Jito Labs launches self-custody trading tool as activity heats up on Solana

Jito Labs, a core infrastructure provider on Solana, has unveiled JTX, a new crypto trading platform aimed at bringing more advanced trading tools to the blockchain.

Announced at the Solana Accelerate conference in Miami, Florida, JTX is the company’s first product built specifically for traders. It allows users to trade tokens on Solana while maintaining self-custody, meaning they have full control of their funds unlike other set ups that have to hand assets over to a centralized exchange like Coinbase or Binance.

JTX is designed to feel more like those centralized platforms, the team shared in a press release with CoinDesk. It is supposed to offer faster trade execution and a range of tools typically used by professional traders, including stop-loss orders, preset trade strategies and detailed market charts powered by TradingView.

The launch comes as trading activity on Solana has surged, Jito Labs claimed, with decentralized exchanges on the network processing over $1 trillion in volume last year. Much of the more sophisticated trading still happens on centralized platforms or other blockchains.

Jito is betting that demand for more advanced, onchain trading will keep growing, with JTX expecting to come out with products like perpetual futures and prediction markets. In addition, a large portion of the revenue generated by JTX will go back to the protocol, benefiting holders of its JTO token.

JTX is currently open for sign-ups via a waitlist, with early access expected soon.

"Solana's infrastructure is the best in the world, processing more daily transactions than every other blockchain combined," said Lucas Bruder, the CTO at Jito Labs. "JTX is what happens when we point that at traders who've outgrown what's currently being built for them. It beats a CEX on execution. It doesn't take your keys. That's the pitch."

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