Jupiter co-founder admits ‘very very bad mistake’ of trying to please community

On August 9, 2025, Meow (@weremeow), Jupiter Exchange’s pseudonymous founder, took to X to share a confession. According to him, he made a “very, very bad mistake” by focusing all his energy on pleasing the community and reassuring them that the product is worth believing in. 

Following months of intense scrutiny from the community demanding better outcomes, the founder seems to have now decided to switch things up moving forward.

I’m always about jup man

My networth and my life work and legacy and my beloved team n community is 99.99% on JUP

And my jup is totally illiquid till 2030, so I’m as locked in as any founder can be.

Insane to think that I am not about that.

I made a very very bad mistake over… https://t.co/xDnHxe75yK

— meow (@weremeow) August 9, 2025

Meow is frustrated by the community’s fixation on negatives

The Jupiter team is responsible for the JUP ecosystem, which includes a leading decentralized exchange (DEX) on Solana. However, in recent times, investors have highlighted substantial issues in the project’s strategy, leading to backlash at different times.

In his post, Meow pointed out that the team’s efforts to demonstrate team responsiveness have gone largely unnoticed or unappreciated, with the community instead fixating on minor issues, like the unspent 200K JUP budgets for proposals.

As such, he has concluded that trying to please everyone all the time is counterproductive and has now shifted focus to what he has tagged as priorities for Jupiter’s future.

He says these include “communicating the very high level jup story… solidifying the 3 core pillars: defi superapp, our new studio baby, getting jupnet to a solid start, and synergizing the team to achieve a very high level of ownership, external comms and growth.”

In his post, he also reminded netizens of his commitment to Jupiter, highlighting how he has no access to his tokens until 2030, proof of how locked in he is.

What is the JUP project actually doing wrong?

Meow’s admission comes amid tensions currently rocking the Jupiter community. Back in April, one concerned investor shared a post on a forum dedicated for DAO members to share proposals and insights, and it contained some of the core issues the JUP community has been struggling with.

One of those issues is how the team claims burning tokens is proof of their commitment and generosity, but in truth, they are mainly protecting the value of their personal holdings, salaries, and future bonuses.

The user also highlighted how the team claims the DAO holds “real power,” but this is a false narrative because community members are unable to genuinely propose meaningful changes themselves, making the DAO nothing more than a glorified marketing tool.

Perhaps most notable among the issues is how the $JUP token, which is supposed to be the ecosystem’s flagship token, has no real utility and does not connect the community’s financial interests with Jupiter’s real success or revenues.

The post urged the JUP team to start fixing things. They also shared suggestions, including turning JUP from a speculative asset into a genuinely valuable token, complete with mechanisms that reward long-term holders and directly link Jupiter’s success with holder benefits.

Should these solutions be implemented, they believe that JUP holders may finally become true stakeholders as the token is transformed into something valuable with tangible, everyday utility and revenue generation.

Real utility and financial incentives will also help stabilize and grow the token value sustainably, aligning incentives for holders, community builders, and the team, thereby creating a mutually beneficial flywheel of growth, value creation, and platform adoption.