Author: Imagine Creation Combinator

1. Overview of Kaia blockchain ecosystem

1.1 Predecessors and team background

Kaia is the new ecosystem after the merger of Klaytn and Finschia, two major blockchain projects led by Kakao and LINE respectively. Klaytn is a blockchain platform launched by Ground X, a blockchain subsidiary of Kakao Group, in June 2019. Its early governance alliance includes well-known Korean companies such as LG Electronics, Celltrion, and Netmarble, providing solid support for the development and popularization of blockchain applications. LINE initially launched the blockchain platform LINK chain through its blockchain subsidiary LINE TECH PLUS in August 2018, and renamed it Finschia in 2022. Subsequently, LINE established the Finschia Foundation in Abu Dhabi in April 2023, responsible for operating the Finschia mainnet and its native crypto asset LINK, and actively promoting the transformation of the governance system to a decentralized, community-led model. In January 2024, the Klaytn Foundation and the Finschia Foundation proposed a mainnet merger proposal to their respective communities to create "Asia's largest Web3 network"; after the proposal was passed, the two chains officially merged at the end of August 2024 to launch the new Kaia mainnet. The merged Kaia chain is managed by the newly established Kaia DLT Foundation, which fully integrates and inherits the core advantages of Klaytn and Finschia in technical architecture and governance mechanism.

In this powerful ecological context, Kaia aims to become an L1 blockchain focused on large-scale applications, with high TPS and developer-friendly features. Its core advantage lies in the deep integration of the mature SDK system with KakaoTalk and LINE platforms, supporting all kinds of decentralized applications to run directly on these mainstream social platforms. As a public blockchain based on the BFT consensus mechanism, Kaia is highly optimized and committed to achieving enterprise-level reliability and performance standards, providing solid underlying support for the next generation of Web3 applications.

1.2 Important development history

1.3 Main features

Kaia adopts a layered node architecture: the base layer consists of multiple "core cells", each of which contains consensus nodes (CN) and proxy nodes (PN), and there are also endpoint nodes (EN) on the periphery (as shown in the figure below). The Kaia mainnet uses an improved Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus algorithm (Istanbul BFT variant) to ensure efficient consensus. The network has achieved a 1-second block time and instant finality. It currently has more than 50 consensus nodes and a theoretical peak throughput of about 4,000 TPS. During the consensus process, committee members are randomly elected through a verifiable random function (VRF), and consensus information is only exchanged within the committee, thereby effectively controlling communication overhead and ensuring security when the node scale expands. Kaia Service Chain provides a highly specialized execution environment: they can realize cross-chain token transfers and data anchoring main chains, and support multi-signature bridge contracts to meet enterprise-level security requirements.

Kaia is compatible with EVM and supports smart contracts in the Ethereum ecosystem. At the same time, the platform is integrated with a variety of cross-chain bridges (such as Stargate, Orbiter, etc.), so that assets from Ethereum and other chains can flow seamlessly into Kaia. For example, the Orbiter cross-chain bridge of ZK technology has been connected to Kaia to achieve secure interoperability between Kaia and Ethereum assets. In addition, Kaia is closely connected to the LINE instant messaging ecosystem. By providing SDK/API, developers can directly deploy native Dapps in chat applications; LINE has 196 million monthly active users, which provides a foundation for the wide access of Kaia ecosystem applications. In May 2025, Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, officially issued native USDT on the Kaia chain, allowing Kaia users to use stablecoins directly for payments and cross-border transfers in daily chat interfaces.

Kaia adopts a sustainable token economic model: its native token KAIA is used to pay transaction fees and incentivize network operation. Every time a block is generated, the newly added KAIA is distributed in a fixed ratio: 50% of them are used as rewards for block proposers (10%) and mortgagees (40%), and the remaining 50% go into the ecological fund (25%) and infrastructure fund (25%) respectively. Kaia supports on-chain governance and can adjust the annual inflation rate and fee model according to community resolutions to balance token inflation and value incentives. At the time of the merger, the existing tokens of Klaytn and Finschia were converted to KAIA according to the agreed ratio, and the initial inventory rebalancing was strictly and transparently completed through smart contracts.

Compared with other mainstream public chains, Kaia has significant differentiation features: it focuses on the Asian market and imports the massive users of Kakao and LINE into the Web3 ecosystem; it uses a second-level finality consensus algorithm to provide users with a low-latency, high-throughput experience; and it quickly accesses key assets such as stablecoins (such as USDT on Kaia) in terms of ecology. These features (including deep social platform integration and product design for ordinary users) give Kaia a unique advantage in promoting large-scale blockchain applications.

2. Progress of Ecological Construction

Over the past year, Kaia has focused on infrastructure construction and ecosystem expansion, and has continued to advance in multiple dimensions, including the implementation of the Mini Dapp ecosystem, the construction of on-chain stablecoin channels, ecosystem investment, strategic cooperation, and developer and community support, gradually building a Web3 ecosystem with a complete closed loop.

2.1 Kaia Wave Plan and Mini Dapp Ecosystem

In August 2024, the Kaia mainnet was officially launched, and the Kaia Wave plan was released simultaneously, marking the start of Kaia's external operation as the world's fastest and most efficient EVM-compatible public chain. The design goal of the Kaia mainnet is to achieve a block time of about 1 second and extremely low gas fees to meet the needs of massive users for on-chain experience. At the same time, the Kaia Wave plan was jointly created by Kaia and LINE NEXT. Through the NEXT WEB SDK developed by LINE NEXT, Web3 developers can build Mini Dapp for LINE Messenger users, and use LINE's huge user base in Asian markets such as Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia to accelerate the connection between on-chain projects and end users. The plan aims to build a bridge between global Web3 projects and local Asian ecosystems through the integration of technology and business resources, and promote the popularization of Web3 applications.

Under the Kaia Wave program, the first batch of Mini Dapp projects have been launched on LINE Messenger in the first quarter of 2025. These selected projects stood out from about 800 team applications, covering multiple sub-tracks. The selected teams will have the opportunity to obtain support such as development kits (SDKs), gas fee payment, joint marketing, and Kaia Wave investment opportunities.

To further stimulate the vitality of the ecosystem, Kaia and LINE Dapp Portal jointly launched the Mini Dapp Growth Competition. The competition focuses on the growth of the project's monthly active users (MAU) and on-chain token holders, and has an incentive mechanism and exclusive display resources to discover applications with high growth potential. The competition has been successfully held for two sessions, continuously driving the accelerated growth of the Mini Dapp ecosystem on the Kaia chain, and attracting more and more developer teams to settle in and be active in the Kaia network.

Launched simultaneously with Mini Dapp is Dapp Portal, a Dapp directory and portal that can be directly accessed through LINE Messenger. Dapp Portal aims to allow end users to discover and download various Dapps in the Kaia ecosystem without leaving the familiar LINE environment, enjoy the reward mechanism and trade assets in it. Dapp Portal will provide users with a one-stop service experience, including Dapp discovery, downloading, usage rewards and virtual asset trading, to minimize the threshold of Web3 services. Developers can further expand project exposure and obtain more user feedback through Dapp Portal.

2.2 Kaia Stablecoin Plan

The Stablecoin Project is one of the core projects of the Kaia ecosystem this year, aiming to provide users and developers with a more robust and convenient on-chain financial experience. After Kaia quickly gathered more than 35 million users (as of March 2025) on the LINE and Kakao platforms using lightweight and easy-to-use Mini Dapp, the ecological heat continued to rise. In order to further consolidate the financial infrastructure and provide users with stable value expectations, Kaia reached a strategic cooperation with Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, and issued USDT natively on the Kaia chain in May 2025.

Unlike the traditional USDT transferred through the cross-chain bridge, Kaia's USDT is deployed completely in the form of native contracts on the Kaia network (EVM compatible), directly managed and issued by Tether, ensuring the real-time parity of the "1:1" US dollar reserve. This move not only significantly improves transaction speed and security, but also greatly reduces cross-chain fees and operational complexity.

The first batch of native USDT has been connected to the Mini Dapp ecosystem in LINE Messenger, relying on the social network advantage of LINE with more than 196 million monthly active users, to realize the daily use of stablecoins. Users can complete in-app payments, cross-border transfers and decentralized finance (DeFi) activities directly through Mini Dapp in the familiar environment of LINE. The main application scenarios include:

• Users can obtain USDT rewards by completing tasks in different Mini Dapps, which helps promote activities and retain users.

• Users can easily send and receive USDT through the built-in wallet of LINE Messenger, achieving an instant and convenient social transfer experience.

• LINE NEXT is considering integrating USDT into more Mini Dapp functions to form a closed-loop experience from social to finance.

At the same time, many mainstream exchanges have successively supported the USDT-KAIA network: Bitget has fully opened the recharge and withdrawal functions of the USDT-KAIA network, and Bitfinex has also launched the USDT channel of the Kaia network. Currently, Bybit, Bitget, Bitfinex and Gate.io all support the recharge and withdrawal of USDT-KAIA. These launches provide users with more diversified asset in and out channels, further enhancing liquidity and accessibility.

Looking ahead, following the successful launch of native USDT, the Kaia team is fully committed to promoting the issuance plan of the Korean won (KRW) stablecoin, and Kaia's "Stablecoin Summer" has just begun. Sam Seo, chairman of Kaia Chain, said that the Klaytn team, Kaia's predecessor, had participated in the CBDC project of the Bank of Korea, laying a good foundation for the development of stablecoins. In addition, LINE, the operator of the Finschia mainnet, which has now become a key component of the Kaia ecosystem, has also participated in the CBDC consulting project of the Bank of Korea, and subsequent simulation tests will be carried out by Klaytn and its subsidiary Ground X. The above-mentioned institutional cooperation experience has further enhanced Kaia's credibility and professionalism in building a compliant and scalable digital currency infrastructure.

The combination of "Korean won stablecoin + Kaia" will not only inject more liquidity anchored to real assets into the ecosystem, but is also expected to accelerate the popularization and implementation of local Web3 applications in South Korea. On this basis, Kaia will also use the stability and coverage of USDT to launch a series of influential on-chain financial products and services, including: tokenization of physical assets, fiat currency deposit and withdrawal channels, support from mainstream exchanges at home and abroad, NFT and in-game economic systems, and establish in-depth cooperation with more DeFi, payment and consumption scenarios.

By continuously improving the issuance mechanism and application experience of native USDT, the Kaia ecosystem will further enhance user stickiness and cooperative attractiveness, and steadily advance the long-term vision of "everyone can enter Web3 and value can be carried everywhere."

2.3 Ecological investment progress

In April 2025, the Kaia Foundation announced that it had received an investment led by 1kx and Blockchain Capital, with participation from Galaxy Digital, The Spartan Group, IDG Capital, Mirana Ventures, SNZ Holding, Comma3 Ventures, Caladan, Lingfeng Capital, Waterdrip Capital and MEXC Ventures.

Kaia's partnership with 1kx and Blockchain Capital, one of the largest investment institutions in Europe and America, will greatly help the marketing of LINE NEXT and Mini Dapp services, and further strengthen Kaia's influence in the global market through sharing business networks. The cooperation includes business strategy formulation, collaboration with Kaia projects, connection with traditional financial companies such as Visa, content and marketing support, validator node operation, and recruitment of core talents. In addition, the Kaia Foundation also plans to actively utilize the business network resources of multiple investment institutions.

This round of financing is not only a recognition of Kaia's achievements, but also means that these institutions will provide in-depth support in international market development, compliance architecture construction, ecological cooperation network, etc., to help Kaia quickly land in mainstream markets such as Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia. With the user traffic dividends of the two super applications LINE and Kakao, Kaia's globalization process will enter a substantial acceleration period. Kaia plans to deepen its positioning as the "Asian Digital Dollar Gateway" through "Stablecoin Summer".

2.4 Ecological Strategic Cooperation

In terms of ecological cooperation, Kaia continues to expand its strategic cooperation in dimensions such as data visualization, secure custody, asset circulation, scenario implementation and financial support.

In November 2024, Kaia officially integrated the Dune platform, and on-chain data such as Kaia's transaction volume, gas fees, and Dapp usage were launched on Dune. As many as 700,000 user-generated dashboards can now track the Kaia ecosystem. This collaboration enables developers and analysts to monitor cross-chain transactions and Dapp activities on the Kaia chain in real time, providing visual support for ecological health assessment and iterative decision-making.

In January 2025, Kaia and Fireblocks reached a cooperation, and Fireblocks MPC multi-party computing technology provides Kaia ecosystem partners (including financial institutions and project parties) with secure asset custody and cross-border payment support. With the help of Fireblocks' API system, institutional users can quickly build on-chain applications that meet global regulatory requirements, simplify KYC/AML and other processes, and enhance the security protection of on-chain assets.

In January 2025, Kaia established a strategic partnership with KuCoin, a world-renowned cryptocurrency exchange. KuCoin will provide priority listing review and investment support for Mini Dapps supported by the Kaia blockchain, and enhance the global visibility and community participation of the Kaia Web3 project through joint marketing and platform promotion activities.

In February 2025, Kaia established a strategic partnership with Republic. With Republic's experience in token economic design and ecological expansion, Kaia provides one-on-one consulting support to Mini Dapp developers to help projects with financing planning and token model optimization. Republic is responsible for connecting the global Web3 investor network. Excellent teams have the opportunity to receive continuous post-investment support, and emerging projects can use this path to quickly incubate and obtain necessary market resources.

In February 2025, the Kaia Foundation established a strategic partnership with MEXC, a leading global cryptocurrency exchange. The two parties will jointly identify potential Mini Dapps and support their market entry through education and consulting. To commemorate this partnership, MEXC launched a limited-time zero-fee trading event for the KAIA/USDC trading pair and launched the KAIA/USDT perpetual contract, leveraging MEXC's professional futures trading infrastructure.

In April 2025, Kaia established a strategic partnership with the blockchain travel booking platform Travala, and officially connected the KAIA token to the Travala payment system, through which users can use KAIA to pay for air tickets, hotels and other travel services. This move aims to enrich the application scenarios of KAIA, improve the usability of the Kaia ecosystem in actual consumption scenarios, and expand Kaia's influence in the DeFi+RealFi field by covering the global travel user group with Travala.

In April 2025, Kaia and Team Finance completed the connection. Project parties can quickly create token locks, set release plans, and manage multiple signatures on the Team Finance platform without writing contracts. The locks, airdrops, and multi-signature support provided by Team Finance will help the team to reasonably manage the initial token circulation, enhance community trust, and cooperate with Kaia's official promotion resources for the Asian market.

2.5 Developer Support and Community Building

Developers and community building have always been important to Kaia’s ecosystem. In the past year, the Kaia Foundation has enhanced the developer experience and stimulated community vitality through tool releases, content incentives, and education promotion.

In early 2025, the Kaia team conducted lectures and training courses at several educational institutions in Singapore. The project aims to enhance students’ understanding of blockchain technology and smart contract security through educational outreach activities.

In April 2025, Kaia officially joined Kaito's Yapper Leaderboard and launched a prize pool of 100,000 USDC, inviting community members to create high-quality content related to the Kaia ecosystem and obtain rewards through ranking. The event accumulated thousands of tweets and discussions, significantly increasing Kaia's voice in the Twitter/X community and attracting more content creators to pay attention to the Kaia ecosystem.

In April 2025, Kaia officially released the DEX Scanner function in the Dapp Portal. Users can use DEX Scanner to monitor the liquidity pool depth, price fluctuations, and trading pair premiums of various DEXs on the chain in real time, helping traders quickly capture arbitrage and trading opportunities. This tool reduces the complexity of on-chain transactions and enables community users to participate in the DeFi ecosystem on the Kaia chain more efficiently.

In May 2025, Kaia officially announced the opening of the pre-registration channel for the Kaia Developer Bootcamp. This practical training program aims to provide developers with systematic support for building on-chain applications based on the Kaia network. From understanding core concepts to deploying actual applications in the Web3 native environment, it helps developers complete advanced learning from basic knowledge to full-stack Dapp development.

In June 2025, Kaia officially launched the Kaia Agent Kit development kit. Kaia Agent Kit supports developers to build AI-driven on-chain agents, which can automatically execute token transfers, call smart contracts, monitor market signals and trigger transactions, etc., to achieve "AI + on-chain" intelligent collaboration. Kaia Agent Kit deeply integrates AI and blockchain, bringing a new generation of automated operation capabilities to DeFi, NFT, games and other scenarios, marking a key step for Kaia ecology in the field of smart contracts and AI.

In summary, over the past year, Kaia has continued to make efforts in multiple dimensions such as public chain performance, native stablecoins, capital investment, strategic cooperation and developer support, and has initially built a complete closed-loop Web3 ecosystem. Whether it is the Kaia Wave plan to promote the rapid implementation of Mini Dapp, or the innovative issuance of native USDT; whether it is the introduction of top investment institutions, or the cooperation with many strategic partners, or the series of incentives and training for global developers and communities, it has laid a solid foundation for the stable growth and diversified applications of the Kaia chain. Looking to the future, Kaia will continue to focus on technology-driven and collaborative innovation, and work with ecological partners and communities to jointly write a new chapter in the popularization and mainstreaming of Web3 applications.

3. Summary of Kaia Ecosystem Excellent Project Cases

Since Kaia Blockchain launched the Mini Dapp Growth Competition, a large number of innovative applications have emerged, covering multiple vertical fields such as Web3 games, social networks, DeFi protocols, health applications, etc. After two stages of fierce competition, a number of representative projects have emerged, showing strong user growth, excellent product capabilities and broad ecological potential.

The following are representative Top project cases in the Kaia Mini Dapp Growth Competition, which are rapidly driving the Kaia ecosystem towards a more diverse and prosperous future:

3.1 Excellent projects that have completed TGE

Elderglade

Elderglade is a fast-growing Web3 gaming ecosystem. Currently, this real-time PvP mobile game has become popular worldwide, with a total number of players on all platforms exceeding 11 million. The game has covered multiple platforms including LINE Messenger, Telegram, Google Play Store, Apple App Store and web pages, becoming one of the Web3 games with the lowest entry threshold and the widest coverage.

The Elderglade ecosystem has achieved scaled profitability: monthly in-game revenue exceeds $2 million, wallet users exceed 7 million, and it supports 8 languages ​​and covers more than 180 countries; its user payment conversion rate is as high as 20.5%, which is three times that of "Candy Crush Saga" and "Genshin Impact"; the average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) is $7.11, which is better than mainstream games such as "Peace Elite", "Royal War" and "Call of Duty Mobile". "Elderglade" (ELDE) was launched on Binance Alpha in May, further demonstrating its strong market momentum and growth prospects. Its native token ELDE was also listed on a number of mainstream exchanges including Bybit, KuCoin, Gate and MEXC in May.

Bombie

Bombie is a zombie shooting game based on the LINE platform that combines an intense combat experience with blockchain incentives. Through airdrops and in-game events, players can earn project tokens - these native token rewards are a direct incentive for players to actively participate.

So far, the game has accumulated more than 11 million registered players, with nearly 70,000 daily active users and an ARPPU of $110.79, far exceeding the industry average. The official token BOMB was launched on several mainstream exchanges including ByBit, KuCoin and MEXC in June.

Frog Defense

Frog Defense is a groundbreaking Mini Dapp, officially launched on Kaia blockchain and LINE platform, introducing the phenomenal TikTok IP "Frog Pikeman" into the Web3 gaming field. The IP has 1.7 million fans on TikTok and is well-loved by users for its distinctive style. As the first tower defense game on the LINE platform, Frog Defense combines meme culture with strategic gameplay, opening a new entrance for Web3 games. Its official token FOFO was launched on BingX exchange in May.

Lair

Lair Finance is a new generation of liquidity staking product based on Kaia KIP-163: CnStakingV3, which aims to make KAIA token staking simpler and more efficient. Through this application, users can maintain asset liquidity while staking KAIA and obtain additional income in various DeFi applications. The platform's native token LAIR was officially launched on Gate and MEXC exchanges in April, marking an important development in the project ecology.

3.2 Other top projects worth looking forward to

SavannaSurvival

SavannaSurvival is a unique game that innovatively integrates three genres: auto-battle, educational entertainment, and business simulation. Through cooperation with Kaia blockchain, the game brings an immersive Web3 survival experience to the Mini Dapp ecosystem of LINE Dapp PORTAL. In this dynamic world based on voxel technology, players will achieve ecological prosperity through deep exploration and strategic games - survival is not only a personal challenge, but also a group collaborative adventure enabled by blockchain technology.

This game innovatively integrates the three core elements of modular ecosystem construction, decentralized asset ownership mechanism and player-led economic model, providing a zero-threshold access solution for the Web3 game field. Currently, the number of players of Savanna Survival on LINE Messenger has reached 4 million.

Boxing Star X

Boxing Star X is a Web3 boxing game that brings exciting gameplay and innovative features to LINE's Mini Dapp. The game offers an immersive experience for both casual and veteran players through a growth system, unique characters, and powerful equipment upgrades. In this groundbreaking mid-core game, players will start as a street underdog, hone their skills, and eventually compete for a championship belt.

DarkStar

DarkStar is a fun cross-platform space game that integrates Web2 and Web3. As a flight game, it is very easy to get started - players can enjoy the fun of adventure through combat, boss battles, automatic cruising and other gameplay, and can also obtain continuous game power by upgrading the spacecraft.

The game’s built-in real-time AI system enables dynamic gameplay, including AI-assisted tasks and personalized strategies, creating a unique experience for players.

Captain Tsubasa

Captain Tsubasa is a casual game based on the classic football manga Captain Tsubasa. Following the success of the TON version of Captain Tsubasa -RIVALS- launched on Telegram in September 2024, the team has created a new version of Captain Tsubasa -RIVALS- tailored for the LINE ecosystem.

The Telegram version has exceeded 5 million users and has won many awards, including being selected for the Binance BNB Chain roadshow. The version has also reached cooperation with well-known Telegram mini-apps such as BLUM.

Slime Miner

Slime Miner is a Web3 idle role-playing game. Players will embark on a wonderful adventure with cute and powerful slime heroes, digging deep into the core of the earth to mine rare minerals. In the game, you can collect more than 40 unique resources, freely combine hundreds of drilling equipment, and win epic rewards through special modes such as "Time and Space Expedition", "Invasion Defense" and "Drilling Grand Prix".

Fate War

Fate War is Kaia's first "Play & Earn" RPG game, where strategy and adventure are perfectly combined. Players will participate in PvP battles, explore maps full of treasures, and join guild wars to win KAIA and a large number of Fate Point rewards. The game uses a dice-rolling mechanism similar to "Monopoly", combining exciting combat gameplay with rich social interactions, bringing players an exciting competitive gaming experience.

Kyuzo's Friends

Kyuzo's Friends is a groundbreaking social game that aims to connect the Web2 and Web3 worlds with the popular DNAxCAT IP at its core. Players will be immersed in a wonderful world full of map exploration, friend interaction, and unique NFT collections. Unlock rewards through fun social gameplay and participate in token staking to obtain governance tokens. As one of the first Mini Dapps launched on LINE Dapp Portal, Kyuzo's Friends is committed to redefining the social gaming experience and bringing users an unforgettable adventure.

The Kaia Mini Dapp Growth Competition not only provides a stage for developers to showcase their creativity and technology, but also effectively accelerates the incubation and implementation of high-quality Web3 projects. These representative projects that stand out in the competition fully demonstrate the strong competitiveness of the Kaia ecosystem in core tracks such as games, and also herald the broad prospects of Web3 applications in more vertical fields. Through innovative gameplay and sustainable mechanisms, they have attracted active participation from users around the world and set a diversified benchmark for on-chain economic models, social interaction models, and community governance mechanisms.

With the continuous emergence of more innovative projects and the continuous improvement of ecological infrastructure, Kaia is expected to further consolidate its leading position in the Web3 field. In the future, Kaia will continue to work with global developers and ecological partners to jointly promote Mini Dapp innovation and community co-construction, and accelerate the transition of Web3 applications from "early adopters" to "mainstream users". These Mini Dapps are not only specific products, but also the prototype and beginning of the future Web3 world.