provide a figure for the current circulating supply. As a result, neither site offers a current market value. Decrypt a Metaplex representative asked about the figure, but did not immediately hear back.

Solana is the second largest NFT ecosystem in terms of trading volume, after the leader Ethereum. In September, momentum around newer popular projects such as y00ts and ABC resulted in total Solana NFT trading volume almost a doubling compared to the August figure—up to $133 million worth—with top marketplace Magic Eden claiming most of this trading action.

When the MPLX token launched last month, The Metaplex Foundation said 20 million Solana NFTs had been minted to date using the technology, resulting in over $3.5 billion in combined primary and secondary sales. More than 2.4 million creators and collectors had interacted with Solana NFTs at the time, the foundation claimed.

Metaplex Foundation raised $46 million in January in a round led by Multicoin Capital and Jump Crypto, with prominent participants also including NBA stars Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson, as well as Solana Ventures, Animoca Brands and Alameda Research.