What is Toby?
Toby is Solana's OpenMEV infrastructure, a transparent, governed marketplace for blockspace that turns MEV into real yield for validators, stakers, and the broader ecosystem.
Solana processes billions in daily volume. Most of the value extracted from that activity goes to a handful of private operators. Toby changes that.
Toby is OpenMEV infrastructure for Solana. It replaces the closed, extractive systems that currently capture MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) with a transparent marketplace governed by its participants. The result: MEV value flows back to the people who generate it. Validators, stakers, searchers, and protocols.
The $TOBY token (1B total supply) is the governance and value-capture layer that ties the system together. Token holders set the rules, vote on parameters, and share in the value the network creates.
The Problem
MEV on Solana is a massive market trapped behind closed doors.
There's over $10B in real yield demand across the ecosystem and $42B locked in Liquid Staking Tokens. Yet the value extracted from transaction ordering (arbitrage, liquidations, and other MEV strategies) flows almost entirely to a small set of private operators running closed systems.
Here's what that looks like in practice:
Validators and stakers generate enormous value through the blocks they produce, but receive only a fraction of the MEV their infrastructure creates.
Searchers face steep barriers to entry: expensive hardware, closed access to order flow, and gated validator sets that favor incumbents.
Protocols and DApps watch their users get sandwiched and front-run with no recourse. The profits from those attacks go to private actors.
The ecosystem lacks a coordination layer that could align incentives across all participants.
The core issue isn't that MEV exists. MEV is a natural byproduct of any efficient market. The issue is that the systems capturing it are private, permissioned, and extractive.
What Toby Builds
Toby's product suite creates an open MEV marketplace, from block building to data infrastructure to governance.
Block Chef
The open MEV auction, built as a two-layer system. Head Chef acts as the gatekeeper, receiving bundles from searchers, tagging and filtering them against OpenMEV's community-approved guidelines. Approved bundles pass to Sous Chef, which runs the auction and assembles partial block proposals for validators. No private deals. Anyone can participate. The best bundles win on merit.
Validator Optimizer
Performance-based stake delegation with three novel filters that route stake to validators based on actual performance metrics, not politics or backroom deals. Validators earn delegation by running reliable infrastructure and participating honestly in the MEV supply chain.
Learn more about Validator Optimizer
genSOL
Liquid staking powered by OpenMEV yield. genSOL lets stakers access MEV-boosted returns without locking their capital. Stake flows through the Validator Optimizer to high-performing validators, and MEV rewards are passed back to genSOL holders automatically.
OtterFlow / Laser Stream
A data feed purpose-built for MEV searchers. Laser Stream delivers the same transaction and block data that searchers need, but requires 30-50% less hardware than alternatives like Jito's Firehose. Lower infrastructure costs mean more searchers can compete. More competition means better price discovery for the whole ecosystem.
OpenMEV Council
Community governance for MEV policy. The Council lets $TOBY holders vote on fee structures, auction rules, validator requirements, and protocol upgrades. No single entity controls how the system evolves.
Learn more about OpenMEV Council
Toby-Solana Client
A Firedancer compatible validator client that integrates natively with the OpenMEV stack. Validators running the Toby-Solana Client get direct access to Block Chef auctions, Laser Stream data, and optimized block building, all from a single piece of software.
How It's Different
The simplest way to understand Toby is to compare it with the status quo.
Access
Permissioned, gated
Permissionless, open auction
MEV Handling
Captures all MEV indiscriminately
Filters harmful MEV (sandwich attacks), rewards beneficial MEV (arbitrage, liquidations)
Governance
Centralized operators
Token holders via OpenMEV Council
Value Distribution
Concentrated among operators
Distributed to validators, stakers, and searchers
Data Infrastructure
Expensive hardware requirements
Laser Stream: 30-50% lower hardware costs
Validator Selection
Relationship-based
Performance-based (Validator Optimizer)
Three things stand out:
Open vs. closed. Block Chef runs a permissionless auction. Any searcher can submit bundles, any validator can participate. No whitelists, no invite-only access, no minimum hardware thresholds beyond what Solana itself requires.
Fair vs. extractive. Toby actively filters harmful MEV. Sandwich attacks, where a trader's transaction is deliberately front-run and back-run to extract value, are blocked at the protocol level. Beneficial MEV strategies like arbitrage (which improves price consistency) and liquidations (which keep lending markets healthy) are encouraged and rewarded.
Governed vs. centralized. The rules aren't set by a company. $TOBY token holders govern the protocol through the OpenMEV Council. Fee parameters, auction mechanics, validator requirements, and upgrade paths are all subject to community vote.
Who It's For
Toby is built for every participant in the Solana MEV supply chain.
Stakers who want higher yield without taking on additional risk. genSOL turns MEV into passive returns on staked SOL. For Stakers
Validators who want stake delegation based on performance, not relationships. The Validator Optimizer rewards good infrastructure with real economic incentives. For Validators
MEV Searchers who want fair access to order flow and affordable data infrastructure. Block Chef and Laser Stream level the playing field. For Searchers
Protocols and DApps that want to protect their users from harmful MEV while benefiting from the value their activity generates. For Protocols
The $TOBY Token
$TOBY is the governance and value-capture token for the OpenMEV ecosystem. Total supply: 1,000,000,000 (1B).
Token holders govern the protocol through the OpenMEV Council, vote on key parameters, and capture value generated by the network's MEV infrastructure. As adoption grows across validators, stakers, and searchers, the token reflects the economic activity flowing through the system.
$TOBY is designed so that the people who use and secure the network are the same people who govern and benefit from it.
Last updated