MT Capital Insight：Jito——重塑 Solana 质押格局

作者：Severin 和 Ian，MT Capital

长话短说

• Jito 是 Solana 上第一个提供 MEV 奖励和质押奖励的流动性质押协议。

  在过去 30 天里，其 TVL 增加了近 70%，这使其有望重塑 Solana 的质押格局。

• Jito 即将推出其治理代币 JTO。

  前期，JTO的流通量将受到限制，抛售压力主要来自空投用户。

  JTO 的用例有限，价值获取能力较差。

  Jito 需要新的激励计划和生态系统的发展来推动 TVL 的持续增长，这可以缓解空投用户的抛售压力并保持 JTO 价值的稳定性。

• 随着 Solana 上新资产和用户的涌入，加上交易量的增加和极低的流动性质押渗透率，像 Jito 这样的 LSD 协议有望捕获更多的质押 TVL。

  Solana 巨大的 MEV 潜力也为 Jito 提供了充足的发展空间。

• 与 Marinade 相比，Jito 在生态系统广度、去中心化和质押模型特异性方面的劣势将随着时间的推移而减弱。

  与此同时，随着 Solana 的采用，Jito 在 MEV 价值获取和分配方面的核心竞争优势将大幅扩大。

  我们非常看好 Jito 未来超越 Marinade 成为 Solana 顶级 LSD 协议的前景。

• Jito 基本面的增强也将提振 JTO 代币价格。

  看看过去一个月 LSD 代币的表现，我们相信 JTO 可能会在二级市场看到更惊人的涨幅。

Jito：Solana 上第一个具有 MEV 奖励的液体质押协议

Jito Labs 深入研究 Solana MEV 领域

Jito Network 由 Jito Labs 团队推出。

早期，Jito Labs 专注于 Solana MEV 基础设施。

2022 年 7 月，他们发布了 Solana MEV Dashboard，分析了自 2022 年 1 月以来 Solana 上超过 360 亿笔 MEV 交易。随后，2022 年 8 月，Jito Labs 宣布获得由 Multicoin Capital 和 Framework Ventures 领投的 1000 万美元 A 轮融资。

所得收益将继续为优化 MEV 提取和分配的基础设施提供资金。

Jito Labs 随后推出了 Jito-Solana 验证器客户端和 Jito Block Engine 等产品，成为主要的 Solana MEV 基础设施提供商。

Jito 区块引擎通过链下拍卖将中继者、搜索者和验证者连接起来，以缓解 MEV 问题。

• 首先，Jito 区块引擎接收来自中继者的交易订单并将其转发给搜索者。

• 接下来，搜索者提交包含出价的交易包。

• 最后，Jito 区块引擎模拟不同的交易组合，以找到最佳的包转发给验证器进行处理。

来源：

According to theValidator Health Report: October 2023released by the Solana Foundation, about 31.45% of Solana validators currently use the Jito-Solana validator client by Jito Labs. This underscores Jito Labs’ technical capabilities in the MEV domain.

With increasing adoption of the Jito-Solana validator client, more MEV rewards are captured on Jito-Solana, laying the groundwork for Jito to launch liquid staking modules with MEV rewards.

The First Solana LSD Protocol with MEV Rewards

Ill-timed launch leading to lackluster JitoSOL performance:In November 2022, right before FTX imploded, Jito Labs officially launched the Jito staking service to ride the popularity of liquid staking protocols. Similar to other LSDs, users receive JitoSOL tokens as liquidity tokens after delegating SOL to validators. JitoSOL prices appreciate over time to reflect earned validation rewards. Thanks to Jito Labs’ early efforts in Solana MEV, Jito also distributes MEV profits to stakers for extra yields. Unfortunately, right after announcing liquid staking, FTX collapsed due to customer fund misappropriation. The closely-tied Solana ecosystem also took a heavy hit with massive liquidity outflows. Thus, despite launching staking modules, lack of market confidence and liquidity demand kept Jito TVL lukewarm.

Points Program bolstering Jito revival: As the Solana ecosystem recovered in the second half of 2023, Jito’s TVL also started picking up gradually. Concurrently in August 2023, Jito launched Jito Points program to incentivize adoption of JitoSOL. Users earn points through activities like staking with Jito, holding JitoSOL, using JitoSOL in DeFi, and referring friends. Points represent contributions to the Jito community and serve as an important benchmark for future airdrops. The launch of the loyalty program markedly steepened Jito TVL growth.

Lido withdrawal accelerating Jito growth through market share capture: Around the same time in October 2023, the Lido DAO community voted to stop supporting new SOL staking deposits, with node operators set to exit the staking market starting November. With Lido bowing out, nearly $6M worth of stSOL needed to find new staking avenues. Jito, offering combined staking and MEV rewards plus a loyalty program, opportunistically onboarded large amounts of stSOL. This further catalyzed Jito TVL growth, propelling Jito to become one of the top 2 LSD protocols on Solana.

source：https://lookerstudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/b41835bc-fafb-46c8-9ade-b012f28a41b2/page/p_7dnjjzu6uc

More Decentralized Jito — StarkNet

To make the underlying validator pool and staked asset allocation more decentralized, Jito proposed the future roadmap for Jito StarkNet. Jito StarkNet is a self-sustaining, transparent, decentralized protocol for intelligently managing validator pools. It consists of three modules — Keepers, Validator History Program, and Steward Program.

• The Validator History Program stores historical data for each validator over the past ~3 years, including participation and accuracy in consensus, fee rates, MEV extraction value, total stake value, and staking ranking.

• The Steward Program calculates a score and optimal staking allocation for each validator based on on-chain historical records.

• The Keepers Network executes staking allocation based on calculations from the Steward Program.

In the Jito StarkNet network, validators’ historical behaviors serve as the sole benchmark for staking allocation to incentivize benign competition and better staking experiences. Also, allocation management no longer relies on centralized governance. Instead, the Steward and Keepers programs autonomously adjust allocations in a more decentralized fashion.

Tokenomics

On November 28th, the Jito Foundation announced the release of JTO governance token. The launch of JTO is a crucial step in Jito’s development, as it will be utilized to reward early contributors through airdrops and empower users with governance capabilities over the protocol.

Token Distribution:Total supply is 1 billion JTO, allocated as:

• 10% Airdropped to early users

• 24.3% Community pool governed by the DAO

• 24.5% and 16.2% to the Jito team and early investors, with a 1-year cliff and 3-year vesting

• 25% Ecosystem fund

Token Utility: JTO holders can decide on key parameters and governance initiatives like:

• Setting fees for the JitoSOL staking pool

• Tuning parameters in Jito StarkNet to adjust staking allocation strategies

• Managing the DAO’s JTO treasury and fees captured from JitoSOL

Airdrop Incentives: Early Jito adopters stand to earn JTO token airdrops. Specifically,

• 80% of tokens are airdropped to JitoSOL holders and users

• 15% of tokens are airdropped to validators running the Jito-Solana client

• 5% of tokens are airdropped to Jito MEV searchers

Given the token allocation, there will be limited circulating supply initially, with selling pressure coming mainly from airdropped users. As for utility, JTO use cases are currently limited with inferior value capture capabilities. Jito needs new incentive programs and ecosystem growth to drive continuous TVL increase, which could ease selling pressure from airdropped users and maintain JTO value stability to some extent.

Jito’s Future Outlook

Explosive Solana Growth

After lying low in the fallout from FTX’s bankruptcy, Solana is finally seeing signs of recovery. Starting September 2023, Solana TVL kickstarted exponential growth, recently approaching $700M. Moreover, in the latest bull run, top 10 chain monthly TVL increased 14.8% versus a whopping 85% on Solana — far outpacing peers. The influx of assets bodes well for driving up SOL staking demand.

Aside from surging TVL, Solana also hit peaks of nearly 400M in daily transactions. The heightened trading volumes should increase network fees as well as MEV profits to stimulate staking demand for protocols like Jito.

Additionally, Solana also saw increases in new and reactivated users, further expanding the addressable market for LSD protocols like Jito.

Huge Runway for Solana LSD Growth

Despite 70.07% of SOL already staked, liquid staking only accounts for 3–4% — leaving ample room to run. Compared to regular staking, liquid staking offers superior capital efficiency by letting users enjoy staking yields while participating in other DeFi activities with liquidity staking tokens. As depicted below, liquid staking saw explosive growth with the Solana revival. We expect liquid staking to displace more generic staking avenues over time given higher capital efficiency for DeFi activities.

Enormous MEV Potential on Solana

Since Jito distributes MEV profits to JitoSOL holders, higher MEV yields on Solana translate to higher staking rewards for JitoSOL. The boosted APR makes JitoSOL more enticing for users. Over the past year, Solana saw $14M in MEV profits, with ample optimizable MEV left on the table.

As the Solana network thrives, Jito also accumulates higher MEV takings over time. We expect this trend to continue with Jito capturing incrementally more MEV from burgeoning Solana activity to distribute to JitoSOL holders.

Jito Has its Unique Competitive Advantages Compared with Marinade

Marinade, as the earliest LSD protocol in the Solana ecosystem, once disrupted TVL, reaching a peak of 1.7 billion and standing as one of Jito’s major competitors. When compared to Marinade, Jito faces the following key competitive disadvantages:

1. The ecosystem network of Marinade’s LST is more diverse than that of Jito’s LST.

2. Marinade has a higher number of validating nodes, resulting in a higher level of decentralization compared to Jito.

3. Marinade offers additional staking options beyond LSD.

In response to competitive disadvantage 1, as illustrated in the following diagram, JitoSOL is continually expanding its ecosystem use cases and has already integrated with over 10 mainstream DeFi protocols. Moreover, with the solid support of Multicoin, a dedicated player in the Solana ecosystem, Jito is well-positioned to effortlessly expand its ecosystem partnerships in the future.

In response to competitive disadvantage 2, Marinade currently boasts approximately twice the number of nodes compared to Jito, resulting in a significantly higher level of decentralization. This presents a challenge for Jito to surpass in the short term. However, Jito is actively transitioning towards Jito-StarkNet, offering the potential for a substantial increase in protocol decentralization in the future.

In addition to the competitive disadvantages, when compared to Marinade, Jito also possesses the following competitive advantages:

1. JitoSOL has the ability to capture additional MEV rewards, with staking rewards slightly higher than Marinade.

2. Under similar incentive programs, Jito can attract a larger number of active users in the current wave of Solana’s recovery.

Jito’s ability to capture and distribute MEV value stands as a core competitive advantage for long-term success. As the Solana network becomes more active, the MEV value will increase, making Jito’s advantage more pronounced. The fact that Jito can attract a larger number of active users also indicates that Marinade has not yet established a monopoly over the LSD market. Similar LSD protocols, including Jito, still have significant room for development.

In summary, compared to Marinade, Jito’s disadvantages in ecosystem breadth, decentralization, and staking model specificity will diminish over time. Meanwhile, Jito’s core competitive advantage in MEV value capture and distribution will expand dramatically with Solana adoption. We are very bullish on Jito’s future prospects to overtake Marinade as Solana’s top LSD protocol.

The stable fundamentals of Jito are expected to drive an upward trend in the secondary token, JTO. Considering the price trends of LSD protocol tokens over the past month, we believe that JTO will also demonstrate a robust performance in the secondary market.

Reference

1. https://www.jito.network/docs/jitosol/overview/

2. https://www.jito.network/blog/

3. https://solana.com/news/validator-health-report-october-2023

4. https://foresightnews.pro/article/detail/48090

5. https://www.techflowpost.com/article/detail_14335.html

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