Jito (JTO)

Most Solana tokens belong to individual apps, but Jito is the governance token for infrastructure that sits in the network's transaction pipeline itself. Its block engine and relayer help validators capture MEV — value hidden in the ordering of arbitrage and liquidation transactions — and pass a large share of it back to stakers. So JTO governs a piece of plumbing that many Solana validators and stakers rely on.

Jito doesn't run its own blockchain or consensus — it's a layer built on top of Solana, which itself uses Proof of Stake. Validators route pending transactions through Jito's Block Engine, which bundles and orders them to capture MEV and distributes the tips to validators and their stakers. Through JitoSOL, a liquid staking token, ordinary users can stake SOL and automatically receive a share of these MEV rewards while staying liquid.

JTO has a fixed maximum supply of 1 billion tokens, with no ongoing inflation mechanism. The supply was split between an airdrop to early users, the team, investors, and an ecosystem fund, with team and investor tokens unlocking gradually under multi-year vesting schedules. Circulating supply therefore grows over time as unlocks happen, but the total cap never changes.

JTO is a native SPL token on Solana, so any Solana-compatible wallet works — Phantom, Solflare, or hardware wallets like Ledger. Its primary use is governance: holders vote on treasury allocation, JitoSOL parameters, and other protocol decisions, either directly or by delegating voting power. Otherwise it behaves like any standard token and can be traded on crypto exchanges.