Jito Labs, a well-known Solana client validator, recently made the tough decision to remove the “mempool” function from its infrastructure following various negative user experiences.
The presence of the mempool has so far been mainly exploited by MEV bots, which have carried out a large number of “sandwich attacks”, earning millions of dollars at the expense of individuals in the Solana ecosystem.
Jito has chosen to solve the problem once and for all, demonstrating their support for the entire cryptographic community.
All the details below.
Solana Jito Labs’ client validator decides to clear the mempool after several MEV attack episodes
On Friday, March 8, while the whole world was celebrating International Women’s Day, Solana developer client Jito Labs made a choice as important as it was controversial for its cryptographic structure.
Until that day, the “Jito Block Engine” mechanism allowed transactions that were initiated but not yet approved to be placed inside a mempool (just like it happens on Ethereum), even though this feature is not present by default on the Solana blockchain.
However, the frequent cases of MEV attacks, which use the mempool to arbitrarily choose which transaction ordering will be in a block, have prompted Jito to suspend the aforementioned mechanism.
Jito Labs has decided to suspend the mempool offered through the Jito Block Engine due to negative externalities impacting users on Solana.
The decision has been made after deliberate conversations with the Jito Labs team and key Solana ecosystem stakeholders.
— Jito Labs (@jito_labs) March 8, 2024
In detail, the massive presence of MEV bots, which on one hand improves the efficiency of the block validation process, has led to various episodes of sandwich attacks resulting in losses for the normal users of the Solana ecosystem.
An sandwich attack consists in anticipating a large purchase order of a crypto asset on a DEX (remaining pending in the mempool) by placing a sell order exactly as the next transaction in the block, causing a loss of value to the buyer.
Think that in January, one of these attacks saw an MEV bot earn 1.8 million dollars in a few seconds, managing to front-run a trader buying significant amounts of the meme crypto dogwifhat (WIF).
Recently an active user of the Solana community shared the address of one of the largest MEV bots operating on the chain, showing earnings of $678,000 in 24 hours thanks to sandwich attacks caused by ordering transactions in the mempool.
This is one of the biggest sandwich MEV bot that was active on Solana. They supposedly made $678k in the last 24h. (but the website might be buggy). The bot has stopped working now since Jito suspended their mempool. pic.twitter.com/KGZRC0T7vR
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(𝕏ᵀ𝕏) – loracle.eth (@laurentzeimes) March 9, 2024
Jito Labs, which represents the largest validator on Solana, explained the decision in a thread on X, noting that the move was taken “after deliberate conversations with the Jito Labs team and key stakeholders in the Solana ecosystem”
With over 8.5 million SOL locked in the liquid staking platform and with a rapidly growing TVL, Jito has all the interest in the world in pushing for the long-term success of the Solana network and ensuring that it does not encounter structural problems.
The decision to remove the mempool, although it may be seen as an imposition by the Solana Foundation on the validator Jito after various negative feedback from users, contributes to the collective good of the community.
Market trend of the crypto JTO
As Jito Labs is about to solve a significant issue within the on-chain world of Solana, the crypto JTO is gearing up for the next price breakout.
The coin, launched by Jito as a token of governance in December 2023, is currently trading at a price of 2.8 dollars but is aiming to break the $3 threshold and then set new all-time highs.
Although the limited historical data of this crypto does not help determine a prediction on future price movements, we can still point out the start of a predominantly bullish phase on JTO since January 10, 2024.
Now the native crypto of the first validator on Solana significantly exceeds the EMA 50 on the daily time frame and shows a bullish trend motivated by the presence of increasing lows and highs in the last months of trading.
Bears could instead take control of the situation only in case of a breakdown of the psychological level of $2.
With a market capitalization of 300 million dollars, the cryptographic asset still has a lot of room ahead of it and could bring great satisfaction to its holders in the future if the entire crypto market goes through a bullish season.
The billion dollar market capitalization threshold, therefore an increase in prices of over 3 times for JTO, could be reached if things go in the right direction, especially on the Bitcoin benchmark front.
It is also worth considering the profitability trend of the validators operating on Jito, who have seen a significant increase in earnings for their work in the recent period. All of this could lead to a future appreciation of the JTO crypto.
