Solana-based MEV protocol Jito experiences downtime, temporarily driving transaction fees up

Leading Solana MEV infrastructure protocol Jito experienced downtime early on Wednesday morning, causing priority fees on the Layer 1 blockchain to jump, the company disclosed in a post on X. The outage occurred amid an ongoing post-presidential election rally that is driving many cryptocurrencies — including Solana-based memecoins — to record highs. 

“We are having a system-wide outage right now. The team is all hands on deck fixing it and will follow up here when resolved,” Jito Labs’ official X account posted at approximately 11:30 UTC. 

The issue was resolved about an hour later, though the root cause is currently unclear. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko suggested in a response on X that it could have been related to a “scheduler stress test.”

"I think their block engine server just got overloaded from very very high demand," Mert Mumtaz, Helius co-founder and Solana commentator told The Block in a direct message. "but they resolved it in like 10 minutes, which was superhuman."

During the outage, priority fees on Solana jumped approximately 25-30x, according to live data feed Compass Solana . The mean fee during the period hit a high of about $0.03, while the median fee reached about $0.01.

“The issue affecting bundle delivery was identified and resolved. All systems are fully operational and secure. This issue did not impact network liveness. Technical post mortem to follow,” the team wrote in a follow-up message. 

“network liveness was okay and continued to run,” Jito Labs developer @buffalu__ said. “To clarify, this was not a Solana network issue and there was no impact on liveness or stake. This issue was idiosyncratic to bundle delivery through Jito Labs Block Engine.”

Jito has not yet responded to a request for comment. 

The liquid staking protocol allows users to stake SOL tokens to earn derivative Jito Staked SOL, which earns yield via staking rewards and Maximum Extractable Value strategies. In short, the Jito block engine runs simulations to determine the most profitable combination of transactions and then submits these bundles to validators.

Editor's note (Nov. 13, 2024 — 16:45 UTC): Adds quote from Mert.