Metaplex: The Underestimated Winner in the Solana Ecosystem's Underlying Asset Services?

1. Introduction

In this round of the bull market cycle, Solana is undoubtedly the best-performing L1 public chain. Whether it is the number of active addresses or the fee income, Solana's share in the L1 market is rapidly expanding:

Active addresses: Solana's share increased from 3.48% to 56.83%, a year-on-year growth of 1533%;

Fees: The revenue share of Solana increased from 0.62% to 28.92%, a year-on-year growth of 4564%.

The meme 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 greatly from meme trading.

This article will focus on another project that benefits from the Solana asset issuance boom: Metaplex.

Mainly discuss the following issues:

1. What is Metaplex's business positioning and business model? What are its moats?
2. How is the business data of Metaplex? What is the development situation like?
3. What is the team background and funding situation of Metaplex?
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 Solana and supporting SVM blockchain, providing developers, creators, and enterprises with tools and standards to build decentralized applications. Metaplex supports various types of crypto assets such as NFTs, FTs, RWAs, game assets, and DePIN assets.

Metaplex has recently expanded its business into areas such as data indexing and data availability services, and is expected to become one of the most important multi-domain infrastructure service projects in the Solana ecosystem.

2.1 Metaplex product matrix

Metaplex's main products include:

• Core: A new generation NFT standard, adopting a "single account design", significantly reducing minting costs.
• Bubblegum: A program used to create and manage compressed NFTs ( cNFT ).
• Token Metadata: Attach additional data to assets on Solana.
• Candy Machine: The most commonly used NFT minting and issuance program
• Other products: MPL-Hybrid, Fusion, Hydra, etc.
• Aura: A decentralized indexing and data availability network for Solana and SVM

2.2 The business model of Metaplex

Metaplex charges for on-chain asset-related services. The main revenue comes from small projects or retail users that use its services, including project parties creating tokens and individual users minting NFTs.

Specific charging standards:

• Mint NFT:0.0015 SOL/time
• Add token metadata: 0.01 SOL/time

2.3 The moat of Metaplex

The moat of Metaplex mainly comes from:

1. High switching costs: Users are deeply reliant and find it difficult to switch to other protocols.
2. Establish standards: The asset format of Metaplex has become the common standard within the Solana ecosystem.

Thanks to these moats, Metaplex has no direct competitors within the Solana ecosystem, ensuring strong profitability.

3. Metaplex Business Data: Core Metrics Strong Growth

3.1 Monthly Active Users

As of the end of November 2024, Metaplex's monthly active user count reached 844,966, setting a new historical high, with a year-on-year increase of 253%.

3.2 Minted Assets Count

In November, the number of minted asset types exceeded 1.44 million, setting a historical record. Among them, 94% are fungible tokens and 6% are NFTs.

3.3 Protocol Revenue

In November, the agreement revenue reached 3.3 million dollars, also setting a historical high.

The revenue growth of Metaplex is organic, without token subsidies, reflecting a good product-market fit.

4. Metaplex Team: Solana Ecosystem OG

Metaplex founder Stephen Hess was an early employee at Solana, participating in the development of several important early projects for Solana.

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

The team size is streamlined to about 10 people (, but the product delivery capability is strong, with high iteration and development efficiency.

In September 2024, institutions such as Pantera Capital and ParaFi Capital purchased a large number of MPLX tokens from Wave Digital Assets.

![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

• Token Name: MPLX
• Total: 1 billion
• Circulation Rate: 75.6%

![Is the NFT protocol Metaplex underrated 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 Vote
• Protocol buyback: Buy back MPLX with 10,000-12,000 SOL each month.
• May be used for Aura node staking in the future

5.3 Protocol Valuation

Compared to Raydium, Metaplex has a slightly higher valuation. However, the business differences between the two are significant and are for reference only.

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

) 5.4 Potential Driving Factors and Risks

Driving factors:

• A new active track has emerged in the Solana ecosystem.
• Launch on larger trading platforms to obtain liquidity premium
• Increase service fees

Risk:

• Solana Meme craze fades
• The income model is singular and lacks sustainability.

Summary

Metaplex is a foundational protocol serving all types of assets in the Solana ecosystem and is a direct beneficiary of the Meme craze. If you are optimistic about the long-term development of the Solana ecosystem, Metaplex is worth paying attention to.

![Has the NFT protocol Metaplex been underestimated while quietly making a fortune in the Solana Meme craze?]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-d4c5f128d44bfb09a15b7a8809ac10da.webp(