PANews reported on October 16th that, according to Fortune, the crypto arm of a16z (Andreessen Horowitz) invested $50 million in Jito, a Solana ecosystem protocol, and received a distribution of Jito tokens. Brian Smith, Executive Director of the Jito Foundation, called the deal the largest commitment by a single investor to Jito, emphasizing the terms, which include "long-term alignment," a short-term non-saleability of the tokens, and a discount. a16z also invested in LayerZero ($55 million) and EigenLayer ($70 million) through token transactions this year. Jito is Solana's liquidity staking and transaction priority tool.