Kinto
About
Kinto is an Ethereum Layer 2 rollup (Arbitrum Nitro stack) that positions itself as "the modular exchange" — a KYC'd blockchain network designed to safely bridge traditional finance and DeFi. It gives every user a non-custodial smart wallet with native account abstraction (no seed phrases), built-in KYC/AML and Sybil resistance at the chain level, wallet insurance, and seamless access to leading DeFi protocols (Uniswap, Aave, Lido, Hyperliquid) alongside tokenized real-world assets such as stocks and ETFs. The product is aimed at retail investors, financial institutions, and developers who want a compliant yet permissionless on-chain financial environment.
Where Does Yield Come From?
Kinto generates yield for its users and developers through several permanent design features built into the network. Here is how it works.
Where the transaction fees go
Every time someone makes a transaction on Kinto, they pay a small fee (called a "sequencer fee" or gas). That fee pot is split three ways:
- 10% goes to developers whose smart contracts created the transaction activity. This is called "Contract Secured Revenue" — the more people use a developer's contract, the more that developer earns.
- 10% goes to a Safety Module, a pool of USDC (a stablecoin) that people can supply capital to in exchange for yield. Underwriters (those who supply the capital) earn a return, and for the first two years the network's treasury covers any shortfalls.
- The remaining 80% goes to Kinto's on-chain treasury, which is managed by holders of the $K token and nine elected representatives called Nios.
The Participation Mining Program (earning $K tokens)
Over roughly 10 years, between 2 million and 5 million $K tokens (20–33% of the maximum supply) will be distributed to participants. The rewards are front-loaded — meaning more tokens are given out early — and they decrease every three months.
Rewards are calculated weekly based on what you do with your capital:
- If you deposit your assets into registered protocols (like Uniswap, Aave, or Lido), you earn 80% of the reward and the protocol developer earns 20% .
- If you leave your assets sitting idle in your wallet, you earn 70% of the reward, and the remaining 30% goes back to the mining pool for others.
- Founding members of the "Engen" program get a permanent 15–20% boost on their mining rewards.
Other ways to earn yield
Users can also earn yield by:
- Supplying assets into integrated DeFi lending and borrowing markets, such as Aave v3 or Kinto's own $K lend/borrow market.
- Staking USDC (or a combination of USDC and $K) into the Safety Module mentioned above.
Cross-chain and derivatives features
Kinto also offers "Musubi" — a tool for swapping assets across different blockchains — and access to Hyperliquid perpetuals (a type of crypto derivatives trading). Yield from these comes from the fee structures of the underlying protocols they connect to.
A note on returns
No specific APY or APR figures are ever guaranteed. All yields come from the fee-redistribution and token-emission systems described above — what you earn depends on network activity, your choices, and the program's rules.
Persons
Ramon Recuero
Co-founder and CEO
Alan Keegan
Co-founder
Victor Sanchez
Co-founder and CTO
Audits
| Audit / Date | Findings | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
Pessimistic04-02-2025 |
| The audit found no critical or high-risk vulnerabilities, with the main concern being the trust-dependent owner role (medium severity); since all issues were acknowledged but not fixed, the protocol retains a centralized design where users must rely on the owner's integrity. |
Pessimistic20-11-2024 - 25-11-2024 |
| This audit of Kinto Access Registry found no critical vulnerabilities and only two medium-severity issues (centralized owner controls and a potential bridging DoS), with the overall code quality rated as good. The findings present manageable risks that can be addressed before deployment. |
Pessimistic28-05-202429-05-202430-05-202406-06-2024 |
| No critical or high-severity vulnerabilities were found, and all medium-severity issues were resolved or acknowledged by the developers, making the Bridger V2 safe for deployment with the understanding that trust is placed in the 3-of-5 Gnosis Safe multisig. |
Pessimistic06-06-2024 |
| The audit found no critical issues and two medium-severity items—one fixed and one acknowledged with a Safe wallet mitigation—indicating a generally secure codebase suitable for deployment with proper admin controls in place. |
Pessimistic07-03-2024 - 11-03-2024 |
| All severity issues identified in the audit were either fixed or acknowledged by the development team, with the originally critical issue (inaccurate timestamp) downgraded to medium and resolved. The residual risk revolves around centralization in the owner role, which the team mitigates through multisig governance and a planned transition to on-chain governance. |
Pessimistic04-03-2024 - 18-03-2024 |
| The audit found two critical and nine medium-severity issues, all of which were fixed or acknowledged by the Kinto team during the recheck, and the code coverage improved from 83% to 96%. While the remaining design concerns around privileged roles and third-party token blacklists are acknowledged, the resolved critical vulnerabilities mean the Bridger contracts can be considered reasonably safe for deployment following the remediations. |
| The audit uncovered three critical backdoor vectors in the EntryPoint that could fully bypass KYC/sanctions, alongside multiple high-severity issues affecting token controls and fund solvency; all critical and high findings were addressed via Geth-level fixes, but given the severity of the bypass risks, continued security monitoring and careful upgrade management are warranted. | |
MixBytes27-11-2023 - 22-02-2024 |
| The MixBytes audit uncovered critical and high-severity vulnerabilities in Kinto's account abstraction and KYC management logic, but all critical and most high/medium issues were fixed across multiple re-audit rounds, significantly reducing on-chain risk. A few acknowledged items (spam draining via rate limits, anonymous calls, and multiple-wallet creation) represent residual design risks the team has consciously accepted. |
| The Pessimistic audit found no critical or high-severity vulnerabilities, and the single medium-severity issue (overpowered owner) was acknowledged with a planned transition to multisig and on-chain governance, making the protocol safe for deployment after the recommended remediations. | |
Pessimistic23-01-2024 |
| All five critical and most medium-severity issues were fixed across successive rechecks, and the developers provided comments for the few remaining concerns, but the report warns that audited code should not be used in production before all critical and medium issues are resolved; overall code quality was assessed as mediocre with insufficient test coverage. |
Backers
Kinto raised a total of $5 million across two rounds. In a pre-seed round earlier in 2023, it secured $1.5 million from Kyber Capital Crypto. Subsequently, it raised $3.5 million in a round led by Kyber Capital Crypto, Spartan Group, and ParaFi, with participation from SkyBridge Capital, Kraynos, Soft Holdings, Deep Ventures, Modular, Tane, and Robot Ventures. These details were reported by CoinDesk (Nov 15, 2023) and confirmed in Kinto's own documentation via their Links page referencing the CoinDesk, Yahoo Finance, and Blockster articles covering the $5M raise.
Additionally, in February 2025, Brevan Howard Digital deployed $20M on Kinto in an institutional DeFi push (as reported by CoinDesk and linked from Kinto's official Links page). Anthony Scaramucci (SkyBridge Capital founder) publicly backed Kinto according to a crypto.news article linked from Kinto's official Links page.
In the proposed $KINTO token distribution (per the litepaper), 25% of the total 10 million supply was earmarked for investors, with 20% for team/advisors and 55% for the community.
Legal
Legal form
Foundation (Kinto Foundation)
Registration jurisdiction
Cayman Islands
Status and notes
The Kinto Constitution (docs.kinto.xyz/governance/kinto-constitution) states: "The Kinto DAO, represented by the Kinto Foundation" and repeatedly references compliance with "Cayman law" and "Cayman Island laws" (e.g., "Kinto governance cannot enact changes that compromise the network's security or violate Cayman law or OFAC sanctions"; "The Kinto Foundation has the flexibility to update its compliance policy... to allow The Kinto Foundation to comply with Cayman Island laws"). The Foundation oversees Nios elections and compliance. Contact email: [email protected]. No imprint, terms of service, or privacy policy page could be retrieved from the main domain.