Meteora Must Acknowledge and Value Original MER Stakeholders

Proposals
1

I’ve been a loyal user since 2021, holding MER, actively participating in LFG launches, and LPing non-memecoins.
However, I feel original stakeholders like myself face unfair treatment and significant dilution.

In 2023 Meow posted an update for Mercurial stakeholders:
“Hi all, Meow here, given the great progress made for both Meteora and Jupiter, it is a great time to conclude the Mercurial chapter and invite Mercurial stakeholders (as of the snapshot on Feb 2023) to be part of the Meteora and Jupiter journey ahead.”

These original stakeholders have been put last.

Unfulfilled Promises:

  • MER stakeholders were explicitly promised “Meteora created to return value to MER stakeholders,” receiving 20% MET supply before any other distribution to form the initial DAO for governance, and a 5% JUP allocation.
  • Years later, MET tokens remain undistributed, and the JUP allocation only starting to unlock after 2 Jupurary’s and the token dropping >70% from ATH.

Stakeholder Dilution:

  • Initially assured a fixed 20M MET tokens circulating supply with “no increase in circulating supply or emissions until the DAO approves.” This promise has been breached by additional allocations.
  • An unexpected allocation of 18% to the team further dilutes stakeholder value, contradicting initial statements implying team allocations would come from MER stakeholder allocations.

Preferential Treatment to New Participants:

  • Current tokenomics and stimulus plan favor mercenary capital—farmers and toxic memecoin liquidity (dominated by ruggers, snipers, bundlers)—likely to quickly dump tokens, severely undermining loyal, long-term MER holders.

Lack of Appreciation for Loyal Stakeholders:

  • As an original and actively engaged supporter of Meteora since 2021, I feel undervalued and underappreciated.
  • Other projects, like Backpack, set positive examples by explicitly recognizing loyal participants (such as early Mad Lad stakers)—a practice Meteora has notably failed to adopt.

Conclusion: Feeling disappointed, marginalized, and underappreciated due to unmet promises, dilution of stakeholder value, and preferential treatment to transient capital. It’s essential for the Meteora team to transparently address these concerns, reaffirm their foundational commitments, and take corrective action. I look forward to a thoughtful response from the team acknowledging their MER stakeholders.

@soju

Sources:

1 Like
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If Meow can reduce the Jupiter airdrop by 30% I think the same can be done regarding any MER promises that were made by Ben. Ben knows how to reward all the wrong stakeholders. Let’s not let his legacy of short term thinking fester any longer.

The promises made by Ben need to be cut in half and the current team team working on the airdrop allocations (lead by Soju) need to be increased as a result.

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I want to clarify that I genuinely respect and appreciate Ben and the Studio Racoons team behind Meteora and Jupiter. They’re excellent builders who have significantly contributed to the Solana ecosystem over the years.

I acknowledge and value the effort they’ve put into both Jupiter and Mercurial.

The memecoin situation was an unfortunate result of following market trends, not bad intentions. However, I believe the current MET token launch unintentionally favors toxic memecoin liquidity rather than loyal, long-term stakeholders.

4

This is people pleasing Ben telling people exactly what they want to hear in the moment.

The project shouldn’t be bound to anything Ben related. The MER bonus is just ridiculous. Anybody involved in DLMMs since then will be just fine keeping volumes normalized.

The reason this TGE is happening is because AUM has gotten to the billion dollar range due to things like the memecoin meta.

God bless the MER folks but the principal reason we are having this discussion is because of the large increase in Meteora balances THAT HAVE HAPPENED OVER THE LAST 6 MONTHS.

Give the MER folks an OG bonus of an extra X tokens each. Don’t tether this airdrop to Ben’s words and don’t forget that Meteora stats were on the downward slide before this 6 month period of huge performance.

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Hey Phil, first up I would like to say that I appreciate and understand everything you’re saying here.

But I would like to follow-up and say that the MER stakeholders are super important to us, and that their success is predicated on $MET’s success.

If we look deeply at Meteora and what brings it value, it is the cool technology leveraged by a passionate retail LP Army.

If there is no LP Army, MET has no or minimal value.

After the events of the last 3 months, it became obvious that the W thing for all stakeholders is to restore the reputation of Meteora, stop the bleed and stabilize the platform, community and value. This is what you perceived as “MER stakeholders to be last”. I think this is a very justifiable feeling, and we will do our best to impress you again.

The biggest reason we implemented the 18% for team was to provide for capacity to expand and grow Meteora over the next 6 years (thus the longer vest).

I dont agree that the LP army is transient or memecoin capital, they are the backbone of Meteora today.

I wasnt around during the MER days and I can’t give you the response and acknowledgement you deserve, but shall we hop on a call with Zen? My TG is Sojuuuu54, reach out andd let’s arrange a followup session

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@soju Firstly, thanks for the response, Soju. I genuinely appreciate your understanding and willingness to discuss this openly.

@soldaddy I completely disagree with your view.
In a corporate context, significantly diluting stakeholder equity without prior consent, transparency, or proper disclosure would typically be considered unethical and potentially illegal. Companies are obligated to act transparently and fairly in stakeholders’ best interests.

With that said, I want to clarify:

  • I don’t disagree with the stimulus plan itself.
  • I don’t disagree with the team’s 18% allocation; it’s important for long-term growth.
  • I genuinely appreciate the team’s efforts with Meteora and Jupiter—these efforts undoubtedly benefit MER stakeholders.

However, my core issue remains with the promise that “Meteora was created to return value to MER stakeholders.” Unfortunately, as original MER stakeholders have dwindled, the newer user groups attracted by the stimulus plan are louder and naturally receive greater priority. While understandable from a user-base growth perspective, it’s not the most ethical decision.

I completely understand prioritizing the larger, more active group to maintain engagement and platform health, but original MER stakeholders deserve better consideration.

I accept and understand being secondary within Jupiter, but MER stakeholders need fairer recognition within Meteora.

I don’t expect old promises to be fulfilled, but I believe some meaningful action should be taken to recognize and fairly treat the remaining MER stakeholders.

Suggestion:
Realistically, many original MER stakeholders are no longer around, meaning it’s likely a large amount of MET will remain unclaimed by this group. This provides room to reward active MER stakeholders more fairly. Whether this reward takes the form of an additional pro-rata claim following the initial claim period or specifically targets MER stakeholders who have actively contributed to Meteora’s success (e.g., through consistent liquidity provision), this decision should ultimately be data-driven by the team. I recognize my bias and believe the team should make the final call based on objective insights.

Soju I am currently away but I will be home in a couple days; I’ll try to reach out to you on TG then.

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I love everything you say and do but on this topic you are a little off Soju.

If the MER promises made by Ben are given as promised it will turn the Meteora airdrop into the Magic Eden airdrop. Give the MER folks a flat allotment of $1K USD each. Congrats you were early.

As I’ve stated before, if OGs from the MER era are still involved in the project, they will get massive airdrops.

You are following in the footsteps of Magic Eden by over-rewarding activity that happened long ago. These won’t be very good holders for the community. At best it should be equivalent to any other volume.

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@soldaddy I find your comments genuinely confusing.

This isn’t about rewarding OGs or early users—it’s specifically about MER stakeholders who held tokens before Mercurial rebranded to Meteora. Your idea of giving MER holders a flat $1K USD each doesn’t make sense and misses the point entirely.

Your claim that "OGs from the MER era still involved will get massive airdrops" isn’t true. My significant capital in Mercurial before rebranding isn’t considered for stimulus plan boosts or points. And even though I’ve actively participated in Meteora’s stimulus through LPing non-meme tokens and single-sided liquidity, my points/rewards will be minimal compared to insiders profiting heavily from memecoins.

We’ve already seen how toxic memecoins negatively impacted the ecosystem—most retail participants lose, while only deployers, ruggers, and insiders profit. It essentially becomes a casino, something I deliberately avoided.

Your statement about "over-rewarding activity from long ago" completely misunderstands the issue. This isn’t about past activity—it’s about early stakeholders.

9

Anything related to Ben should be completely up for debate (if not cancelled and peoples expectations reset).

Great technologist but on all topics of tokenomics and marketing, he is completely compromised.

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I’m in the MER cohort, but only after FTX upon the reboot to Meteora.

Prior to the current tokenomics proposal the allocation remaining was 68% because we had 20% to MER, 10% stimulus, and 2% to the DAO leads. My expectation was additional allocations to team were a foregone conclusion, and mostly welcome the additional 5% to extend the stimulus and reward core community contributors because they are future looking and increase growth (hopefully).

I’m not seeing the dilution you mention in the OP based on the numbers. Maybe I’m missing something?

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The beating heart of Meteora is the LP army.

This ridiculous allocation to MER should reallocated to the LP Army. If community is a serious consideration then an adjustment will be made to recognize what brings everyone together here. This is the huge LP Army.

Not over allocated to a bunch of rich nation early entrants. But to the brilliant new trader from Nigeria that I heard come up with the Fartcoin hypothesis months ago during a random LP army call. To people that have come in during the fee era.

To crowd out these smaller traders and valuable community members because Ben promised 20% to MER is bad business and the number should be quartered.

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I prefer 30% same HL