a16z Invests $50 Million in Solana Staking Protocol Jito

a16z Crypto Injects $50 Million Into Solana Staking Platform Jito

October 16, 2025 — Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm (a16z Crypto) has invested $50 million in Jito, a leading Solana-based liquid staking and MEV infrastructure protocol, marking one of the largest single investments in the Solana ecosystem this year.

According to Fortune, the venture firm received an allocation of Jito’s native token (JTO) as part of the deal. The investment will fund the expansion of Jito’s staking rewards optimization, network security, and MEV infrastructure.

“This partnership with a16z strengthens our mission to make Solana staking more efficient and transparent while driving deeper liquidity across DeFi,” said Brian Smith, executive director at the Jito Foundation, the entity behind the protocol.

Jito Expands as Solana’s Liquid Staking Leader

Jito currently holds $2.86 billion in total value locked (TVL), cementing its position among Solana’s top DeFi protocols. The platform gained traction after launching its Block Assembly Marketplace (BAM) in July — a mechanism designed to reduce toxic MEV extraction and improve validator performance.

BAM’s rollout has been key to Solana’s rise as a preferred chain for derivatives platforms and central limit order books, according to Jito’s team.

“With BAM live on mainnet, Jito’s DeFi momentum and institutional adoption via JitoSOL ETFs, things are just getting started,” the platform wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

JitoSOL Holds Strong During Market Turbulence

During the October 10 market crash, which wiped out nearly $19 billion from crypto markets, Jito’s JitoSOL token maintained its peg to SOL — outperforming many other liquid staking tokens.

The stability was attributed to “deep and actively managed liquidity” across incentivized pools, which routed over 50% of JitoSOL trading volume during the sell-off.

Following the crash, JTO rebounded from $0.81 to $1.16, flipping green as news of the a16z investment broke.