Kaito (KAITO) is the native token of Kaito, an "InfoFi" (information finance) network on Base (Ethereum L2). The project began as an AI-powered crypto search and research engine before repositioning into ranking and rewarding crypto-related information and social attention, through products including Kaito Pro, a research terminal, and Kaito Studio, a creator-brand marketing platform. As of 2026-09-02, KAITO trades near $0.301 with a market capitalization of approximately $72.7 million.
Kaito's differentiator is treating information curation and social attention as a measurable, tokenized market rather than offering a conventional search or analytics tool. KAITO is designed to function as a "market forces driver," directing rewards toward contributors whose content gains attention across the network.
Recent product expansion, including a creator-brand marketing platform and a prediction-market partnership, extends this attention-market model beyond the project's original research-tool scope.
KAITO combines utility and governance functions within the Kaito network. As network currency, it operates within the platform's attention-market mechanics, helping direct rewards toward contributors whose crypto-related content and analysis gain attention.
Marketing materials also describe KAITO as a governance instrument, with holders able to propose, vote on, and implement changes to protocol and ranking algorithms. The token is further described as a "market forces driver" influencing how attention and rewards are allocated across the network.
Max/total supply: 1,000,000,000 KAITO. Circulating supply: 241,388,889 KAITO (about 24.1% of max supply) as of 2026-09-02.
Ecosystem & Network Growth allocations use cliff vesting, with the full unlock schedule extending into 2029. Net emission is inflationary, as circulating supply continues to expand toward the fixed 1 billion maximum through scheduled unlocks.
KAITO's token generation event occurred on February 20, 2025 on Base L2, with trading opening near 13:00 UTC and simultaneous listings on Binance, OKX, and MEXC.
At the company level, Kaito raised a $5.3 million seed round in February 2023 led by Dragonfly, with Sequoia Capital and Jane Street participating, followed by a $5.5 million Series A in June 2023 co-led by Superscrypt and Spartan, valuing the company at $87.5 million.
Kaito (KAITO) is deployed on Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network. The token is a native, non-bridged asset on Base rather than a cross-chain bridged token, with its contract created on February 7, 2025.
Kaito was founded in 2022 by Yu Hu (Founder/CEO) and Yunzhong He. Yu Hu previously worked as an international equities trader at Citadel and as an investment banking analyst at Deutsche Bank. The company was originally based in Seattle, Washington.
Key investors include Dragonfly, Sequoia Capital, and Jane Street from the 2023 seed round, and Superscrypt and Spartan, which co-led the subsequent Series A round.
Kaito (kaito.ai) is developed and maintained by its founding company rather than a DAO or foundation-led community structure. The organization operates a product lineup spanning Kaito Pro, a research terminal; Kaito Studio, a creator-brand marketing platform; Capital Launchpad; and an announced "Kaito Markets" offering.
The company repositioned its product from an AI crypto search engine into an "InfoFi" (information finance) network, reflecting a shift from a research tool toward an attention-market platform built around the KAITO token.
Kaito's governance is described in marketing materials as token-based, with KAITO holders able to propose, vote on, and implement changes to protocol and ranking algorithms. No evidence of an active on-chain DAO, governance forum, or documented proposal history for 2025-2026 was found.
An independent assessment by CertiK's Skynet platform scores the project's governance strength at only 10%, and Kaito's team has not completed KYC verification with CertiK or any other third party — indicating decision-making is currently more centralized in practice than token-utility descriptions suggest.
Kaito sunset its "Yaps" reward program in January 2026, replacing it with Kaito Katalyst in July 2026. Katalyst is a performance and conversion-based creator reward layer using a restored X (Twitter) data partnership and Brevis zero-knowledge verification.
An additional "Kaito Markets" product has been announced but not yet launched.
Kaito has not been audited by CertiK and has no third-party smart-contract audit on record; no bug bounty program is active, and the team is not KYC-verified. CertiK's Skynet platform nonetheless assigns an overall score of 83.16 (Grade A).
Structural risk factors include extreme token-holder concentration — CertiK reports 96.44% of holdings concentrated among major holders, and on-chain data shows the top 10 holders control 87% of supply — plus high liquidity risk from thin on-chain trading depth relative to market capitalization.