Metaplex December Round-Up 2025

December Highlights

• Genesis - The Genesis SDK went live allowing launchpads and trading terminals to integrate the protocol ahead of the next phase of Genesis.

• $MPLX Buyback - The highest buyback month ever as $0.5M of November's protocol revenue was used to buy back 10.3M $MPLX for the DAO (1.0% of the total supply / 1.8% of outstanding supply)

• Protocol Revenue - Protocol revenue reached $0.5M.

• Breakpoint - Metaplex Foundation was on the grounds meeting founders, developers and partners. Metaplex Founder, Stephen Hess, unveiled the Genesis SDK onstage.

Protocol Activity

In December, Metaplex generated $479k in protocol revenue including $412k from Token Metadata (86%), and $56K from Core (12%). In December, 317K Token Metadata assets were created, including 285K fungible tokens (90%). Core adoption continued steady in December, with 287k mints.

In December, approximately 256K unique wallets signed transactions with Metaplex.

Metaplex Protocol

Genesis

December marked the end of the alpha stage for Genesis, culminating in the release of the Genesis SDK ahead of an expansive Q1’26 for the Metaplex protocol. The Genesis SDK allows launchpads and trading platforms across the Solana ecosystem to easily integrate the reliable and trustworthy Genesis protocol. Launchpads can add support for Genesis Launch Pools, while trading apps can allow their users to monitor and aggregate new Genesis token launches. Within a few days, Maikers released an open-source Model Context Protocol server connecting agents directly to Genesis, showcasing one potential use case with more integrations upcoming.

Alpha stage token launches were paused in December to prepare for the next phase of Genesis and the rollout of the broader Metaplex platform in Q1. 

Learn more at genesis.metaplex.com

Bubblegum V2

December recorded a large uptick in Bubblegum V2 asset creation and transfers, driven primarily by Sorare and Cross the Ages deploying cNFTs as tradeable gaming cards. This use case is made possible by Bubblegum V2’s advanced features such as royalty enforcement, freezing transfer delegates, and more. With creation fees of 0.00009 SOL and transfer fees of 0.000006 SOL, each transaction contributes to protocol revenue as these platforms continue to scale. 

Guides & Documentation

December brought a newly updated docs website optimized for simplicity and better navigation. It is now easier than ever for beginners to find what they are looking for. Find it at developers.metaplex.com

Metaplex DAO

Metaplex Protocol Revenue & $MPLX Buybacks

December recorded the highest $MPLX buyback month ever as $0.5M of November’s protocol revenue was used to buy back 10.3M $MPLX for the DAO (1.0% of total supply / 1.8% of outstanding supply). Each month, 50% of prior month’s protocol revenue is allocated to $MPLX buybacks for the DAO.December protocol fees reached $0.5M USD (3,675 SOL), 50% of these fees will be used to buy back $MPLX for the DAO throughout January.

With cumulative protocol revenue surpassing $48 million (~322,000 SOL) to-date, Metaplex continues to scale while the DAO remains a key driver of governance, development, and ecosystem growth.

Metaplex Earn Campaign

In December, a proposal submitted by Forgd went live in Metaplex DAO to roll over 1M $MPLX from Season 3 into Season 4. The proposal doesn’t seek any additional $MPLX from the DAO, but is looking to use unused tokens from Season 3 to sustain onchain liquidity and launch a dedicated $MPLX lending market on Kamino. The proposal passed.

Metaplex DAO Grants

December featured a single grant proposal in the Metaplex DAO submitted by AKLO, requesting 200,000 MPLX to support the creation of a gamified DEX by Solana Business Frogs. The proposal did not pass. 

Partnership Highlights

Genesis Partner Network

The Genesis Partner Network expanded with DEX aggregator DFlow. All Genesis tokens will now be swappable day one on DFlow, ensuring users get a great rate.

11AM w/ Seed Club

Through partnering with 11AM, one of the premier live streaming platforms at Breakpoint 2025, Metaplex sponsored multiple interviews and countless clips of the most prominent founders and builders in the Solana ecosystem including: Anatoly Yakovenko, Armani Ferrante, Brandon Millman, and twenty-five others. The Metaplex sponsored interviews and clips amassed over 500k digital impressions.

BoDoggos

The BoDoggos partnership continued as Metaplex received a custom BoDoggo, Clemente learned about Metaplex, and Easy explained the Genesis SDK to his audience. The partnership is preparing for a Q1 filled with content around the next chapter of Metaplex.

Moonbirds

Moonbirds launched a collaborative campaign with Metaplex offering a free Soulbound Token (SBT) to eligible community members. $MPLX holders and Update Authorities of Token Metadata assets were invited to claim a custom Moonbirds x Metaplex SBT. The campaign ran until December 13.

Doodles

Doodles released their new collection “Doopies” using the Metaplex Core NFT standard. 800 of the top $MPLX holders were eligible for their allowlist.

Community

Breakpoint

Metaplex attended Breakpoint in Abu Dhabi with the following highlights:

• Metaplex Founder and Metaplex Foundation Director, Stephen Hess, delivered a product keynote unveiling the Genesis SDK onstage.

• As a Solana thought leader, Stephen Hess was also invited to speak on a Dogecon panel to discuss Dogecoin coming to Solana.

• Metaplex was a title sponsor of the official “So Over, Closing Celebration”, rounding out the biggest Solana Breakpoint yet.  

• Leadership, partnerships and DevRel were on the ground meeting with founders, developers and ecosystem partners.

Podcasts & Spaces

Metaplex continued to advance the Internet Capital Markets narrative across community podcasts and live discussions throughout December.

Stephen Hess, Metaplex Founder, joined the following interviews at Breakpoint:

• 11AM w/ Seed Club, where the conversation covered how far Solana has come since its NFT days and how Genesis is shaping the future of token issuance. 

• FINTECH.TV, covering how Metaplex offers audited, infrastructure-grade tools giving founders seamless tokenization on Solana. 

Nicholas Strange, BD & Partnerships Manager at Metaplex Foundation, participated in a Breakpoint recap space hosted by CryptoApe. The discussion covered a summary of 2025, what happened at Breakpoint and what’s coming next for Metaplex.

Ecosystem

December saw continued growth across applications, creator platforms, and developer communities building with Metaplex. From AI-driven asset creation to large-scale commerce platforms launching on Solana, momentum continued across the broader ecosystem.

• Maikers unveiled the first Genesis integration using the SDK. It connects the Genesis protocol directly to AI agents. 

• Sorare continued its migration to Solana, minting and transferring over a million Bubblegum V2 assets.

• Doodles minted their new collection “Doopies” on Solana using Core.

• Cross the Ages now migrated to Solana, reaching over a million cumulative Bubblegum V2 assets minted. 

• BR1: INFINITE launched its Early Access program, moving into a curated, invite-only testing phase that gives certified players access to new builds, experimental features, and private sessions as the team continues expanding its real-money gaming ecosystem on Solana.

• Play Solana announced the Matrix Hackathon with an On-chain Assets Track powered by Metaplex.

Follow @metaplex on X for ongoing community updates. You can also subscribe to receive these monthly updates directly to your email here. To contribute to the Metaplex protocol, engage with us on GitHub or submit a Metaplex Improvement Proposal (MIP) at mip.metaplex.com.

Last, thanks to TopLedger for their data support on this month’s round-up. They provide real-time monitoring of Metaplex activity and usage to the ecosystem. For additional Metaplex onchain metrics, please refer to the following link.