When an unfamiliar ticker with a daily volume of $33 million appears in your feed, the first impulse for most is: 'another meme, gotta get in before the dump.' MET is not that case. Behind this token is one of the largest liquidity protocols on Solana, a connection to the Jupiter ecosystem, and a scandal the team couldn't sweep under the rug. Let's break it all down.

What is Meteora and what does liquidity have to do with it

Meteora is a DeFi protocol on Solana, whose task sounds prosaic but carries significant weight: providing liquidity for the entire ecosystem. Its flagship product is DLMM (Dynamic Liquidity Market Maker). In short: traditional AMM pools spread liquidity across the entire price range – a large portion simply sits idle. DLMM concentrates it where trading actually happens and automatically recalculates fees based on market volatility. Liquidity providers earn more, and slippage for traders is reduced.

On paper, this sounds like marketing. In reality, Meteora is currently one of the main sources of liquidity on Solana. It's infrastructure, not a narrative.

Where it all started: from Mercurial to MET

The project's history doesn't begin in 2025. Mercurial Finance, one of the first stablecoin AMMs on Solana, launched during the ecosystem's boom. When FTX collapsed in November 2022, taking down half the Solana ecosystem with it, the team didn't abandon the project or disappear. Instead, they rebranded to Meteora and relaunched with a focus on dynamic liquidity.

Surviving the FTX crash is no small feat. Most projects at the time simply vanished.

Who's behind the money and what's the scandal about

Meteora is backed by a team with a history. Co-founder Zhen Hoe Yong built the protocol from its early days. Founder Ben Chow was also a co-founder of Jupiter, Solana's largest aggregator. In February 2025, Chow left Meteora. The reason? His name surfaced in connection with a scandal surrounding the Libra token (an Argentinian political memecoin that was pumped and dumped on retail investors). While direct guilt hasn't been proven, the reputational damage remains.

Operational management is now handled by 'Meow,' another Jupiter co-founder and one of the most recognized builders in the Solana ecosystem.

The protocol is operational. The scandal is real. Keep both facts in mind simultaneously.

TGE: Loud, Controversial, 48% Released at Once

The MET token launched on October 23, 2025. Total supply: 1 billion tokens. It's a governance token: holders vote on protocol parameters, fee distribution, and development direction.

The controversial aspect is the TGE (Token Generation Event) structure. 48% of the total supply was released into circulation immediately on launch day. That's a lot. A whole lot.

What this means in practice:

• selling pressure from day one – those who received tokens via allocation can lock in profits right now
• the overhang isn't spread over time – there's no illusion of 'let's see when it unlocks in a year'
• the price has already absorbed some of this pressure since the TGE – but it's not guaranteed that all of it has been

On paper, 48% in circulation sounds daunting. In practice, the market knew this in advance, and the token didn't crash.

Positions from $20,000: Why MET Entered the AIHermes 4.0 Radar

Currently, the MET price is around $0.167, with a daily trading volume of approximately $33.2 million. This isn't a 'pumped for 24 hours and forgotten' situation: a stable daily volume exceeding $10 million is the threshold at which the AIHermes 4.0 algorithm begins to consider a coin as actively traded with real positions.

The minimum position size when working with such assets is from $20,000. This isn't a retail lottery for $50; it's about liquidity management: proper entry points, managed stops, and exiting without slippage.

Pros and Cons: An Honest Balance

What works in MET's favor

• a real product with a proven mechanism – DLMM solves a specific problem
• a survival story: they weathered the FTX collapse and didn't abandon the project
• a connection to the Jupiter ecosystem – one of Solana's strongest narratives
• liquidity: $33 million/day allows for proper entry and exit
• AIHermes 4.0 recognizes the asset as actively traded

What could kill the position

• 48% of supply in circulation from day one – the overhang exists
• reputational damage from the Libra scandal and Ben Chow's departure
• fierce competition: Orca and Raydium are not standing still, both have mature products and loyal user bases
• the token is new – there are no historical support levels, technical analysis is effective only in the short term
• Solana as a network carries its own risks: congestion during peak loads, dependence on ecosystem sentiment

Where MET stands among competitors

Direct competitors on Solana include Orca (Whirlpool, concentrated liquidity) and Raydium (the ecosystem's oldest AMM, closely tied to OpenBook). Meteora isn't trying to directly compete with them – DLMM occupies a niche of dynamic adaptation that competitors address less effectively. It's not a 'Raydium killer,' but a different tool for a different task.

If Raydium is the 'default liquidity exchange,' then Meteora is the 'smart fee router.' Both niches are essential for the ecosystem.

Technical Perspective

With a price around $0.167 and a recent TGE, technical levels are still forming. The key observation: the daily volume has consistently remained above $10 million – a sign of a healthy market, not a one-off pump. As long as the price holds above the initial listing zone and the volume doesn't drop, there's a structure for trading. A breakdown with drying volume is a signal to exit, not average down.

Conclusion

MET is not a meme. It's the governance token of real DeFi infrastructure that has been providing liquidity for the Solana ecosystem since 2022. DLMM is functional, volumes are real, and the connection to Jupiter is significant.

However, this isn't a fairytale. A recent TGE with 48% circulating supply, reputational baggage from the Libra scandal, and strong competitors like Orca and Raydium are not reasons to panic, but they are reasons not to ignore the risks.

AIHermes 4.0 sees MET. Positions start from $20,000, with strict risk management.