a16z invests $50m Solana staking protocol Jito

Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto division has backed Jito with a $50 million investment set to bolster the Solana staking protocol’s ecosystem.

Jito, a liquid staking protocol whose platform powers a maximal extractable value (MEV) infrastructure, will tap into the $50 million capital injection to optimize its staking rewards and network security. A16z’s backing of the Solana ($SOL) MEV platform is the largest by a single investor.

As part of the investment, a16z has received an allocation of Jito’s native cryptocurrency, Fortune reported on October 16, 2025.

Brian Smith, executive director at the Jito Foundation, confirmed the investment and Jito’s plans. The Jito Foundation is one of the main entities behind the protocol.

Solana platform Jito sees growth

Jito ($JTO) currently boasts $2.86 billion in total value locked and has seen significant growth since unveiling its block assembly marketplace in July.

BAM, the Jito team said at the time, is designed to limit toxic MEV, a key development in making Solana a leading platform for perps exchanges and central limit order books.

“With BAM live on mainnet, Jito’s growing momentum across DeFi, and institutional adoption continuing to accelerate via JitoSol ETF’s, things are just getting started,” the platform posted on X.

JitoSOL showed the network’s resilience as crypto markets recently witnessed its worst single-day crash. As other liquid staking tokens struggled amid the $19 billion wipeout, JitoSOL held its peg to highlight the notable strength LSTs on Solana are showing.

During the Oct. 10 crash, Jito routed more than 50% of JitoSOL trading volume via incentivized pools. According to the platform, “deep and actively managed liquidity” across the pools helped maintain stability and protect the JitoSOL/$SOL peg.

$JTO price, which had dropped to $0.81 on Oct. 10, has since recovered above $1. The token traded near $1.16 at the time of writing, flipping green amid the $50 million a16z investment.