TL;DR
- Jupiter DAO suspended all governance votes until 2026 following accusations of power concentration and tensions around its governance model.
- A single team controlled over 4.5% of the votes in a recent proposal, while the founding team holds close to 20% of the total JUP supply.
- During the pause, staking rewards will continue, but no new token emissions will be made for voting incentives or workgroup budgets. JUP has dropped 50% so far this year.
The organization behind decentralized aggregator Jupiter has decided to suspend all governance votes until early 2026.
The decision comes after weeks of criticism from its community, which denounced excessive insider control over protocol decisions. According to statements from the DAO, they will use this period to redesign their governance tools and focus on developing new products for their ecosystem, known as the “Jupiverse.”
Decentralization Failures
One of the issues that triggered this situation was the discovery that a single team concentrated over 4.5% of the votes in a recent proposal. It’s also estimated that the founders and team members hold nearly 20% of the total supply of JUP, Jupiter’s native token. For much of the community, that level of influence contradicts the decentralization promise that DAOs promote.
During this pause, the protocol will maintain staking rewards, distributing 50 million JUP per quarter. However, no new tokens will be issued for voting incentives or workgroup budgets. The DAO stated that the new governance framework will be ready starting January 2026, although no details have been defined yet.
Criticism of Jupiter’s Executive Leadership
In March, Jupiter’s community questioned two votes that, despite pushback from several users, were passed with strong insider support. The first authorized a $7 million salary package for four new executives, while the second granted a 220 million JUP bonus to one of its co-founders, after he pledged 280 million vested tokens to fund future hires.
At the time of writing, the JUP token trades near $0.40, down 50% so far this year. The price remained flat over the last 24 hours. The suspension of voting comes amid a bearish altcoin market but also reflects internal tensions affecting perceptions of Jupiter’s decentralization and institutional sustainability
