Solana’s Jupiter Buys DRiP Haus, DeFi Exchange’s First NFT Play

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) could also be effectively off their frothy heights, however do not inform that to Jupiter. Solana’s prime DeFi change simply introduced digital collectibles platform DRiP Haus into its orbit.

The acquisition is a part of Jupiter’s push to change into what Jupiter’s Kash Dhanda calls the “Solana tremendous app:” a house not just for merchants of monetary devices like swaps and perps, however for digital tradition connoisseurs too.

“We do not consider it,” Dhanda mentioned of the NFT doomsayers. “We predict NFTs are right here for the long run.”

Constructed from the bricks of the short-lived Solana retailer, DRiP Haus survived the NFT market’s brutal downturn as a digital collectibles distribution hub. As an alternative of buying and selling it focuses on disseminating: Startups throughout Solanaland spin up and ship out their visible campaigns on DRiP, in line with Dhanda, who estimates it now creates the overwhelming majority of Solana NFTs that “aren’t spam.”

Dhanda and DRiP Labs founder Vibhu Norby each declined to state how a lot Jupiter paid within the all-cash deal. An individual accustomed to the deal estimated it at two occasions the funds raised. The startup beforehand raised $11.5 million from enterprise traders.

Jupiter co-founder Meow hinted on the acquisition in late February throughout his marketing campaign to defer a multi-million greenback token payday, which yields extra JUP for him later whereas funding token incentive packages for acqui-hired groups now. Norby confirmed his group can be getting tokens from the incentives program.

Half of DRiP’s eight-person group will proceed engaged on the distribution platform, whereas the opposite half will concentrate on bolstering Jupiter’s at present nonexistent NFT capabilities, most critically by including a swaps router to the DeFi change’s homepage.

Norby will oversee DRiP from an “government, strategic standpoint” from inside Jupiter. Whereas the DRiP model will stay separate, Norby mentioned its visible id can be reworked to align extra carefully with the brand new mothership. He is additionally engaged on constructing a “actually, actually wonderful NFT expertise” inside Jupiter’s cellular app.