Solana Protocol Jito Grabs $1.4b TVL

Jito boasts around 38% of assets deposited on Solana’s blockchain, and is now the biggest protocol within the SOL ecosystem.

Data from DefiLlama revealed that liquid staking and MEV provider Jito is Solana’s (SOL) largest project, with around 10 million SOL in total value locked (TVL). 

Jito launched in December last year and distributed $165 million in free tokens with an airdrop. Users had to stake SOL for a period to qualify for the community incentive, which was backed by a $10 million series A funding round led by Multicoin Capital and Framework Ventures. 

Following the latest crypto market downswing, Jito’s TVL is worth over $1.4 billion, with SOL trading under $140 per CoinMarketCap, but the blockchain still boasts the fourth-highest deposits from defi users. 

Tailing Jito, staking protocol Marinade Finance ranked second on SOL’s network at a $1.3 TVL, signaling demand for yield-generating platforms on the layer 1 chain. 

However, the two Solana protocols are not among the top three services leading the $45 billion liquid staking landscape. Lido, Rocket Pool, and Binance have amassed the most participation, with $27.9 billion, $3.6 billion, and $2.6 billion, respectively. 

A report citing four individuals familiar with the matter said that Jito Labs, the entity behind Jito’s protocol, had plans to bring restaking facilities to Solana’s network. 

Restaking took off last year as services like EigenLayer allowed users to secure multiple dapps and solutions with native cryptocurrencies, primarily Ether (ETH). If Jito succeeds, it will enter a $15.2 billion restaking market currently dominated by EigenLayer and likely foray into a liquid restaking scene with projects like Ether.fi.