Jito (JTO) Price Surges On Airdrop, CEX Listings: Will The Hype Last?

The price of Jito (JTO) pumped to $3.00 within 24 hours after the Liquid Staking Token launched on December 7. According to CoinMarketCap, the price was up 84.96% since the token’s launch and listing on major exchanges.

But besides the price increase, Jito had a lot of hype around its introduction. This was because the project had planned to airdrop 100 million tokens to its early users. Some of the recipients include those who lent to DeFi protocols on Solana (SOL). Others were MEV searchers, as well as validators.

Eyes on JTO as Claims Start

At press time, Flipside Crypto showed that 62.36% of the eligible 10,133 addresses had claimed rewards. Some were worth as low as $500, while others got as high as $12,000. Jito also noted that qualified wallets have 18 months to claim their tokens. Furthermore, a look at the Jito Foundation’s treasury showed that it was still worth $737.48 million.

According to on-chain analytics provider Santiment, the hype around JTO is unlikely to end anytime soon. Santiment, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), noted that JTO topped its list of trending cryptocurrencies alongside Bitcoin (BTC).

This trend means there is an increase in searches and discussions around the project, indicating that the hype has not subsided. Should this social volume continue to increase alongside the JTO uptrend, then it is possible to see the token head in the $4 direction in the short term.

The Boost Isn’t Over

Another metric suggesting that market players have their eyes fixated on Jito is the Total Value Locked (TVL). According to DefiLlama, Jito’s TVL was the second-highest in the Liquid Staking arm of Solana.

Top of the list was Marinade Liquid Staking with a TVL of $472.87 million. Jito, on the flip side, had a TVL of $456.14 million. This value represents a 66.97% increase in the last 30 days.

The surge in the TVL implies that market participants perceive Jito to be trustworthy and therefore, decided to increase the number of assets locked in it, in anticipation of a good yield. Should the TVL continue to increase, then it would mean that participants trust in the long-term relevance of Jito rather than see it as a short-term opportunity to dump for a quick profit.

Also, the fact that JTO is listed on top exchanges has given market players greater confidence in the project’s long-term potential. As of this writing, JTO is listed on Coinbase, Bybit, Binance, Bitget, and a few others.

In addition, there are upcoming projects on Solana planning to follow the Jito route. Examples include the Kamino Protocol and the Jupiter Exchange. So, users may want to keep an eye out for future developments around these projects.