## What Is Karura (KAR)?

Karura is an all-in-one decentralized finance ([DeFi](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-decentralized-finance)) hub and stablecoin platform built on Kusama ([KSM](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/kusama/)) and integrated into Polkadot ([DOT](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/polkadot-new/)). Karura was created by the Acala Network, which has won four Web3 Foundation grants and founded the Substrate Developer Academy.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of [Karura](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-karura).

Both Karura and Acala are backed by multiple funds, including Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, Polychain Capital and Hypersphere. Karura and Acala operate in parallel. Specifically, Karura is implementing DeFi on Kusama in the same way that Acala is offering DeFi on Polkadot. The network is built with almost the same codebase as Acala: the two platforms provide scalable, convenient and fast DeFi cross-chain ecosystems for Kusama and Polkadot.

Parachain Karura is a platform that allows users to create effective, low-cost and complex financial applications, saving time and increasing trading efficiency.

The platform itself provides a multi-collateralized stablecoin backed by cross-chain assets (kUSD), a trustless staking derivative (liquid KSM), and an automated market maker ([AMM](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/automated-market-maker-amm)) decentralized exchange ([DEX](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-exchange-dex)) for unlocking liquidity and supporting financial innovation.

Karura is the decentralized financial hub of Kusama, a scalable multi-chain network for radical innovation and early-stage Polkadot deployments. Karura is the sister network to Acala. It hosts multichain liquid staking token (LST) protocols (such as liquid KSM - LKSM), an AMM decentralized exchange, and an app platform that is EVM-compatible and highly customizable (based on Substrate). Karura is secured by Kusama, and is the liquidity gateway of Kusama parachains, Acala and L1/L2 blockchains


### Who Are the Founders of Karura?

Karura was founded by the same team that is behind the Acala Network: Ruitao Su, Bette Chen and Bryan Chen.

Ruitao Su is a co-founder of Acala and current CEO of Laminar Protocol. Prior to that, he was the CTO of Centrality. Su is an award-winning software engineer, entrepreneur, investor and advisor to tech companies and startups.

Bette Chen is a co-founder at Acala Network and the COO at Laminar. She is an experienced product manager and entrepreneur. Chen holds academic degrees in software engineering and business (MBA). She has 10 years of experience managing products in the fields of software and high technologies.

Bryan Chen is another co-founder at Acala Network. He is also a co-founder and CTO of Laminar. Chen is a major contributor to the Substrate codebase and a Polkadot Ambassador.


#### What Makes Karura (KAR) Unique?

All developments and technological updates made by the Acala team will always be delivered to Karura before any other Polkadot platforms. Thus, Karura users will be among the first to take advantage of the latest DeFi technologies.

Karura offers a [stablecoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-a-stablecoin) — Karura Dollar (kUSD), which maintains a 1:1 peg to the value of the U.S. dollar. This removes the need to send KSM tokens to [Binance](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/binance/) because users can safely swap KSM to a stablecoin (or to other assets such as Bitcoin).

Karura also provides a liquidity protocol for KSM tokens if you don't want to participate in auctions, but still aim to receive staking rewards. However, users will have to wait seven days to unfreeze the tokens. Users can leverage the liquidity protocol and swap KSM to LKSM; this token will include the annual percentage yield that you receive, and, most importantly, it will be liquid, making the staking itself liquid.

Karura has a wallet that supports different coins. The platform also supports non-fungible tokens ([NFTs](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/non-fungible-token)), integrated bridges (renBTC, polkaBTC), the ability to borrow and various [oracles](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/oracles-in-defi-101-a-deep-dive-by-tellor).

One of the main advantages Karura offers is the ability to execute hundreds of DeFi strategies without leaving the platform. Users can use cross-chain tokens (like BTC or ETH) to issue a self-service loan in kUSD. They can also earn fees by providing liquidity to the Karura DEX. Furthermore, users will receive rewards and benefits with an unlocked and liquid KSM staking derivative by simply maintaining liquidity while staking.

To sum up, the Karura DeFi Hub on Kusama offers liquid KSM (LKSM) staking, a decentralized exchange, an algorithmic stablecoin and a fixed KAR token supply.


#### Related Pages:

Read about [Kusama](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/kusama/) and [Polkadot](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/polkadot-new/).

Take a [deep dive](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-karura) into the Karura ecosystem.

What is Acala? Learn more about Polkadot parachains with [CMC Alexandria](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-acala).

Read more about [Decentralized Finance](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/defi).


#### How Many Karura** **(KAR) Coins Are There in Circulation?

Karura is a blockchain platform custom-built for DeFi. It is powered by KAR, a utility token with a maximum supply of 100,000,000. KAR’s value is backed by a certain volume of reserved [ACA](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/acala/) tokens.

The total supply is allocated as follows: 60.87% to the сommunity, 10% to the founding team, 10.08% to the backers and 18.33% to the early backers. The community allocation is further broken down as follows: 34% to the auction reward and liquidity program, 10.25% to the reward reserve, 5% to ecosystem development and 11.62% to the treasury/reserve.

The participants of the parachain auction will be rewarded with KAR tokens. 30% of KAR will be unlocked and transferable upon receipt and 70% will be released within 48 weeks. 

The KAR token supports six distinct use cases: transaction fees, node incentivization, governance, algorithmic risk adjustment, pallet deployment and smart contract deployment.


### How Is the Karura Network Secured?

Karura doesn’t support [smart contracts](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/smart-contract) but relies on the Ethereum Virtual Machine ([EVM](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/ethereum-virtual-machine-evm)) for security. By launching on Kusama, Karura also enjoys access to Kusama's plug-and-play security system.


### Where Can You Buy Karura** **(KAR)?

As of June 2021, KAR tokens are not available for trading on any cryptocurrency exchanges. However, users can try out Karura's decentralized applications ([DApps](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-applications-dapps)) on the Mandala testnet.

To learn more about buying crypto, check our extensive [guide](https://coinmarketcap.com/how-to-buy-bitcoin/).

Karura

Acala Token

Vega Protocol provides the derivatives scaling layer for Web3. It is a custom-built proof-of-stake blockchain, which makes it possible to trade derivatives on a decentralised network with comparable experience to using a centralised exchange.

VEGA is the network governance and staking token. It is used for:

Voting on the creation of new markets on the network

Running validator nodes on the network via staking VEGA tokens

Earning fees from traders through staking and delegation

Governing important network parameters which ensure markets are secure and fair

Vega Protocol

Moonriver is an Ethereum-compatible, smart-contract parachain on Kusama. It is intended to be a companion network to Moonbeam, where it will provide a permanently incentivized canary network. New code will ship to Moonriver first, where it can be tested and verified under real economic conditions. Once proven, the same code will ship to Moonbeam on Polkadot.

It does this by providing a full EVM implementation, a Web3-compatible API, and bridges that connect Moonriver to existing Ethereum networks.

This allows developers to deploy existing Solidity smart contracts and DApp frontends to Moonriver with minimal changes.

Moonriver

Self-described as "Polkadot's wild cousin," Kusama is an experimental blockchain platform that is designed to provide a massively interoperable and scalable framework for developers.

Kusama is built on Substrate — a blockchain building kit developed by Parity Technologies. Kusama has almost the same codebase as Polkadot — one of the most successful interoperable blockchains.

By deploying on Kusama, fast-paced projects gain access to a highly scalable, interoperable sharded network, with features that are not yet available on Polkadot. To that end, Kusama describes itself as a “canary network.”

The platform is designed to provide a testbed for developers looking to innovate and deploy their own blockchain and can be used as a preparatory network before launching on Polkadot — though many projects opt to stick with Kusama for their final product.

Kusama benefits from a low barrier to entry for deploying parachains, low bond requirements for validators, and is most commonly used by early-stage startups and for experimentation.

Kusama

Moonbeam is an Ethereum-compatible smart contract parachain on Polkadot. Moonbeam makes it easy to use popular Ethereum developer tools to build or redeploy Solidity projects in a Substrate-based environment.

Moonbeam is much more than just an EVM implementation: it’s a highly specialized parachain that mirrors Ethereum’s Web3 RPC, accounts, keys, subscriptions, logs, and more. The Moonbeam platform extends the base Ethereum feature set with additional features such as on-chain governance, staking, and cross-chain integrations.

Moonbeam’s Ethereum compatibility is unmatched:

Minimal Changes: developers can use existing Solidity smart contracts right away, with no need to rewrite or reconfigure

Use Existing Developer Tools: connect popular tools like MetaMask, Hardhat, Waffle, Remix, and Truffle via a complete set of Web3 RPC endpoints. Use well-known Javascript libraries such as Web3.Js or Ethers.Js.

Unified Accounts, Addresses, and Signatures: use your existing Ethereum H160 accounts & ECDSA signatures to interact with Moonbeam

Tap into the Most Integrations on Polkadot: use existing oracles, bridges, wallets, and other tools that are already building on Moonbeam

Moonbeam provides integration and connectivity between Polkadot Parachains as well as with other chains such as Ethereum and Bitcoin via bridges. Moonbeam was started in 2019 by Derek Yoo of Pure Stake.

Moonbeam

Clover Finance (CLV), or simply Clover, is a blockchain operating system. It provides a one-stop, easy‑to‑use blockchain infrastructure and an ethereum virtual machine (EVM) compatible framework for Substrate‑based applications.

Clover Finance, another offspring of the Substrate-based Polkadot parachain aims at bridging the compatibility gap when building and operating across blockchains.

The project was founded in May 2020 and the mainnet of Clover Finance launched in July 2021.

Efinity is a cross-chain NFT platform developed by Enjin and built on Polkadot. Efinity was created as the next generation blockchain for digital assets with the aim of adapting to the challenges of the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), according to the project.

The main specialization of the Efinity project is the NFT space. With the protocol, traders and gamers can create, distribute, transfer, sell and buy NFTs. Efinity aims to remove barriers to entry into the NFT space/decentralized gaming, and to simplify user experience and digital asset governance.

Efinity Token powers the entire Efinity ecosystem, EFI aims to prioritize the generation, transfer and purchase of tokens using an inter-chain infrastructure of protocols resulting in lower transaction fees. As for incentives, rewards on PoW blockchains with NFT functionality go to miners who create/trade tokens, thereby forming a community.

One of the long-term goals of Efinity is to become a hub for both fungible and non-fungible tokens, accepting tokens from any other chain, facilitating the pricing and exchange of NFTs, increasing transaction volume, and creating network effects.

In December 2021, the project won the Polkadot parachain auction, and in March 2022, Enjin launched their flagship parachain Efinity on the Polkadot Relay Chain — a blockchain platform that provides a decentralized parachain network where people havecontrol over their data and identity.

Efinity Token

Covalent leverages big-data technologies to create meaning from hundreds of billions of data points, delivering actionable insights to investors and allowing developers to allocate resources to higher-utility goals within their organization.

Instead of painstakingly sourcing data from a small handful of chains, Covalent aggregates information from across dozens of sources including nodes, chains and data feeds. The Covalent API then sources end-users with individualized data by wallet, including current and historical investment performance across all types of digital assets. Most importantly, Covalent returns this data in a rapid and consistent manner, incorporating all relevant data within one API interface.

Having achieved product-market fit, we are now planning to execute the next phase of Covalent, which is a progressive decentralization that will enable the Covalent Network to be owned and operated by its users. Of course, a critical piece to this is CQT.

CQT is the native token of the Covalent Network. It has three primary purposes:

CQT is a governance token, whereby token holders vote on proposals to change the system parameters.

CQT is a staking asset. Validators will earn fees for answering queries.

CQT is a network access token that fulfills data queries for users of the API.

Developer resources include:

Covalent Knowledge Base for extensive guides on how to use the Covalent API. 

Covalent API Documentation.

Covalent

Mina Protocol is a minimal “succinct blockchain” built to curtail computational requirements in order to run DApps more efficiently. Mina has been described as the world’s lightest blockchain since its size is designed to remain constant despite growth in usage. Furthermore, it remains balanced in terms of security and decentralization. The project was rebranded from Coda Protocol to Mina in October 2020.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Mina Protocol.

The Mina network has a size of only 22 KB, which is miniscule when compared to Bitcoin’s 300 GB blockchain.

Mina

Chia Network (XCH) is a layer 1 blockchain that uses its own custom-designed programming language called Chialisp and a novel consensus mechanism called proof-of-space-and-time (PoST). The combination of these two allows the blockchain to use less energy without compromising network security. In contrast to most other blockchains, Chia Network is a public, for-profit, open source company that aspires to become listed on NYSE or NASDAQ. Its blockchain is aimed at enterprise use, which is why Chia Network plans to have XCH on its balance sheet in case of a listing.

Chia Network’s first proof-of-time function was released in 2019, with the first beta version of its blockchain launching in 2020. Chia Network achieved full functionality, including wallet functionality, transactions and smart contracts, with its mainnet launch in 2021.

Chia

Flow

Polkastarter is a decentralized fundraising platform empowering Web3 projects to launch and raise funds through multi-chain token pools whilst significantly growing their communities.

The platform supports initial dex offerings (IDOs) across major blockchains, including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana, Polkadot, Polygon, Avalanche and Celo.

The platform enables investors to secure early access to IDOs, NFTs and Gaming Web3 innovation. It is most commonly used by early-stage blockchain projects that want to raise capital and easily distribute their tokens at the same time.

Through Polkastarter, blockchain projects can easily create their own fixed-chain swap pools, which allow them to securely raise funds, while users can invest without risks, since swaps are automatically executed by smart contracts.

POLS is the native utility token of the Polkastarter platform. Its main utility is gaining access to pools and giving projects the option to give priority access to POLS holders. Users are incentivised to stake POLS, rewarding the most loyal members.

In Q4 2022, Polkastarter will release new community utility features, such as governance and POLS Power Boosters (increasing your allowlisting success). The platform first went live in December 2020, and has quickly grown to become one of the most commonly used platforms for initial DEX offerings (IDOs) operating on the Ethereum blockchain.

Polkastarter

Secret (SCRT) is a privacy-oriented blockchain built on Cosmos. Its smart contracts are called Secret Contracts and allow DApps to use private data on Secret, similar to how smart contracts operate on other blockchains. However, Secret Contracts transfer encrypted inputs into encrypted outputs without exposing data. This is made possible thanks to the encrypted contract states during the execution.

Data privacy is guaranteed by combining encryption protocols and key management within a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). This allows Secret Contracts to compete for several privacy-related use cases that traditional blockchains have found difficult to accommodate. For instance, private voting mechanisms or credit scoring applications become possible since they do not expose sensitive user data on-chain with Secret.

Secret

Ethereum-based DYDX ($ethDYDX) is a governance token that allows the dYdX community to truly govern the dYdX Layer 2 Protocol built on Ethereum ("dYdX v3"). ethDYDX is currently undergoing a migration from Ethereum to the dYdX Chain. More information is available here. If you want to migrate ethDYDX to dYdX Chain DYDX, to enable staking, security and governance of the dYdX Chain you can follow the how-to-bridge guide here.

If you want to read about the new token utility for dYdX Chain DYDX you can read the blog here

ethDYDX (dYdX) is the governance token for the layer 2 protocol built on Ethereum. By enabling shared control of dYdX v3, ethDYDX allows traders, liquidity providers, and partners of dYdX to work collectively towards an enhanced dYdX v3.

Built on StarkWare’s StarkEx scalability engine, layer 2 is used for trading of cross-margined perpetuals on the platform. The scaling solution allows dYdX to increase transaction speed, eliminate gas costs, reduce trading fees and lower​​ minimum trade sizes on the protocol.

A total of 1,000,000,000 ethDYDX have been minted, and started to become accessible over five (5) years, on August 3rd, 2021, at 15:00:00 UTC.

dYdX (ethDYDX)

Astar Network helps developers build decentralized applications (dApps) and layer 2 solutions by providing interoperable web 3.0 infrastructure, financial incentives, incubation programmes and technical support. It seeks to provide the best solution for all developers by supporting EVM and making a parachain where EVM and WASM smart contracts can co-exist and communicate with each other.

Astar connects the Polkadot ecosystem with layer 1 blockchains like Ethereum and Cosmos. It's a Polkadot Parachain, and was designed as a multi-chain Polkadot dApp hub with support for DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, where developers can move beyond infrastructure and focus more on application development.

The project, which is backed by Binance Labs and Coinbase Ventures, operates on two layers: the first layer is built on the Substrate framework, and the second is built using OVM or Optimistic Virtual Machine, for scalability.

Astar

Phala Network is a coprocessor for blockchains. Developers deploy “Phat Contracts,” off-chain program for coprocessors, enhancing dApps with connectivity, internet access, and heavy computation, overcoming web3 constraints.

Phala Network has one of the largest Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) on Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) hardware, which means that any code/data on Phala Network is protected from unauthorized access by users. Phala addresses developer concerns with expanded developer language support such as JavaScript and more, and ready-to-deploy Templates for seamless Phat Contract integration, streamlining the experience for web3 developers.

Phala stands at the forefront of Web3 innovation, fostering development through its Builders Program.

Phala Network

Litentry

MIR is the governance token of Mirror Protocol, a synthetic assets protocol built by Terraform Labs (TFL) on the Terra blockchain.

Mirror Protocol is decentralized from day 1, with the on-chain treasury and code changes governed by holders of the MIR token. TFL has no intention of keeping or selling MIR tokens, and there are no admin keys or special access privileges granted. The intent for this is to be a completely decentralized, community-driven project.

Mirrored assets are blockchain tokens that behave like "mirror" versions of real-world assets by reflecting the exchange prices on-chain. They give traders the price exposure to real assets while enabling fractional ownership, open access and censorship resistance as any other cryptocurrency. Unlike traditional tokens which serve to represent a real, underlying asset, mAssets are purely synthetic and only capture the price movement of the corresponding asset.

Mirrored assets provide the following advantages:

Global Accessibility: In most markets outside of Europe & North America, access to foreign equities and forex markets is highly limited. Crypto allows global accessibility without entry barriers.

Fractional Orders: In traditional finance, to execute a fractional order, multiple fractional orders are bundled together to execute a unitary transaction. The process of gathering all the orders into one requires additional waiting time. By utilizing the blockchain, orders volume is simply represented as a number on the blockchain, so there is no need for the intermediary bundling process.

Nearly-Instantaneous Order Execution: Oftentimes due to the lack of liquidity (price-time-priority order book algorithm), orders can take up to a day to fully execute. Given the fact that Mirror relies on liquidity provided by each individual asset pool, orders can be executed as fast as the blocktime of the network (~ 6 seconds).

Mirror Protocol

Serum is a decentralized exchange (DEX) and ecosystem that brings unprecedented speed and low transaction costs to decentralized finance (DeFi). (DeFi).

Serum is the only high-performant DEX designed around a fully on-chain central limit order book and matching engine. Ecosystem partners can compose with Serum’s on-chain orderbook to share liquidity and power their trading features for institutional and retail users.

In light of the popularity of DeFi and the growth of DEXes on Ethereum, users and developers are limited by high gas costs and slow transactions. Serum aims to resolve these traditional problems of DeFi, as well as issues of centralization, low capital efficiency, and liquidity segmentation.

The SRM utility and governance token enables users to receive discounts on protocol fees and voting rights; 100% of exchange fees flow back to SRM via buy-and-burn, staking rewards, and ecosystem grants.