How to claim the $JTO airdrop

Overview of the Jito network & how to check your eligibility and claim $JTO

This article is authored by an independent contributor.

smolloop

Posted on Dec 14, 2023

`tis the damn season!

The mood is high and the vibes are immaculate. The consensus says the bull market is just around the corner. All the tokens are up over the past week. One of the more notable ones right now is SOL. There’s a sudden surge in liquidity and activity in the SOL ecosystem. It wouldn’t be wrong to credit the $JTO airdrop alone for this surge. The SOL & JTO community has benefitted massively, with stories of million-dollar airdrops from users. If you have even mildly interacted with the SOL ecosystem, chances are: you are eligible for the airdrop! So, here’s a quick rundown of the Jito network and a step-by-step guide on how to check for eligibility and claim the $JTO airdrop:

Overview

Jito is the liquid staking service for Solana that distributes MEV (maximum extractable value) rewards to holders. The Jito Stake Pool enables users to stake their Solana tokens in exchange for a liquid stake pool token (JitoSOL). The JitoSOL token provides liquidity while earning a combination of staking rewards and MEV rewards.

Jito Labs was founded in 2021 and received Series A funding in August 2022 from Multicoin Capital and Framework Ventures and several other crypto-VCs.

In March 2023, it launched its staking platform. Since then, it has grown quickly, amassing over 6.5 million SOL tokens (~$400 million). It also offers an APY nearing 7%.

Jito is now airdropping 100,000,000 $JTO to various early users based on a snapshot taken on November 25th, 2023. Users who had staked SOL on Jito and had at least 100 100 Jito points, Solana validators operating the Jito-Solana MEV client, and searchers that tipped at least 1 SOL can claim the airdrop. Tokens will be available for 18 months. However, if they are not claimed in this timeframe, then the funds will be transferred to the project’s treasury.

Of the tokens that are distributed, 80% (80,000,000 JTO) will go to stakers who have earned at least 100 points, 15% (15,000,000 JTO) to validators, and 5% (5,000,000 JTO) to searchers.

Within these segments, there are different tiers based on engagement. For example, those with 100 top 968 points will receive 4,941 tokens, while users who earned points over 7,447,592 will earn more than 100,000 tokens. The same goes for validators and searchers, although these groups have fewer users.

Step-by-Step Guide:

Visit the Jito airdrop website.

Connect your Solana wallet. Some of the more popular ones include Phantom, Glow, etc. Phantom even has a popup inside their wallet that redirects you to claim your airdrop if eligible.

If you’re eligible, then you will be able to claim free JTO tokens.

If you are not eligible, Jito redirects you to other users who had staked SOL on Jito and had at least 100 Jito points, Solana validators operating the Jito-Solana MEV client, and searchers who tipped at least 1 SOL can claim the airdrop. The snapshot of the users was taken on November 25th, 2023.

At Genesis, 50% of token allocation is available to claim, while the remaining 50% will unlock linearly over 12 months. Eligible users have 18 months to claim their tokens. Any unclaimed tokens will automatically be transferred to the DAO treasury’s Realms wallet.

For more information regarding the airdrop, see this article.