What Jito does
Jito is the team behind two closely linked pieces of Solana infrastructure: a modified validator client that captures MEV (the extra value validators can extract by ordering transactions strategically) and JitoSOL, a liquid staking token that passes a share of that MEV revenue back to stakers on top of standard staking rewards. Where plain SOL staking only earns inflation rewards, JitoSOL holders also collect a cut of the tips validators receive for including profitable transaction bundles.
JTO is the governance token for the Jito Foundation and the broader Jito Network, distributed via a December 2023 airdrop to early JitoSOL stakers and Jito-Solana validator client users. Holders vote on protocol parameters, treasury allocation and the direction of Jito's expanding product suite, which now includes restaking infrastructure built on top of Solana in addition to the original liquid staking and MEV tooling.
The scale here is genuinely significant: Jito-Solana is run by a large share of Solana's validator set, and JitoSOL is consistently one of the largest liquid staking tokens on the network by total value locked, putting Jito in a structurally important position within Solana's economic layer rather than being a peripheral DeFi app.
Risks
MEV extraction is a double-edged sword — it captures value that would otherwise be lost or extracted less transparently, but it also raises fairness questions about transaction ordering and can incentivise validator behaviour that isn't obviously in ordinary users' interests. Regulators and the Solana community have periodically debated whether MEV infrastructure like Jito's needs tighter guardrails.
Concentration risk is the other side of Jito's success: with a large share of Solana's stake running Jito-Solana and flowing through JitoSOL, any bug, exploit or client-level failure in Jito's software has outsized potential to affect Solana network health, not just Jito users. JTO's governance also faces the usual token-voting critique — voting power concentrated among large holders and early recipients doesn't always translate into decisions that serve smaller stakers. And as with any liquid staking token, JitoSOL carries smart contract and depeg risk relative to SOL, particularly during periods of network congestion or validator slashing events.