Competitors Target Jupiter Following Founder’s Racial Slur Incident
Over the weekend, Jupiter's anonymous founder, Meow, used a racial slur multiple times in an X post, prompting competitors to view it as an opportunity. The post was in response to an inquiry about verifying a memecoin containing the slur. Meow defended his actions, claiming no malicious intent and reposting an “n-word pass.”
Some noted that Meow, being non-American, may not have understood the term's impact. The crypto community reacted negatively, with leaders from the Solana ecosystem denouncing the behavior and some pledging to sell Jupiter's native token. Meow later apologized, stating that "Racism is obviously completely unacceptable."
The market response was muted: JUP dropped 7.7% over 24 hours, while other major Solana DeFi tokens fell 5-10%. Notably, JUP's decline occurred after Meow's remarks, but the token remained relatively stable on Saturday and even saw a price increase against other Solana tokens shortly after the incident.
Jupiter's main feature is an aggregator that routes swaps across various platforms for optimal pricing, offering users better value compared to alternatives like Phantom or Coinbase. Despite this advantage, competitors took notice of the situation. DFlow emerged, providing developers with guidance to switch APIs away from Jupiter. DFlow's founder cited cultural change as necessary in crypto, referencing Meow's post.
Chris Chung, CEO of competitor Titan, stated that a viable competitor must significantly outperform Jupiter to attract users. He also highlighted that risk-averse institutions entering crypto would prefer to engage with reputable founders, which could be hindered by social media controversies.