Polygon and GSR's DeFi-focused Katana blockchain officially launches on mainnet

Katana, a DeFi-optimized Layer 2 blockchain, has officially launched its public mainnet, according to an announcement from Polygon Foundation CEO Sandeep Nailwal on Monday. He stated that Katana will usher in a new era for DeFi, transforming how users earn yield on their assets through Agglayer’s Vault Bridge.

Incubated by Polygon Labs and market maker GSR, Katana is built on a custom version of the OP Stack, called cdk-opgeth. The network is integrated with Agglayer’s Vault Bridge — a cross-chain interoperability protocol that allows connected blockchains to generate revenue from bridged assets.

Katana aims to solve liquidity fragmentation in traditional DeFi by concentrating capital into core protocols and redirecting all available yield into a self-sustaining mechanism designed for long-term DeFi growth.

Prior to the public launch, Katana had already gone live on a private mainnet in late May. It integrated several DeFi protocols including the lending platform Morpho, decentralized exchange Sushi, and perpetuals platform Vertex. The chain also supports DeFi assets such as Agora’s AUSD stablecoin, Lombard’s liquid-staked wrapped LBTC, and EtherFi’s yield-bearing weETH.

During its soft launch phase, Katana allowed users to pre-deposit assets to earn the chain’s native token, KAT. According to Nailwal, within just three weeks of opening deposits, Katana attracted over $240 million in "productive" assets.

Katana is expected to become a major liquidity hub for chains within the Agglayer ecosystem. This could result in significant fee generation for POL stakers. The project also plans to airdrop 1.5 billion KAT tokens — 15% of the total 10 billion supply — to POL stakers.