Original author: TechFlow
Amid the turmoil in the crypto market, projects in the Solana ecosystem are shining.
For example, Jupiter. When everyone received the recent airdrop and happily expressed that the pork trotter rice was delicious, did you also smell a hint of Jupiters wealth?
Sometimes a projects generosity towards you comes from the alliances and careful planning behind it.
Jupiter, the hottest DEX protocol in the Solana ecosystem, has quietly started a wave of acquisitions in the past 1-2 years, incorporating multiple projects into its own territory.
For example, a recent news that has attracted much attention is that Jupiter has acquired a majority stake in Moonshot .
But its actions go far beyond this. Through a series of precise acquisitions, Jupiter is weaving an ecological network covering multiple dimensions such as transactions, data, and wallets.
From being a DEX aggregator initially focused on token swaps to todays all-round layout of ecological infrastructure, Jupiters ambitions have long gone beyond the scope of simple decentralized transactions.
Why did this DEX, which once focused on providing the best slippage, suddenly turn into an infrastructure maniac?
TechFlow reviewed Jupiter’s development and acquisition timeline, and combined it with its recent cooperation dynamics to try to restore the strategic layout behind these scattered acquisitions.
Starting from DEX: The origin of Jupiter
In 2021, when the Solana ecosystem was booming, a project called Jupiter was quietly born. At first, it was just a new face among many DEX aggregators, but its inherent technical genes soon made it stand out in the fiercely competitive DeFi track.
Jupiters first breakthrough is to solve a common pain point in the DeFi world: slippage. Through innovative routing algorithms, Jupiter is able to find the optimal transaction path in complex liquidity pools, saving users a lot of transaction costs.
The projects development speed is remarkable. By 2023, public data shows that it has become the largest DEX aggregator in the Solana ecosystem, accounting for more than 50% of the token swap share on the chain.
The simple interface design, convenient cross-chain support, and accurate grasp of institutional-level trading needs have made Jupiter quickly become the preferred platform for professional players.
But what really makes Jupiter stand out from the competition may be their forward-looking thinking on ecosystem construction.
In todays fiercely competitive crypto landscape with homogenized projects, you can clearly feel:
A successful DEX should not only provide high-quality trading services, but also become a hub connecting the entire ecosystem.
Thus, Jupiters acquisition drama began.
Acquisition in progress: Expansion of infrastructure footprint
Meow, the founder of Juptier, previously said in a podcast interview, Our vision is not just to be a good DEX, but to build a complete DeFi infrastructure ecosystem.
So what else is needed for a complete ecosystem?
If I were a user, the answer would be obvious - it would be best if all my DeFi activities could be supported in one place, from data analysis to transaction execution to asset management, forming a closed loop.
Of course, these things cannot be accomplished by a DEX. Therefore, acquisition and cooperation become a feasible path.
Looking at some of Jupiters recent acquisitions together, everything revolves around this closed loop.
Data Infrastructure: Acquisition of SolanaFM, Sonarwatch and Coinhall
Before trading, users need accurate market data, on-chain activity analysis, and real-time price monitoring to assist decision-making. Perhaps based on such strategic considerations, Jupiter has started to lay out its data sector in the past two years.
September 2024: Acquired blockchain browser SolanaFM
SolanaFM was previously one of the more distinctive blockchain browsers in the Solana ecosystem, providing users with fast, simple and user-friendly on-chain data access capabilities. The most important effect is to simplify transaction information and reduce the complexity of visualizing capital flows.
As early as 2022, SolanaFM had completed a US$4.5 million seed round of financing, with participation from VCs such as Spartan Group; public data showed that Jupiter itself was also one of the investors in the project, which also laid the groundwork for subsequent acquisitions.
This acquisition not only enhances Jupiter’s data analysis capabilities, but also provides users with a more transparent on-chain activity tracking service. In addition to a mature data analysis engine, more importantly, it has acquired a technical team with rich experience in on-chain data processing.
September 2024: Acquires analytics platform Coinhall
At the 2024 Solana Breakpoint Conference, Jupiter announced the acquisition of Coinhall, a well-known trading analysis platform. As a platform focusing on trading data analysis, Coinhall is known for its powerful market data analysis capabilities and user-friendly interface, providing traders with real-time market trends, price movements and trading volume analysis.
This acquisition is of great strategic significance to Jupiter: first, by integrating Coinhalls analytical tools, Jupiter significantly enhances its capabilities in market data analysis; in addition, Coinhalls one-click trading function and intuitive data visualization tools will be fully integrated into Jupiters trading platform, further optimizing users trading experience.
January 2025: Acquired on-chain portfolio tracker Sonarwatch
Just yesterday (25th), Jupiter DAO’s official Twitter account announced the acquisition.
From a business perspective, the integration with Sonarwatch will clearly strengthen Jupiters portfolio tracking capabilities. Sonarwatchs portfolio tracking tool will be fully integrated into Jupiters web and mobile platforms, providing users with a full range of asset monitoring services.
The significance of this collaboration is that it complements Jupiter’s shortcomings in real-time market monitoring.
It is worth noting that SonarWatch positions itself as a multi-chain open source tracking tool to facilitate the adoption of DeFi on different chains. This business positioning may coincide with Jupiters recently announced Omnichain Network --- Jupnet.
Trading infrastructure expansion: Acquisition of equity interests in Ultimate Wallet and Moonshot
In the DeFi ecosystem, trading infrastructure is the key link between users and trading platforms.
As a DEX aggregator, Jupiter must also open up the complete link from user entry to transaction execution, which prompted it to start a series of strategic layouts at the infrastructure level.
April 2024: Ultimate Wallet acquired, Jupiter Mobile launched
When it acquired the wallet last year, Jupite had already stated on X that its “mobile plans to attract tens of millions of users are underway” and would be “ready for testing in May.”
Moving towards mobile, the idea of having my own front-end app emerged.
Jupiter has previously stated that the acquisition of Ultimate Wallet is in line with its mobile strategy and will leverage their technology and team to enhance the performance of Jupiter Mobile.
Although dApps such as Phantom wallet are currently commonly used wallet tools, a DEX can obviously also do downstream work by itself and build its own front-end trading capabilities, thereby controlling user entrances to seek more traffic and trading revenue.
January 2025: Acquires majority stake in Moonshot
In recent days, Jupiter has further expanded its ecosystem by acquiring a majority stake in Moonshot, which has been regarded as Memes Choice as Meme coin has become popular.
The value of Moonshot itself does not need much introduction. This meme trading platform, launched in July 2024, achieved a trading volume of nearly $400 million when Trump issued the TRUMP coin this month, and ranked first in the regional APP download list.
More importantly, it provides a fiat currency deposit portal for direct purchase of Meme. This alone is an irresistible temptation for projects related to transactions within the circle.
Acquiring a majority stake in Moonshot also means strengthening control over Moonshot. By acquiring Moonshot, Jupiter is not only an aggregator, but also controls some of the underlying liquidity sources.
Other cooperation arrangements
In addition to the above-mentioned acquisitions, projects related to Jupiter also involve Meteora and PumpAI.
Revenue Optimization: Collaborative Development with Meteora
As an important infrastructure in the Solana ecosystem, Meteora has a close but independent relationship with Jupiter. As a project transformed from the original Mercurial team, Meteoras development in the ecosystem is remarkable.
Its TVL hit a new high of $1.3 billion in January 2024, becoming the DEX with the largest daily trading volume in the ecosystem. This rapid growth is due to its innovative liquidity management mechanism and close cooperation with Jupiter.
As a project developed by the original Jupiter team, Meteora focuses on building a sustainable revenue layer for the Solana ecosystem. Through integration with Jupiter, users can earn additional income while trading, which greatly improves the efficiency of capital use. It is worth noting that this cooperation model has been verified in recent market hotspots - for example, in Trumps official TRUMP coin transaction, the combination of Jupiter and Meteora provides users with the best trading experience.
Innovation Ecosystem: Strategic Collaboration with PumpAI
In addition, Pump AI is an AI startup platform on Meteora that uses tools to help users create tokens. Descriptions, images, tokens, and mining pools will all be processed by artificial intelligence.
The project has established liquidity pool partnerships with other protocols such as Raydium and Jupiter.
Where is the end?
Jupiters recent series of acquisitions have outlined a grand blueprint that far exceeds a single DEX platform.
Through an in-depth analysis of its acquisition strategy, we can clearly see that this star project in the Solana ecosystem is playing a bigger game: from a single point to a global ecological layout.
Jupiters acquisitions span multiple strategic areas. From the user portal Ultimate Wallet, to the data analysis tool Coinhall, to the blockchain browser SolanaFM, each acquisition is filling in an important piece of the ecological map.
In particular, by acquiring a majority stake in Moonshot, Jupiter not only strengthened its advantages in the field of liquidity aggregation, but also built a complete DeFi service closed loop.
By integrating core infrastructure such as wallets, data, and transactions, Jupiter is building a self-contained collection of DeFi services. Users can complete the entire process from deposits, transactions to profit optimization within this ecosystem. Experience convenience may be the key to winning the competition.
It is particularly worth mentioning that Jupiter is developing the Jupnet (a full-chain network) project, which demonstrates its continued investment in technological innovation. This is not only a supplement to the existing business, but also a forward-looking layout for the future development of cross-chain DeFi.
Looking to the future, Jupiters ambitions may go beyond this.
The fiat currency entry and launch platform business that it is planning shows that it is determined to build an ecosystem that covers the entire life cycle of the project. From project incubation, trading liquidity to user services, Jupiter is gradually establishing its position as the infrastructure maniac of the Solana ecosystem through this series of strategic layouts.
