Jito Reveals JTO Airdrop for Solana DeFi Users—Here's Who Can Claim

Solana DeFi platform Jito announced Monday that it is launching a governance token, JTO, to let holders vote on future key decisions for the liquid staking protocol. The token will be airdropped to early Jito users.

“It is time to formalize governance of the network in the hands of those who make it thrive—the widespread community of Jito users and contributors,” the announcement blog post reads.

Like many decentralized platforms and blockchain networks, a foundation incorporated in the Cayman Islands has been set up to oversee Jito. Out of one billion tokens in total, the foundation will airdrop 100 million tokens to the Jito community, which includes JitoSOL holders, Solana validators running the Jito Solana MEV clients, and those using Jito’s MEV services.

JitoSOL is the platform’s staking token, and currently has over 6.7 million SOL in total volume locked (or about $372 million worth). JitoSOL holders can earn Jito Points by keeping the tokens in their wallets.

No timeframe has been announced for the JTO airdrop. The Jito Foundation said that it took a snapshot on November 25, and that the airdrop will be based on user activity up until that point.

Another 250 million JTO will remain with the foundation, and about 162 million will be given to investors. The remainder of the funds will be allocated to core contributors, ecosystem development, and other community efforts, according to the post.

Pyth Airdrop Puts $77 Million in the Wallets of Crypto Users

DeFi oracles network Pyth enjoyed a strong debut for its much-anticipated token airdrop on Monday, quickly nabbing an initial market capitalization of $765 million for its Solana-based PYTH token. However, that figure settled down to roughly $457 million at writing, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Upon PYTH’s launch this morning, the token began trading at $0.53, only to fall to $0.28 minutes later. It has since leveled out to just above $0.30 as of this writing. The token has seen over $8...

This month, other Solana protocols like Pyth and Jupiter have done similar airdrops, creating tokens for their respective DeFi platforms. The PYTH token is up about 15% this week, and JUP is down 37% in the same seven-day period, according to CoinGecko data.

Edited by Andrew Hayward