MEV and Jito
What maximal extractable value is, how Jito bundles and tips work, what BAM changes, and how to keep your trades from being sandwiched.
Whoever builds a block decides the order of its transactions. MEV (maximal extractable value) is the profit available from that choice: being first to an arbitrage, liquidating a loan, or inserting trades around someone else's.
Good, neutral and bad MEV
- Arbitrage keeps prices aligned across pools. Mostly harmless, even useful.
- Liquidations keep lending markets solvent. Useful.
- Sandwiching buys before your swap and sells after it, taking your slippage as profit. Harmful.
How Jito works
Most of Solana's stake runs Jito's validator client, which adds a block engine next to the normal transaction flow. Searchers (MEV bots) submit bundles: up to five transactions that execute in order, all or nothing, with a tip attached. The block engine auctions block space to the highest tips; validators include the winning bundles.
Tips are separate from priority fees, with a minimum of 1,000 lamports. Jito takes a 6% fee on tips, which since 2025 goes to the Jito DAO. The rest goes to validators, who share it with their stakers. That's why JitoSOL yields slightly more than plain staking.
BAM: block assembly in secure hardware
Jito's newer Block Assembly Marketplace (BAM) sequences transactions inside trusted execution environments (secure hardware enclaves) and supports app-specific "plugins", for example to give an order book fair ordering. About 37% of staked SOL was using BAM in early October 2026, and BAM preconfirmations went live in September. Jito says trust still partly rests on its reputation, since the ordering code is closed for now.
Protecting your trades
- Tight slippage. A sandwich can only take as much as your slippage allows.
- MEV-protected routing. Jupiter Ultra and Titan's Prime Mode send swaps through protected paths.
- Split big orders or use limit orders and DCA.
- Avoid peak frenzy on thin memecoin pools, where bots are most active.
Key takeaways
- MEV is profit from choosing the order of transactions in a block.
- Jito's block engine runs an auction for bundles of up to five all-or-nothing transactions.
- Some MEV is useful (arbitrage, liquidations); sandwiching hurts users.
- JitoSOL stakers receive part of MEV tips; tight slippage protects your swaps.
Check yourself
3 questions. Get them all right to mark this lesson complete.
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Facts checked Oct 19, 2026. Educational content, not financial advice.
