(2026 Jan 18) Update since original thesis: Several key catalysts have materialized. At the Met Dhabi conference (December 10, 2025), the team announced a $10 million USDC buyback program, acquiring 2.3% of MET’s total supply in Q4 2025, representing approximately 88% of that quarter’s revenue deployed toward value accrual. Alongside the buyback, Meteora introduced “Comet Points,” a consumable rewards system tied to MET staking and platform engagement, signaling deeper integration between token utility and product usage.

On the launchpad front, Bags.fm, built on Meteora’s Dynamic Bonding Curve (DBC) infrastructure, has emerged as a breakout catalyst for ecosystem attention. Activity on Bags.fm is spiking this week after the success of Gas Town’s token (GAS), with the platform ranking second on Jupiter’s launchpad leaderboard at approximately 15.4% market share. The creator-royalty model (1% perpetual fees to token creators) has attracted viral launches and mainstream exposure, including a livestream featuring MrBeast. This positions Meteora’s DBC infrastructure as the picks-and-shovels layer capturing fees across the Solana launchpad wars.MET is up 30%+, reflecting market participants connecting the dots between Bags.fm’s surge and Meteora’s underlying fee capture as the liquidity layer powering the platform.

Perhaps most notably, Meteora now stands atop DEXs by 30D revenue at $13M, surpassing PumpSwap and Aerodome as of early January 2026, a structural shift validating the protocol’s dominant positioning within Solana’s liquidity ecosystem.