I’m not a good Defi analyst, this would be my first cause I’ve seen something actually worth analyzing in the Defi space; KERNEL DAO. Joined the project through her her campaign and I’ve spent two months exploring all her three core products ; Gain, Kelp, Kernel. This it’s safe to say this is a worthy analysis.
Defi had stayed rigid too long until KernelDAO came to light. It begun with Ethereum but now covers a wide range of services that could never have been imagined.
KernelDAO has set a different pace for restaking, shared security and a new means to additional reward generation. With three core products in the kernelDAO ecosystem, it has shaped the DeFi space into a better and present even bigger future.
This analysis covers all three kernel products, business model, vision and roadmap.
Kernel: A service offering shared security product in BNB chain leveraging BNB, BTC and other rewards bearing assets. So far, Kernel has achieved USD 300 Mn+ TVL restaked for shared security, and 25+ projects are building on Kernel, including Mira Network, ElectronZK, 0xbridge, YieldNest, Bedrock, StakeEase, and AutoLayer. It is beneficial for distributed Validators network(DVNs), delegators, and operators.
KELP: This is a top liquid restaking on Ethereum that offers instant liquidity and higher rewards opportunities in restaked assets. Since her mainnet launch, Kelp has surpassed approximately 2 Bn plus TVL, and is noted as the second largest LRT on Ethereum. Also, it has counted over 400,000 restakers with 50+ DeFi integrations including Aave, Compound, Morpho, Fluid, Balancer etc. It offers several benefits for staking ecosystem participants including restakers, AVS’ and Operators.
GAIN: This is my favorite feature. I love to call it the vault where my rewards are stored and maximized across DeFi, CeDeFi and real world assets (RWA). If is officially known as a non-custodial automatic yield vault on Ethereum, offering one-click rewards and maximizing solutions for users. The two main achievement includes:
Airdrop Gain Vault (agETH); this boosts rewards from 4-5 premium Layer 2 airdrops alongside base staking and restaking rewards, and has achieved USD approximately Mn+ in TVL.
High Gain Vault (hgETH): It Provides best risk-adjusted rewards across DeFi leveraging professional management expertise and has achieved USD approximately 40 Mn+ TVL.
All these are the first hand knowledge about the KernelDAO ecosystem that one needs to know.
Following up is the Tokenomics, headed by $KERNEL; the power token holding all these kernel products and unifying them all.
$KERNEL has its total supply capped at one billion tokens and a user user centric token distribution model with a majority with the majority of the token supply (55%) allocated to users and the broader community. It’s impressive how more than half of the token supply is assigned to the community. Speaks very well of the project and community.
As a token. $KERNEL offers some very interesting Token utilities which encourages everyone, both DeFi experts and newbies to love the project even more.
From shared security for applications building in Kernel, Insurance against slashing to governance power, the possibilities of what could be achieved with the token is unending, and I love it!
In my study and use of Kernel, I understood the restaking flow, the magic and process behind it all, Its a really simple, yet highly rewarding process.
Upon unstaking( which takes just three days after staking), one might be affected by slashing conditions depending on whether or not you’d participated in malicious activities. Some would call this a disadvantage, but I don’t . There’s bound to be punishment for everything wrong including restaking malpractices.
Trusting a platform or project with your assets for long term could be hard, but I can assure you, Kernel is secured. Kernel's protocol has been thoroughly audited by leading industry experts to ensure the highest security standards in blockchain infrastructure. You can check the official websites to read more about the audits.
Vision and roadmap:
The future ahead of Kernel is certain, KernelDAO ecosystem is designed to capture multiple market opportunities, expand Liquid restaking for Ethereum and other major assets, Restaking infrastructure across L1s like BNB Chain, and beyond, Tokenized DeFi, CeDeFi, RWAs, bridging the gap between DeFi, CeFi and traditional finance.
It’s Q3 and we’re expecting Middleware Testnet launch, Continued expansion to multiple L2s and capacity expansion across lending markets, Expansion into RWAs, CeDeFi vaults.
That’s not all, Expansion into multiple asset classes across RWAs, Continued expansion across L2s and distribution/ wallet partners, Middleware Mainnet launch and slashing introduction, all piles up for Q3 and beyond.
This is coming from me and everyone I’ve invited to KernelDAO ecosystem; it’s woth investing time and money in.
Big ups to the team for pulling something like this together!
