Dupe: How a Solana ICM Coin Topped the App Store

Whilst markets fall into ruin and traders seek shelter ahead of the prophesied crypto winter, a Solana-based consumer app has found PMF in the ‘real world’.

Dupe, a popular e-commerce tool for finding better prices on lookalike items, like clothes and furniture, has broken out of the crypto bubble, becoming the App Store’s leading Shopping App.

Featuring a creative onchain flywheel, Dupe’s success illustrates that consumer apps built on blockchain rails can succeed beyond speculative trading, lending further credibility to the ICM thesis.

Dupe Tops App Store

Dupe, a consumer app powered by a SPL token-based economic flywheel, has soared to the top of the U.S. App Store. In its incredible debut, Dupe surpassed some of the world’s biggest names, like ChatGPT and Temu, to lead App Store rankings in both the Shopping and Top Free App categories.

Off the back of the Dupe app’s meteoric rise in the App Store, speculators have wasted no time pouring funds into the platform’s native asset, $DUPE. Designed to be “the grease in the system”, Dupe’s economic flywheel promises to grow the platform’s revenue while giving shoppers a more rewarding experience.

For the time being, traders and investors are optimistic about the model’s proposed value accrual. The Dupe team claims to have already accumulated over 22% of the token’s supply through buybacks, a fact corroborated by Dune Analytics data. $DUPE token burns have not yet been implemented into the model.

While uncertainty and panic sow chaos in wider markets, $DUPE has surged over 60% in the last 24-hours.

$DUPE Migrates Away From $BELIEVE, Then Flips It

Ironically, Dupe is enjoying the bulk of its success only after migrating away from its original launchpad, Believe. On October 31, Dupe announced it would be migrating its liquidity to Meteora, abolishing its ties with the Believe launchpad.

In the intervening time, $DUPE has flipped $BELIEVE’s valuation entirely, commanding a market capitalization of $28M. Meanwhile, $BELIVE has slumped to a valuation of $10.9M, as part of a wider market downturn.

Consumer Apps Succeed Outside Crypto Bubble

While only time will tell whether Dupe’s newfound fame becomes a lasting and sustainable business or a flash in the pan, the app’s breakout launch is a landmark moment for Solana’s ICM scene. Additionally, Dupe’s growth trajectory should benefit enormously from the caliber of new hires like Harrison Wang, TikTok’s former Head of Growth, who helped bring the social media giant its first 100M users.

Topping the App Store on launch is no mean feat. Dupe’s success serves as an excellent proof-of-concept for other emerging startups, illustrating how onchain tools and economic loops can be used to benefit both businesses and end users. 

Crypto-based startups breaking out of the crypto bubble and into ‘the real world’ is a critical step towards changing a wider perception of blockchain, which is often considered nothing more than a speculative financial playground. 

Almost overnight, Dupe has become a reference point for Solana’s ICM sector, showing how blockchain can provide greater efficiency to real-world businesses.

The challenge for Dupe now becomes longevity. Can the breakout app retain relevance and usage on the global stage, or will it fade into the background like Axie, StepN, and the other landmark “normie” apps of yesteryear?

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