JTO is the governance token of the Jito Network, enabling community members to have a direct impact on the protocol's decision-making and future direction. Through JTO, token holders participate in the Jito DAO, which oversees crucial aspects of the network including protocol upgrades, parameter adjustments, and treasury management.
Jito's growth within the Solana ecosystem has been substantial. JitoSOL is the largest Liquid Staking Token (LST) on Solana, boasting a Total Value Locked (TVL) of 14m SOL (as of November 2024), while the Jito MEV network of validators running the Jito-Solana client operates over 90% of network-stake weight (as of November 2024) . This article aims to offer a comprehensive understanding of the utility and role of the JTO tokens in governance of the Jito Network.
Governance
JTO enables token holders to make key decisions to shape the future of the Jito Network so that it continues to evolve and thrive in alignment with the needs of those it serves, and of the broader Solana ecosystem. These decisions and initiatives may include:
Setting fees of the JitoSOL stake pool and Jito (Re)staking network.
Updating delegation strategies by controlling parameters of the StakeNet programs
Managing parameters for the Jito TipRouter node consensus network
Managing the treasury of JTO tokens held by the DAO and fees generated from JitoSOL and restaking (denominated in JitoSOL)
Contributing to the ongoing development and improvement of Jito’s protocols and products
The Jito Foundation is excited for token holders to continue to lead Jito’s growth as they engage in the governance process to steer the direction of theJito Network.
Jito Foundation
The Jito Foundation organizes and coordinates decisions from the token holder community. Its mission is aligned with that of the Jito Network:
Enhance the staking economy through JitoSOL and associated products
Improve the Solana network
The Foundation structure amplifies the power of the Jito Network. Token holder decisions will seamlessly transfer from DAO governance to off-chain infrastructure and relationships with strategic contributors (given that many strategic contributors require a counterparty to enter into agreements). The Foundation empowers the Jito Network to operate at greater scale and speed as the network evolves.
10% of the total supply was airdropped and 24.3% was transferred to Realms DAO that is controlled directly by token holders. The remaining 25% was allocated to the Jito Foundation to fund these efforts and lead large-scale strategic relationships.
The Foundation is led by two independent Directors (Matt Shaw and Glenn Kennedy), with an independent Supervisor provided by FFP Corporate Services. The Foundation’s DAO administrator is Webslinger, an advisory firm for leading crypto projects. Token holders have ultimate control over the Foundation with the ability to remove the Supervisor and Directors. Transparency reports are provided on a regular basis by the Foundation.
Jito Foundation is governed by its Constitution, Bylaws and Articles of Association and Memorandum of Association.
Allocation Details
The Jito token (JTO) has a total supply of 1,000,000,000 JTO with the initial circulating supply and float listed below:
Jito tokens (JTO) were allocated across the following main categories:
Community Growth
34.3% – 342,857,143 JTO
The “Community Growth” token allocation is dedicated to growing the Jito community. The first use was a retrospective airdrop for 10% of total supply to Jito community members as a recognition of their contribution in bootstrapping the network and to facilitate robust governance participation (see additional details below). The remaining tokens (24.3% of the total supply) are controlled by DAO governance on the Realms platform. The use and pace of distribution for these tokens is up to token holder governance. The goal is growing Jito Network’s community and utility.
More On The Airdrop
10% – 100,000,000
The airdrop by the Cayman Foundation consists of 90,000,000 JTO tokens for immediate distribution and an additional 10,000,000 unlocking over the next year, each of which will come from the 342,857,143 tokens allocated to Community Growth.
The eligibility for the JTO token airdrop had been determined by a user's contribution to the Jito Network's development and growth over time. This included long-standing JitoSOL holders, users engaging with JitoSOL on various DeFi protocols, Solana validators operating the Jito-Solana MEV client, and searchers actively utilizing Jito Network’s MEV products.
The airdrop was backwards-looking and the snapshot for eligible activity was taken on November 25th, 2023.
Ecosystem Development
25% – 250,000,000
Jito’s network has had a strong start, but the mission to enhance the Solana network and staking economy is far from over. The ecosystem development portion of the token allocation is to fund communities and contributors that help drive the expansion of the premier liquid staking protocol on Solana and related network advancements, such as the innovative StakeNet. StakeNet is designed as a self-sustaining protocol for timeless Solana LSTs, which the Foundation has open-sourced for other platforms to use.
For further details, please see the section on Jito Foundation prior to the distribution section.
Investors
16.2% – 162,142,857
Jito Labs has been fortunate to have the support of prominent investors in the Solana community since its genesis. Their expertise and strategic guidance have been instrumental in the Network’s growth and development since its launch. The tokens allocated to investors unlock over 3 years, with a 1-year cliff.
Core Contributors
24.5% – 245,000,000
A portion of JTO tokens was allocated to Jito’s founders and current and future employees of early contributors to the ecosystem. These tokens vest and unlock over 3 years, with a 1-year cliff.
Supply
The chart below shows how the circulating supply of JTO tokens will evolve over time:
Note: the evolution of the JTO circulating supply over time is subject to change as the community makes future decisions on the use of funds and pace of disbursements.
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