Catstanbul Conference: Jupiter Keeps Shipping

TLDR: Catstanbul 2025 was the first conference focused on Jupiter, the decentralized exchange aggregator on Solana. A ton of initiatives were launched and a token burn of 3 billion JUP coins was ceremoniously kicked off by burning a large cat effigy. Spectacles like this aside, the announcement of Jupnet establishes Jupiter as more than just a DEX aggregator— the ambition is to turn it into a major layer of cross-chain infrastructure.

What is Jupiter? Currently, it is the third-largest DeFi protocol on Solana by total value locked (TVL). It has a TVL of nearly $1.8 billion. As an indication of how big the Solana ecosystem has become, go figure that there were more roughly a thousand live visitors at the conference held on January 25/26 in Istanbul. By the end of the first day, around 200.000 viewers had tuned in online.

The Major Announcements

Major announcements at the Catstanbul conference, were: 

• Burning JUP
• Acquiring Moonshot
• Launching ultra mode
• Jupnet

Burn JUP: the Burning Cat Ceremony

Jupiter’s mission is to make JUP the greatest token in crypto (the GOAT). Before Catstanbul, it had already stated three crucial elements:

• G: best governance – The largest, most active DAO in crypto, with real decision-making power.
• O: most organic – Transparent operations with no behind-the-scenes deals.
• T: most transparent – The only crypto project conducting regular transparency audits.

At Catstanbul, Jupiter completed the acronym by adding the missing A: most aligned – Jupiter wants to allocate 50% of Jupiter’s protocol fees to buybacks of $JUP. To put its money where its mouth is, Jupiter started burning 3 billion tokens in the so-called burning cat ceremony, ensuring long-term emission certainty.

Jupiter’s three billion token burn, valued at over $3 billion at current prices comes more than three months after Jupiter’s governing body overwhelmingly approved a reduction in JUP’s total supply. Currently, JUP has a supply of 10 billion tokens, giving it a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of approximately $10.8 billion at presstime.

Acquisition of Moonshot

One of Jupiter’s most buzzworthy moves was acquiring a major stake in Moonshot, a platform that makes it easy for users to launch their own memecoins. Moonshot has made waves with projects like political-themed memecoins that have gone viral and captured widespread attention. Memecoins may be volatile, but they’ve consistently attracted new users to crypto. By teaming up with Moonshot, Jupiter is expanding its reach and tapping into a market driven by innovation and virality.

Ultra Mode: Low-cost Option for Regular Swaps 

At Catstanbul, Jupiter launched Ultra Mode, the most efficient way to swap tokens, featuring fees that are 10x lower than other platforms. 

Ultra Mode is designed to be the most efficient and cost-effective way to swap tokens on Jupiter. It significantly reduces trading fees: Jupiter claims that Ultra Mode offers fees that are 10 times lower than traditional swap methods on other platforms. The system automatically finds the best path for a swap by aggregating liquidity across multiple sources, ensuring users get the best possible price. Slippage is minimized, meaning users receive a price closer to what they expected when making a trade.

While highly efficient, Ultra Mode gives users less control over specific parameters of their trades. It is best for Regular Swaps: This mode is ideal for everyday traders who just want to swap tokens as cheaply and efficiently as possible.

At the same time, Jupiter’s manual mode got a full revamp, now offering complete customization. Manual mode is for advanced users who want complete control over their token swaps. Unlike ultra mode, it allows customization of how trades are executed. Users can tweak various settings, such as slippage tolerance, routing preferences, and token paths. Unlike ultra mode, which focuses on cost efficiency through automation, manual mode operates with zero fees, meaning users only pay network and liquidity provider costs.

Ecosystem token list rollout

To enhance security in the Solana DeFi ecosystem, Jupiter rolled out the Ecosystem Token List v3 and implemented smart token filtering using organic scoring. On mobile, Magic Scan is transforming how users buy tokens on the go. Meanwhile, the LFG Launch Stack, utilized by $TRUMP and other high-profile launches, has set a new standard for liquidity and DeFi distribution.

Jupnet: Aggregate Everything

The announcement of Jupnet is bigger in scope than any other announcement because it isn’t just an improvement to Jupiter’s current offerings—it’s a fundamental infrastructure play that aims to solve interchain fragmentation (one of crypto’s biggest problems). View it as an omnichain ledger.

As we know, different blockchains operate independently, and verifying data across multiple chains is complicated. For example, if a user wants to transfer assets from Ethereum to Solana, they typically have to rely on bridges or centralized validators, which introduce risks like hacks, delays, and high fees.

Jupnet’s Solution – DOVEs (Decentralized Oracle Verification Engines) act as trustless data verification engines that ensure consistency across blockchains. Instead of each blockchain maintaining its own isolated state, Jupnet enables them to agree on a shared, verified state of the blockchain world.

Developers and applications can access this verified data without having to build their own expensive cross-chain infrastructure. This enables seamless cross-chain swaps without relying on centralized bridges and unified DeFi strategies, where liquidity can flow between chains without needing multiple wrapped tokens.

Jupiter envisions a future with millions of chains, billions of users, and trillions of tokens—and Jupnet is the infrastructure to make it all work seamlessly. If that’s not ambitious, I don’t know what is. Let’s wait and see if they can execute.

Conclusion

Jupnet is insanely ambitious and shows that Jupiter is betting on something more. It’s not happy with staying just another dex on Solana. On top of that, their new acquisitions and partnerships are making Jupiters ecosystem stronger. The big token burn and commitment to buying back JUP show a focus on long-term growth, which could help boost its value and keep the community engaged. All of this puts Jupiter in a solid spot—not just within Solana but across the entire DeFi space.