Jito’s
successful
JTO
token
launch
is
lifting
many
ships
in
the
Solana
(SOL)
ecosystem,
including
that
of
a
direct
competitor:
Marinade.
Marinade,
which
like
Jito
issues
a
liquid
staking
token
(LST)
for
SOL
investors,
saw
its
governance
token
reach
all-time
highs
this
week.
The
brisk
rally
–
MNDE
doubled
to
$0.50
in
a
matter
of
hours
–
came
as
Jito’s
own
JTO
token
launched
and
rallied,
too.
Marinade
now
has
a
fully
diluted
valuation
of
$500
million
compared
to
Jito’s
valuation
of
$3.5
billion.
This
is
in
spite
of
Jito
being
a
smaller
business:
Its
total
value
locked
(a
measurement
of
the
size
of
a
crypto
project)
is
$460
million,
whereas
Marinade
has
a
TVL
of
$737
million.
The
seeming
contradiction
caused
consternation
in
Marinade’s
community
Discord
server,
where
some
investors
speculated
on
why
MNDE
fell
behind
JTO.
Both
assets
are
governance
tokens
whose
holders
have
sway
over
decisions
like
the
fee
rates
and
treasury
of
their
respective
LST
protocols.
“Jito
has
the
added
benefit
of
its
block
building
engine
and
MEV
infrastructure,”
said
Barrett
Williams,
founder
of
Solana-based
futures
trading
venue
Cypher,
explaining
why
investors
put
a
premium
on
the
smaller
protocol.
Still,
the
Thursday
airdrop
of
JTO
indirectly
spread
wealth
to
MNDE
holders,
too,
by
prompting
the
entire
market
to
reevaluate
how
it
was
pricing
the
Marinade
protocol,
said
Ally
Zach,
a
research
analyst
for
Messari.
“Investors
were
probably
speculating
that
they
will
be
valued
similarly
over
time,”
she
said
in
a
Telegram
message.
The
psychology
of
free
money
airdrop
also
might
have
been
a
factor.
Jito
distributed
at
least
4,900
JTO
tokens
to
around
10,000
wallets
apiece,
“which
left
a
lot
of
people
on
the
sidelines,”
she
said.
The
token’s
post-launch
surge
put
a
spotlight
on
this
corner
of
Solana,
and
then
“a
lot
of
these
sideliners
probably
came
in
and
started
buying.”
Marinade
and
Jito
have
both
drawn
comparisons
to
Lido
(LDO),
the
best-known
and,
by
far,
the
largest
LST
protocol
in
crypto.
Lido
has
commanded
most
LST
activity
on
Ethereum
(ETH)
but
struggled
to
replicate
that
success
on
Solana.
In
mid-October,
right
at
the
start
of
the
recent
Solana
rally,
it
quit
the
ecosystem.
This
left
a
wider
opening
for
Marinade
and
Jito,
both
of
which
started
on
and
stuck
with
Solana.
The
repricing
and
market
mechanics
may
also
have
to
do
with
liquidity
–
or
lack
of
it,
said
InfraRAY,
head
of
partnerships
for
Solana-based
DEX
Raydium.
There’s
only
so
many
JTO
tokens
in
circulation
after
Thursday’s
airdrop.
Even
though
95%
of
the
current
distribution
has
been
claimed
–
and
is
therefore
circulating
–
it’s
still
only
a
fraction
of
the
JTO’s
total
supply.
Fewer
tokens
floating
around
means
fewer
available
to
buy
or
sell.
“Sometimes
markets
aren’t
as
efficient
as
they
are
made
out
to
be,”
he
said
in
a
Telegram
message.