Jito Amasses $3B in FDV

Jito is the latest protocol making waves in the Solana ecosystem and the crypto community, as the JTO token has surged over 100% in 24 hours after its airdrop, and the tremendous price uptick has benefited SOL users considerably.

Jito, developed by Jito Labs —a major node operator for Solana— is Solana’s newest liquid staking protocol and by far the second-largest in terms of TVL.

Only surpassed by Marinade, Jito currently boasts over 6.4 million SOL locked in —around $460 million.

The token experienced a significant trading volume of $1.1 billion within 24 hours after being airdropped to community members, trading at $1.9 and surging to $3.50, over 100% in 24 hours. The price has since retraced, and it’s currently trading at $3.39.

The rise in SOL’s value can also be attributed to the Jito airdrop, which distributed 10% of the total supply of 1 billion JTO tokens to eligible Solana users. That said, some users gained significant amounts of the JTO token by previously staking small amounts of SOL. At least 9,000 users who interacted and staked SOL received a minimum of 4,941 JTO tokens.

The Hype Surrounding Jito

Jito is one of the hottest topics in the Solana ecosystem. It allows users to deposit SOL in exchange for the derivative JitoSOL, representing participation in the staking process.

However, most hype centers on the protocol’s underlying technology and the combination of liquid staking and MEV (miner extractable value) optimization.

Solana has faced significant challenges related to MEV, including network congestion and disruptions caused by spam transactions. That’s where Jito’s relayer acts as an independent transaction processing unit that alleviates the burden on validators, enhancing network stability.

As such, the critical role of the Jito validator is to optimize the MEV market and provide a strong defense against these spam transactions.

Jito’s total supply is capped at 1 billion tokens, with 115 million currently in circulation. Of these, 80 million were allocated for the community airdrop, benefiting early users, validators, and other contributors.