Bitcoin had a volatile week, but traders quickly turned their focus to Jito’s new governance token, JTO, which surged by 75% during its Thursday launch on the Solana blockchain.

Jito, operating on Solana, unveiled its JTO token at 11 am ET. Within 45 minutes, about 30% of the airdrop had been claimed, with no substantial selling from the top 14 claimers.

Unusually, eligible recipients have 18 months to claim their assets, a longer window compared to the typical 30 to 90 days offered for airdropped tokens.

As of now, JTO holds a market capitalization of around $211 million. The airdrop led to a surge in futures market activity, causing a temporary crash on the decentralized exchange Aevo. Coinbase and Binance are planning to list the token.

JTO’s launch coincides with a strong year for altcoins. Solana’s native token, SOL, has seen a remarkable 550% rise year-to-date. Other altcoins like Polygon (MATIC) and Chainlink (LINK) maintained a 16% gain over the month.

While Bitcoin retreated to around $43,100 after breaching $44,000 earlier, Ether extended its rally, climbing by 4.2% in the past 24 hours.

Altcoins dominated 67% of the total crypto trade volume last week, marking its highest level since March 2022, as highlighted by analysts from Kaiko.

ETPs holding Solana have surged by 99% in assets under management last month, following a 172% growth in October, indicating broader interest in altcoins beyond just crypto-native traders.