Metaplex is by far the most dominant digital asset protocol on Solana and the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM). It’s still at work consolidating its monopoly in the ecosystem. The protocol is incredibly popular, and it is the backbone of the creation and management of digital assets. It touches on every aspect of the technology, from NFTs to memecoins, Real World Assets (RWAs), gaming, and Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN). Metaplex accounts for over 99% of all NFT issuance and more than 90% of fungible token issuance on the Solana network. Recent Q1 2025 data confirms explosive growth in all of these areas. Through strategic partnerships and protocol enhancements like those outlined above, Metaplex is increasing its utility and expanding its reach even further.

Growth in Token Metadata Program

>The Token Metadata program under Metaplex had the largest growth of any program in Q1 2025. As for daily average mints through the Token Metadata program, this figure saw a huge 9.1% jump compared to the last quarter. They leaped from 43,396 in Q4 2024 to 46,863 in Q1 2025. This upward trend is a testament to the growing demand for the creation and management of digital assets in the Metaplex ecosystem.

YoY, the picture is captivating. Daily average mints through the Token Metadata program blasted up a whopping 55.7% over Q1 2024, with a stellar daily average of 34,500 mints. A stunning 419% surge in fungible token issuance drove this year-over-year expansion. This recent wave is a testament to how popular and useful these digital assets have become on the Solana blockchain.

Not all segments experienced growth. Daily average mints per Core NFT decreased 35% QoQ to 7,787. Daily average mints from Bubblegum—cNFTs, or compressed NFTs—plummeted off a cliff. They plummeted 75.1% q/q down to just 882,290. These declines are representative of a broader trend of less reliance on NFTs as profile pictures and art, and more focus on utility. Today, the focus has shifted to fungible tokens and other digital assets.

Transaction Milestones and Protocol Fees

In Q1 2025, Metaplex was the clear leader for transaction volume and number of users. The protocol already broke 1 billion cumulative transactions, showing true product-market fit and value across the entire Solana ecosystem.

In January, Metaplex hit an all-time high of 82,900 unique daily signers. This rapid increase is indicative of the high demand, user activity, and engagement we have seen with this new platform. The increase in unique signers is indicative of a growing interest in Metaplex. Fort Mason are very optimistic about its potential for creating and managing digital assets.

Financially, Metaplex saw $8.3 million in protocol fees in Q1, equaling the all-time high from last quarter. Such stable revenue generation further highlights the sustainability and economic viability of the Metaplex protocol.

Strategic Upgrades and Integrations

Since inception, Metaplex has been focused on increasing the utility and reach of their platform, through hundreds of upgrades and new features, as well as strategic integrations. All of these efforts combined help make the protocol more approachable, usable, and valuable for developers and end users.

Perhaps the most significant of these was the March 20 grant award from the Metaplex DAO to weRate. This Connecting Communities grant will help weRate’s mission of implementing Metaplex Core to create a blockchain-based review platform. With this integration, users can treat their reviews like digital assets and create and manage them accordingly. To do this, it leverages the security and transparency provided by the Solana blockchain.

The Metaplex DAO awarded a grant to weRate to support its integration of Metaplex Core for a blockchain-based review platform on March 20.

The other large grant was awarded by the Metaplex DAO, which funded One Mug Coffee on February 10. This grant supports One Mug Coffee's integration with Metaplex Core, enabling the company to leverage blockchain technology for its business operations. The terms of the integration were not publicly discussed.

The Metaplex DAO awarded a grant to One Mug Coffee to support its integration with Metaplex Core on February 10.

Metaplex joined forces with Drift Protocol to present Momentum, a thrilling five-week accelerator program. This new program to support DeFi projects on Solana launched on March 18th. This initiative aims to foster innovation and growth within the Solana DeFi ecosystem by providing resources and mentorship to promising projects.

Metaplex partnered with Drift Protocol to launch Momentum, a five-week accelerator supporting DeFi projects on Solana on March 18.

On March 26, Binance Wallet added support for MPLX, the native token of the Metaplex protocol. To celebrate this new addition, they introduced an awesome trading competition! This integration will bring even more accessibility and liquidity to MPLX making it even more useful and widely adopted.

Binance Wallet added support for MPLX and launched an exclusive trading competition on March 26.