Jupiter takes majority stake in Trump-favored memecoin app

By acquiring most of Moonshot, Jupiter now benefits from experienced and inexperienced memecoin traders alike

article-image

Akif CUBUK/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share


This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


A feline-branded conference held in Istanbul this weekend gave away some of the future ambitions of Solana’s top swap app, Jupiter. 

At so-called Catstanbul, Jupiter and its colorful founder known as meow made headlines for turning on protocol fees that will lead to token buybacks. It’s also launching a $10 million AI fund alongside AI agent upstart Eliza Labs as well as a multi-blockchain network that would expand beyond Solana. 

But the most interesting announcement — to me at least — came when Jupiter said it had taken a majority stake in Moonshot, a memecoin app that Donald Trump directed buyers to use during his memecoin launch.

Jupiter’s killer feature is its swap interface, which routes user trades across DEXs to achieve the best possible price. For all intents and purposes, Jupiter is where users get the most bang for their buck when swapping one Solana token for another. 39% of Solana DEX trades go through Jupiter, according to a Dune dashboard, and Jupiter currently has no real competitor as far as DEX aggregation goes.

But Jupiter has been hinting at bigger ambitions for a while. In May, it announced its giant unified markets initiative which promised to bring all kinds of assets onchain and index them with Jupiter. But for all the talk of GUM, most Solana blockspace is still being chewed up by memecoins, so Jupiter took a majority stake in Moonshot.

Moonshot is a memecoin app that is easy for normies to use. It caught a considerable boost when the TRUMP memecoin’s website directed users to Moonshot, which rocketed the app to a stint at #1 on the App Store’s finance charts. It’s unclear whether the Trump team cut some sort of deal with Moonshot. A source at Jupiter also declined to comment on the terms of the Moonshot deal.

By acquiring most of Moonshot, which is focused on unsophisticated users, Jupiter now benefits from experienced and inexperienced memecoin traders alike. It also now collects fees on all that trading: In Istanbul, Jupiter announced that it would begin collecting a 0.1% fee on its default swap feature, which had previously been free. Half of these fees will go toward buybacks of the platform’s JUP token, which briefly surged in price. Moonshot also collects trading fees.

Plus, with Moonshot’s central role in the TRUMP memecoin launch, Jupiter may be getting not just a stake in an app but something much more important in these windfall days for crypto — a connection to President Trump.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

🚀 Build What’s Next — Permissionless IV Hackathon Join us June 22–23 in Brooklyn for the Permissionless IV Hackathon — a 36-hour sprint hosted by Cracked Labs and Blockworks where top builders turn ideas into real products. Come to launch, not just […]

recent research

Research

article-image

This isn’t the worst hack to ever hit Mt. Gox, but it could be the most entertaining

article-image

Crossover’s CEO discusses institutional interest and how over-the-counter (OTC) trading has picked up in crypto

article-image

Sponsored

This collaboration signifies a major leap forward in expanding the reach and utility of Web3 gaming within the vibrant Asian market

article-image

Asymmetric information is threatening crypto the same way it once threatened equities. Disclosure might be the fix.

article-image

Rate cuts drift into Q4 limbo as markets pretend everything’s fine

article-image

The FOMC held interest rates steady for the fourth-straight time on Wednesday