TL;DR
A governance token gives holders the right to vote on protocol decisions, parameter changes, and treasury allocations, effectively making them partial owners of the protocol.
Holding JUP gives you voting rights in Jupiter DAO decisions. Holding MNDE lets you influence Marinade’s validator delegation strategy. The more tokens you hold (or stake), the more voting weight you have. Governance tokens often also serve as the protocol’s primary tradeable token, giving them speculative value beyond just voting rights.
Governance tokens derive value from the protocol’s revenue, treasury, and future potential. Some protocols share revenue with token stakers (fee sharing). Others use revenue to buy back and burn tokens. The “fat protocol thesis” suggests base-layer protocols and dominant DeFi apps will capture significant value. Governance tokens of protocols with real revenue (like Jupiter, with billions in monthly volume) have stronger fundamental backing.
Check: Does the protocol generate real revenue? Is revenue shared with token holders? How active is governance (voter turnout)? What’s the token unlock schedule (vesting for team and investors)? Is governance meaningful or are decisions dominated by a few whale wallets? A governance token for a protocol with no revenue and concentrated voting power is likely overvalued relative to its governance utility.