What Is Kyber Network (KNC)?
Kyber Network is a multi-chain hub of liquidity protocols that aggregates liquidity from various sources to provide secure and instant transactions on any decentralized application (DApp). The main goal of Kyber Network is to enable DeFi DApps, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and other users easy access to deep liquidity pools that provide the best rates.
KyberSwap.com, its main DEX aggregator and liquidity platform, provides the best swap rates for traders in DeFi compared to individual exchanges. It also enables liquidity providers to maximize earnings via high capital efficiency. KyberSwap sources liquidity from multiple DEXes such as Uniswap, Sushi, Curve, QuickSwap, Pancakeswap, Traderjoe, Pangolin, SpookySwap, SpiritSwap, VVS Finance, Velodrome, GMX, and many others to achieve the best rates for traders on different chains. KyberSwap supports over 13 chains including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Fantom, Cronos, Arbitrum, Optimism, Velas, Aurora, Oasis, BitTorrent, Ethereum PoW, and soon Solana.
KyberSwap is decentralized and permissionless, not requiring account sign-up or personal information. All transactions on KyberSwap are on-chain, which means transactions do not need a centralized third-party, like a centralized exchange, and they can be easily verified using the Ethereum or other chains’ block explorer.
Projects can build with KyberSwap to access its different features, such as the instant settlement of token swaps, liquidity aggregation for the best rates, liquidity pools, and a customizable business model. Kyber looks to solve the liquidity issue in the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry by allowing developers to build products and services without having to worry about liquidity for different needs.
The Kyber Network Crystal (KNC) token is a utility and governance token that is the "glue that connects different stakeholders in Kyber's ecosystem." KNC holders can stake their tokens in the KyberDAO to help govern the platform and vote on important proposals - and earn staking rewards in KNC that come from trading fees. Investors in KNC include #Hashed, Signum Capital, ParaFi Capital, HyperChain Capital.
Who Are the Founders of Kyber Network?
Kyber Network began its development in 2017 and is built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. The project was founded by Loi Luu, Victor Tran and Yaron Velner, with Vitalik Buterin as an advisor. Kyber Network currently has its headquarters in the British Virgin Islands.
Victor Tran is the current CEO of Kyber Network. He is an experienced backend engineer and Linux system administrator. He was the CTO at Clixy and 24/7 Digital Group as well as a developer for several projects in Vietnam.
Loi Luu is the current Chairman of Kyber Group. He is a blockchain researcher and an advisor for various blockchain projects. He developed Oyente, the first open-source security analyzer for Ethereum smart contracts, and co-founded SmartPool, among other decentralized projects. He also worked on a scaling research project called Elastico, which inspired the design of Zilliqa, a promising scalable blockchain project.
Yaron Velner is the current CEO of B.Protocol, a decentralized backstop liquidity protocol, and was a postdoctoral researcher. Velner stepped down from his CTO position at Kyber in October 2019 but remains as an advisor.
The Kyber team comprises employees from engineering, product, marketing, strategy, and business development, as well as several advisors. According to the official Kyber Network LinkedIn page, the company has over 50 employees globally.
What Makes Kyber Network Unique?
Its multi-chain DEX aggregator and liquidity platform KyberSwap.com gives traders access to the best prices from multiple sources on different blockchains, while allowing liquidity providers to deposit tokens and earn fees with the best capital efficiency and returns.
In 2021, KyberSwap launched the world's first dynamic market maker (DMM) protocol, which reacts to market conditions to provide better capital efficiency and earnings for liquidity providers.
In 2022, their next-gen AMM Elastic protocol was launched with concentrated liquidity pools, customizable price ranges, auto-compounding fees, as well as an anti-sniping feature that protects liquidity providers. Together, these protocols help KyberSwap liquidity providers maximize their capital as they can mimic much higher levels of liquidity, achieving better capital efficiency, slippage, and volume. Liquidity providers can earn much more fees relative to their contribution size, while takers can enjoy extremely low slippage on their trades. Liquidity providers can also earn more with yield farming.
For developers, KyberSwap is designed to be developer-friendly. Its protocols can be easily integrated with apps and other blockchain-based protocols for any DeFi use case and possibility. Since no single liquidity protocol can fit the needs of all liquidity providers, takers, and other market participants, KyberSwap’s flexibility allows developers to rapidly innovate and integrate new protocols to cater to different liquidity needs. KyberSwap has been integrated by Dapps such as Coin98 Wallet, Krystal, DEXTools, Kattana Trade, Rome Terminal, Pegaxy, as well as other Aggregators such as 1inch, Paraswap, 0x API, Matcha and Slingshot.
KyberSwap’s ‘Discover’ feature also uses AI and on-chain metrics to identify tokens that are currently trending or may trend in the near future, helping traders make smarter and more informed trading decisions.
In the Kyber ecosystem, KNC token holders play an important role in deciding new growth and value-capture opportunities and incentive mechanisms. Through KyberDAO, KNC holders can participate in governance by voting on important proposals. Kyber's community is sizable and made up of a wide range of developers, in addition to other members of the blossoming DeFi industry.
How Many Kyber Network (KNC) Coins Are There in Circulation?
As of Oct 2022, Kyber Network has a total supply of 223.36 Million KNC tokens. Out of this, just over 160 million tokens are in circulation. The KNC token is dynamic, with the KyberDAO having the ability to vote to increase or decrease the supply in order to drive innovation, bootstrap liquidity, and reward early adopters of KyberSwap.
Kyber concluded its initial coin offering (ICO) on September 15, 2017, raising $52 million by selling each KNC token at a price of 0.00166 ETH. According to the official token distribution paper, 61.06% of tokens were sold in the ICO, 19.47% were saved for the founders, advisors and seed investors, and the remaining 19.47% was reserved for the company.
How Is the Kyber Network Secured?
As an ERC-20 token, KNC is built on top of and secured by the Ethereum blockchain. In addition, Kyber uses an extensive trust and security model that protects users from misbehaving administrators or exchanges, thanks to security measures built in both at the protocol and smart contract level.
The KyberSwap and KyberDAO platforms, as well as KNC, have been audited by several third-party security firms and researchers, including Chainsecurity and Hacken, which helped to determine that these various Kyber components are secure.
Where Can You Buy Kyber Network (KNC)?
KNC tokens can be purchased and traded on a variety of exchange platforms, including prominent names like Binance, Coinbase, Huobi Global, KuCoin, OKX, Kraken, and KyberSwap. The token is currently listed on more than 20 exchanges and has more than a dozen trading pairs, including stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD).
If you are looking for a guide on how to buy KNC tokens or other cryptocurrencies using fiat, check out our detailed guide to get started.