The Invisible Champion of Solana Liquid Staking: How Jito is Turning the Entire Track with MEV

A Crazy Experiment by an Engineer

Do you remember the liquid staking revolution that Lido initiated on Ethereum? Now Solana has its own version - Jito, and the gameplay is even more intense.

The story begins in 2021. Former Tesla engineer Lucas Bruder saw an opportunity that others overlooked: MEV (Maximum Extractable Value). While most people view MEV as the dark side, Bruder thought of a reverse operation - directly sharing the profits of MEV with ordinary users.

With the backing of Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs, and a $10 million funding, Jito Labs has officially been established. More than a year later, how much has this project grown?

Data Speaks (As of December 2024):

• TVL: 6.48 million+ SOL
• Number of validators: 82
• Independent Stakers: 126,000+
• Become the second largest DApp on Solana
• Ranked 6th among global liquidity staking platforms
• Now 31% of Solana validators are running the Jito Labs client.

What made you take down Lido?

Lido once dominated the staking market of Solana, but has officially shut down recently. The reason is straightforward: competition is too fierce, and the development costs are too high.

The secret weapon that Jito wins with is called Block Engine — a super-optimized transaction reordering engine. In simple terms, what it does is similar to a high-frequency trading system:

1. Real-time monitoring of all on-chain transactions
2. Analyze arbitrage opportunities using deep learning algorithms
3. Strategic Reordering of Transaction Sequence
4. Extracting Additional Yield (MEV)
5. Distribute this amount of money to the staking users

This is why Jito's staking APY reaches 7.05%, while regular staking only offers 3-4%. Users earn not only the basic staking rewards but also a share of MEV.

JitoSOL: The Key to Liquidity

What are the pain points of traditional staking? Your money cannot move during the lock-up period.

Jito's solution is to issue JitoSOL—a synthetic asset that represents your staked SOL at a 1:1 ratio. The key is:

• JitoSOL can be traded freely
• Can be used in other DeFi protocols (lending, liquidity mining, etc.)
• Continue to earn staking rewards and MEV profits

Understand it from a different perspective: your SOL is no longer dead money, but a living asset. It can generate interest and continue to create profits.

How to Play with JTO Tokens?

This year, the total supply of JTO tokens for the Jito airdrop is 1 billion, with the following distribution plan:

• Community Growth: 24.3%
• Ecological Development: 25%
• Core Team: 24.5%
• Investors: 16.2%
• Airdrop: 10% (90% unlocked immediately, 10% unlocked in one year)

What can JTO do?

• Governance Voting (DAO Decision Making)
• Share MEV earnings
• Unlock community benefits and early access
• Possible future staking enhancers (holding JTO can increase JitoSOL yield multiplier)

What's next?

Jito's ambition goes beyond staking. The official plans are in progress:

1. DeFi Integration and Expansion - Connecting more ecosystem projects
2. MEV Algorithm Iteration — Continuously optimizing capture efficiency
3. New Product Incubation — The recently announced StakeNet protocol (decentralized validator management tool) is just the beginning.
4. Community Incentive Upgrade — Plan to release more JTO tokens to active users.

Last Words

Jito rewrote the rules of Solana staking with a simple idea: to distribute the MEV profits that were originally pocketed by miners/validators to ordinary users through technology and a transparent mechanism.

From competitors withdrawing one after another to now occupying the second position on the Solana DApp leaderboard, Jito's growth curve is indeed fierce. The question is, how long can this model hold up? What is the ceiling for MEV capture? These are all worth observing in the long term.

Interested individuals can now consider experiencing it, but remember: higher returns mean more complex mechanism risks, do your homework before getting in.