Jito

Jito is a major infrastructure provider in the Solana ecosystem, best known for JitoSOL, a liquid staking token, and for its work on maximal extractable value, or MEV. JTO is its governance token.

Users who exchange SOL for JitoSOL keep their capital liquid and usable across decentralized finance while it earns staking rewards. What distinguishes JitoSOL from other liquid staking tokens on Solana is that it also passes through a share of MEV revenue.

What MEV means here

Maximal extractable value refers to profit that can be captured by controlling the order in which transactions execute, such as arbitrage between venues or reacting to a large pending trade. On Solana, Jito built a modified validator client that runs an auction for transaction ordering, letting searchers bid for the right to place bundles of transactions in a specific order.

The proceeds from those auctions are shared with validators and, through JitoSOL, with stakers. This turns MEV from an invisible extraction into a revenue stream that flows back to the people providing stake. A large share of Solana's validator stake runs the Jito client, which makes the project structurally important to the network.

Supply and governance

JTO has a total supply of one billion tokens with roughly 509 million circulating and no additional hard maximum listed. The token governs the Jito DAO, which controls protocol fee parameters, the treasury, and the direction of Jito's products.

The project has expanded beyond liquid staking into restaking and related infrastructure, but its central position comes from the combination of stake and MEV distribution rather than from any single product.